Firmiana Wang

Year in School
Freshman

Major
Computer Science

Research Interests
Data and Information Systems Interactive Computing

Research Mentor
Prof. Colleen Lewis

Research/Engagement Experience
For the past two years, I worked with Professor Yang Wang at the Social Computing Systems Lab to research cybersecurity and artificial intelligence ethics education in high schools. I also led the Women in STEM chapter at my high school, organizing guest speakers and panels to empower girls to pursue science and engineering.

Interests
Interactive computing, data and information systems, computer vision

Project Title
TBD

How did I get interested in Computer Science?
I built a web platform for my high school’s annual textbook sale/exchange! It was the first time I had ever programmed anything, but the longer I worked on the project, the more I became fascinated at the potential of computer science to make our lives simpler and to bring new ideas to life.

What social interests matter to me?
Gender equality, educational equity

What is my most impactful college experience?
Women in Engineering orientation! It was inspiring being surrounded by so many women engineers, and I loved meeting both upperclassmen and fellow first-years!

These are a few of my favorite things!
Photography, playing the cello, swimming, making different combinations of toast, discovering new artists, cooking/baking, sustainable fashion.

Research Description
Python Tutor (PythonTutor.com) is a tool that provides an interactive visualization of code. This is intended to help beginning students learn to understand and trace the execution of code. However, Python Tutor only shows students a single step of execution at a time. We hypothesize that showing students two steps of execution could make it easier for them to connect the code with the visualization. Our goal is to compare two versions of Python Tutor to see if we can improve students’ ability to reason about Python code. This is important because we may be able to develop strategies to help students better understand the fundamentals of programming. We plan to use a randomized controlled trial to compare students’ learning when they use the standard vs. our modified Python Tutor in a set of activities. As a first step, we are developing a modified version of Python Tutor that displays two steps of execution.

Biography
Firmiana Wang is a first-year student studying Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She grew up in Champaign and is interested in learning more about interactive computing, computer vision, and data and information systems.