Helen H. Hu Professor, Computer Science Westminster University Office: Foster 312 Phone: (801) 832-2362 Spring 2025 Office Hours: You can schedule an appointment at http://bit.ly/book-helen. All meetings will be in Zoom.

Advising:

Click here for advice on scheduling your classes to earn a computer science major or minor.

About me:

I am deeply committed to increasing diversity in computer science by improving educational techniques for teaching computer science. I have written several POGIL (Process Oriented, Guided Inquiry Learning) activities for CS 1 and you can find more POGIL activities for CS at the CS POGIL Project.

I am involved in several outreach programs, including the NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award for high school girls and the Rocky Mountain Celebration of Women in Computing Please email me if you are interested in helping out in any of these activities, whether by making a financial donation or by volunteering your time.

My Ph.D. dissertation was in the area of Computer Graphics and Visual Perception. More recently, I have taught an Introductory Computer Graphics course using Ray Tracing. You can view a list of my publications here.

Projects:

POGIL in Introductory Computer Science

I am the PI on a NSF project, called Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning in Introductory Computer Science. We are currently recruiting college faculty who would be interested in adopting POGIL in their introductory computer science classes. My course materials using POGIL for CS 1 are available here. The project is studying factors that most influence faculty to adopt POGIL in introductory computer science courses and how the degree of POGIL implementation impacts student learning and engagement. The POGIL approach has been shown in other STEM disciplines to increase student learning and retention, particularly for students from underrepresented populations, including females and minorities.

S-Cubed Program:

I was the co-PI for Westminster's NSF S-STEM project, S-Cubed. This program was for Westminster University students (classes of 2020, 2021, and 2022) intending to major in computer science, physics, or mathematics. All program participants enroll in the S-Cubed Seminar in their first year, and participate in monthly luncheons in all other years. Students with financial need are also eligible for scholarships funded by the National Science Foundation (see the program website for more information).

Exploring Computer Science:

I was the PI on an NSF project to introduce a new rigorous computer science course to Utah high schools. Exploring CS is now taught in over 100 Utah high schools. For more information about the project, see this one-page project summary, our SIGCSE 2017 paper, our SIGCSE 2017 prsentation, our SIGCSE 2016 paper, our SIGCSE 2016 presentation, or the project website!

Computer Science Principles:

I was the PI on a project, called "Leveraging Learning Communities and POGIL Activities to Teach CS Principles to Diverse Students", which is part of the AAC&U Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM. My course materials for CS Principles are available here, and a paper on the our first Learning Community is available here. We have run multiple Westminster workshops as well as multiple pre-SIGCSE events. All our workshop materials are available at the project website.