KEYNOTE LECTURES LIST

Michael Gould, ESRI, U.S.A.
          Title: Desktop to Laptop to Cloud: Challenges for Teaching and for Administration

Hermann Maurer, Graz University of Technology, Austria
          Title: "How much technology?" is the Question

Robert M. Panoff, The Shodor Education Foundation, U.S.A.
          Title: Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum: The Power and the Peril

Michael Gould
ESRI
U.S.A.

Brief Bio
Dr. Michael Gould is Director of Education at ESRI, a software company in California, and is on administrative leave as professor of Information Systems at Universitat Jaume I in Spain.


Abstract
Teaching with information technology is challenging for economic reasons but also because of the rapid pace of technological evolution. The traditional computer laboratory is giving way to students carrying laptops, and locally installed software applications are giving way to cloud services. This evolution changes more than simply the delivery method; it changes the nature of what is being taught, how, and even by whom.
Administration of software licenses and hardware is also affected. Examples are taken from our experience over the past decades with students at all levels using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software in class, and we look at what we think the future holds.

Hermann Maurer
Graz University of Technology
Austria

Brief Bio
Professor Dr. Hermann Maurer is Professor Emeritus at Graz University of Technology. He started his career at the University of Calgary as Assistant and Associate Professor, was appointed full professor at Karlsruhe just before he turned 30, and has been now Professor and Dean in Computer Science at Graz University of Technology since 1978, with some interruptions, like guest-professorships of more than a year at Denver University, University of Auckland, and shorter visits to Edith Cowan University in Perth, SMU in Dallas, Waterloo, Brasilia and others. Chair of the Informatics Section of Academia Europaea, "The Academy of Europe" since April 2009, and receiver of many national and international distinctions, Professor Maurer is author of over 650 papers and 20 books, founder of a number of companies, supervised some 60 Ph.D. and over 400 M.Sc. students and was leader of numerous multimillion Euro projects. More about him than you ever want to read under http://www.iicm.tugraz.at/maurer.


Abstract
In this talk I will use examples of novel ideas and developments to show the strong convergence of cell phones and PCs: there are a number of technologies that overcome the small screen-size of cell phones and their small keyboards that are not acceptable for serious typing. I will show some pictures and clips from labs working to resolve this dilemma. I will then explain how much this will change society and education: we will have with us a permanent powerful assistant.
This brings both great benefits and great dangers. I will also address the issue whether large amounts of information help us for the better or rather brainwash us and influence our decision making in a negative way, again by showing examples that I hope will surprise the audience. I will then argue that how much one tries to use modern communication systems, one does not react the same way when compared to “digital natives” that have grown up in such new environments. I will report on two surprising recent experiments that seem to prove this point conclusively. Finally, I will ask the heretic question “How much technology do we need to be happy?” … and what are the consequences of the answer that I will give.

Robert M. Panoff
The Shodor Education Foundation
U.S.A.

Brief Bio
Dr. Robert M. Panoff is founder and Executive Director of Shodor, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit education and research corporation dedicated to reform and improvement of mathematics and science education by appropriate incorporation of computational and communication technologies.

As principal investigator on several NSF and US Department of Education grants that seek to explore the interaction of computing and communication technologies and education, he works to develop interactive simulations with supporting materials that combine standards, curriculum, supercomputing resources and desktop computers. Besides developing and teaching new courses in Information Technologies, Dr. Panoff continues an active research program in computational condensed matter physics while defining and implementing educational initiatives at Shodor. His research specialties are stochastic optimization, quantum simulations of strongly-correlated systems, and computational science education.

At Kansas State University and Clemson University from 1986-1990, he developed a fully interdisciplinary computational science and engineering course. He served as director of the Carolinas Institute in Computational Science, an NSF-funded initiative in Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement, 1991-1993 that led directly to the founding of Shodor. His work has won several major science and education awards, including the 1990 Cray Gigaflop Performance Award in Supercomputing, the 1994 and 1995 Undergraduate Computational Science Education Awards from the U.S. Department of Energy, and a 1995 Achievement Award from the Chicago Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. In 2007 his work at Shodor received Webby Offical Honoree awards for both Education and Science categories.

In recognition of Dr. Panoff's efforts in undergraduate faculty enhancement and curriculum development, the Shodor Foundation was named in 1996 as a Foundation Partner of the National Science Foundation for the revitalization of undergraduate education. In 1997 Shodor established the Shodor Computational Science Institute (SCSI), funded in part by NSF, and expanded with a grant from NSF for $2.7M in 2001 to become the National Computational Science Institute (NCSI). In 2000, the National Council of Teachers of mathematics (NCTM) selected Project Interactivate to be featured on its Illuminations site, declaring that the middle-school mathematics courseware developed by Shodor set a new standard in on-line support for mathematics. Forbes, among others, has repeatedly named Shodor’s interactive web explorations as “Best of the Web” in science. Shodor’s CSERD Reference Desk was funded in 2004 as Pathway project of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) as a portal for computational science education. NSF selected Shodor to lead the Undergraduate Petascale Education Program for the Blue Waters Petascale Computing Facility.

Dr. Panoff has been a consultant at several national laboratories and is a frequent presenter at NSF- sponsored workshops on visualization, supercomputing, and networking. He has served on the advisory panel for Applications of Advanced Technology program at NSF, and is a founding partner of NSF-affiliated Corporate and Foundation Alliance.

Dr. Panoff received his B.S. in physics from the University of Notre Dame and his M.A. and Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Washington University in St. Louis, undertaking both pre- and postdoctoral work at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. In 2005 Wofford College awarded Dr. Panoff an honorary degree of Doctor of Science in recognition of his leadership in computational science education.


Abstract
Students and faculty at all education levels are clearly spending much more of their days interacting with computing and communication tools than with each other. Is this good? Are all uses of technology in education helpful, and if not, how does one separate the benefits from the burdens? We will explore how technology enables dynamic representation in the sciences, arts, and humanities, giving us the opportunity to be more fully human as we seek new knowledge in service to society.

Moving "beyond PowerPointless-ness," we have the opportunity to demonstrate that computing really matters. Computing "matters" because quantitative reasoning, computational thinking, and multiscale modeling are the intellectual "heart and soul" of 21st Century science and therefore are the essential skills of the 21st Century workforce.
Computing "matters" because we can apply the power of interactive computing to reach a deeper understanding and of math and science and their role in understanding the world.

We will explore a transformation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education, supported by interactive computing resources, promoting a dynamic encounter with our world through guided discovery. A world-class education requires world-class resources, and all math and science teachers should be able to bring interactive modeling environments to their own teaching practice. We will explore a variety of free and low-cost sources for modeling tools from the Computational Science Education Reference Desk, a pathway project of the U.S. National Science Digital Library (http://www.nsdl.org ).