0 Using recommender systems to teach math concepts

I'm sitting in my Advanced Topics in Web Technologies class with Alex Labrinidis; today's discussion is recommendation systems. For example, movie, book or music suggestions/recommendations. We are all familiar with Amazon.com recommending books that we'd like to purchase based upon our previous purchases to their home page.

Now, this is the first time I've "engaged" in learning about recommendation system, but my mind is always pondering about ways to introduce these concepts to high school students.

1. Recommendation systems use a correlation score (eg. Pearson's correlation, Euclidean distance) to determine similar users.
2. Problem Solving: explain the algorithm used to determine correlation (likeness). Give the students a sample data set. Ask them to determine which users have the highest correlation.
3. We can then take it a few steps further, having the students create a "recommendation system" by hand and requiring them to determine the best method of correlation and answering some critical thinking questions.

Class is dismissed.

0 SIGCSE 2010 - BOF Topic: Outreach to Minority Student

This is a copy of an email I recently sent to the SIGCSE (Special Interest Group in CS Education) mailing list:

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Hi SIGCSE!

I am the Director of a pre-college program at the University of Pittsburgh (
www.cs.pitt.edu/tli) and a CS teacher at the Pittsburgh Science & Technology
Academy (www.pghscitech.net). This year for SIGCSE, myself and a few
colleagues plan to submit a Birds of a Feather (BOF) about
College/University outreach programs to minority students. We are seeking a
2-3 additional educators or researchers who have atleast 2-3 years of
successful experience in organizing outreach programs for minority, high
school students.

The goal of this workshop is to provide an environment for those interested
in having an informal discussion about successful strategies of
college/university outreach programs for minority students. (From the SIGCSE
website ->) Proposers of BOF sessions should serve as discussion leaders
only. BOFs are not intended to be presentations.

If you are interested in being a presenter in this BOF, please submit the
following information to (tli@pitt.edu) by *October 12, 2009 by 5pm EST*.

- Biography of presenter
- History and description of the program (about 300 - 500 words)
- Student demographics (eg. age/grade, gender, ethnicity)
- Indicators of success (outcomes/results)
- Contact information (including website)

We are seeking diversity in the presenters - in terms of types of programs
and student demographics. We may request additional information to make a
final decision.

FYI: The SIGCSE BOF deadline is November 2, 2010.

BOF Information:http://www.sigcse.org/sigcse2010/presenters/bof.php

I look forward to your response. Please do not hesitate if you have any
questions.