Sohie Lee

Senior Instructor in Computer Science Laboratory

Interested in the intersection of cognitive science and computer science as well as the development of introductory computer science curriculum.

My research background is in cognitive science. I'm fascinated with how the brain works and how computational models, along with neurophysiological data, can facilitate understanding of how things such as short-term memory work. I'm also interested in how best to teach computer science at the introductory level and how to promote CS, especially among female students.

I teach mainly introductory lab courses. These are the hands-on classes where students actually write code to solve problems. A typical problem might be to write Javascript to validate a form in a webpage (CS110), or to write Java code to perform image manipulations such as rotation or crop (CS111), or to write MATLAB code to display an MRI slice of brain data from a particular viewpoint (CS112), or to write Java code to create a graphical user interface (GUI) to allow the user to access a database and sort and select data by certain criteria (CS230).

My most recent honors thesis student examined the influence of the programming environment─a graphical drag-and-drop setup versus typing text into an editor window─upon retention of programming knowledge.

College Computer Science Website

Education

  • B.S., Cornell University
  • M.S., Stanford University
  • Ph.D., University of California-San Diego

Current and upcoming courses

An introduction to problem-solving through computer programming. Students learn how to read, modify, design, debug, and test algorithms that solve problems. Programming concepts include control structures, data structures, abstraction, recursion, and modularity. Students explore these concepts in the context of interactive programs, data processing, and graphics or audio, using the Python programming language.

This is a Maurer Public Speaking course, and this course (CS 111M) incorporates both lecture and lab into one section; there is no need to register for a separate lab. This course provides multiple opportunities to learn and practice public speaking skills.

Enrollment in this course is by permission of the instructor only. Students who are interested in taking this course should fill out this Google Form.