New CS spaces encourage collaboration and connection
New CS spaces encourage collaboration and connection
One of the biggest perks of the Computer Science Department’s new home in the Computer Design Research and Learning Center (CDRLC) is the dedicated spaces for students, built and designed for collaboration.
Gone are the days of individual office hours and lines of students waiting to speak to an instructor or teaching assistants. Instead, students have access to designated areas for each class, open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays. They include a mix of open spaces overlooking the atrium, and large rooms on the second floor of CDRLC.
Clinical Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Shanon Reckinger was a member of the steering committee that laid out the vision for the spaces, including their location and flow. She worked alongside Associate Professor Jakob Eriksson on the project.
“Not only are these spaces welcoming, but students are able to obtain help easier, said Reckinger. “Students waiting for help from an instructor or TA might hear their question answered when another student has the very same question, and students can assist each other.”
Student spaces for different courses
There are five student spaces: the Loop, the Stack, the Nook, the Square, and the 404.
The Nook hosts introductory programming classes and is tucked near student organizations. Reckinger said that during voting stage, they included that the Nook could stand for “Newbies Overcoming Obstacles with Kindness.”
The Loop is the busiest space, home to all the 100- and 200- level programming courses. The room was named after both the Chicago Loop and a programming loop, a control structure that allows a block of code to be executed repeatedly as long as a specified condition remains true, automating repetitive tasks and making code more efficient and easier to manage.
The Stack hosts the systems classes. The stack is a region in computer memory and is also a data structure.
The Square is home to the theory classes. A square symbol is what is used at the end of a proof to indicate the proof is complete.
The 404 space is for 400-level tech electives. 404 is an error code on a website. The room earned its moniker because it’s hard to find, where you go to get help, and located in room 2404.
A place for connection
Recently, undergraduate students Agnesa Bekiri and Akshita Addepalli were working together to understand concepts from their CS151 Mathematical Foundations of Computing (Discrete math) in CDRLC.
Senior Lecturer Baker Franke, who taught these students last semester for CS 111 Program Design 1 (Intro to programming) happened by and stopped to chat with his former students. While these freshmen weren’t familiar with the old CS student lounge or way of conducting office hours before, they appreciate the new setup.
“We can meet when we have projects, and we can ask for help from the TAs,” Bekiri said. “I think these spaces are just way to connect.”
The Nook
The Nook
The Stack
The Stack
The Square
The Square
The 404
