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1. Bringing Real-World Data and Visualizations of Student-Implemented Data Structures into Sophomore CS Courses Using BRIDGES

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3287324.3287536  

   Subramanian, Kalpathi ; Payton, Jamie ; Saule, Erik ( March 2019 , Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education)

   This workshop introduces participants to the concepts and use of BRIDGES, a software infrastructure for programming assignments in data structures and algorithms courses. BRIDGES provides two key capabilities, (1) easy to use interface to real world datasets spanning social networks, entertainment (movies on IMDB, song lyrics), scientific data (real-time USGIS Earthquake Data), civic issues (crime data), and literature (books); and (2) a visualization of the acquired data can be used in assignments by students to populate their implemented data structures, including the capability to bring out attributes of the dataset. The visualizations are displayed on the BRIDGES website and aremore »easily shared (with family, friends, peers, etc) via a weblink. Workshop attendees will engage in hands-on experience with BRIDGES and multiple datasets and will have the opportunity to discuss how BRIDGES can be used in their own courses, as well as partner with the BRIDGES team.« less
2. Bringing Real-World Data And Visualizations Into Data Structures Courses Using BRIDGES

   https://doi.org/10.1145/2839509.2850512  

   Subramanian, Kalpathi ; Payton, Jamie ; Burlinson, David ; Mehedint, Mihai ( January 2016 , ACM SIGCSE 2016)

   This demo introduces participants to the concepts and application of BRIDGES, a software infrastructure designed to facilitate hands-on experience for solving traditional problems in introductory computer science courses using data from real-world systems that are of interest to students, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Maps. BRIDGES provides access to real-world data sets for use in traditional data structures programming assignments, without requiring students to work with complex and varied APIs to acquire such data. BRIDGES also helps the students to explore and understand the use of data structures by providing each student with a visualization of operations performed onmore »the student's own implementation of a data structure. BRIDGES visualizations can be easily shared (via a weblink) with peers, friends, and family. Demo attendees will see (and possibly engage in) hands-on experience with BRIDGES and will have the opportunity to discuss how BRIDGES can be used to support various introductory computer science courses. Additionally, the demo will complement our oral presentation of our work at SIGCSE, by providing hands-on demonstrations of BRIDGES.« less
3. Retaining and Engaging CS Majors Using BRIDGES

   Subramanian, Kalpathi ; Payton, Jamie ; Saule, Erik ( February 2019 , Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (NSF Showcase))

   In this poster we present BRIDGES, a software infrastructure for programming assignments in data structures and algorithms courses, that has been in use at multiple institutions over the past 2 years. BRIDGES was developed to engage students at the sophomore level in critical foundational courses, to improve retention and reduce attrition rates. BRIDGES provides two key capabilities: (1) easy to use interface to real world datasets spanning social networks, entertainment (movies on IMDB, song lyrics), scientific data (real-time USGIS Earthquake Data), civic issues (crime data), and literature (books); and (2) a visualization of the acquired data can be used inmore »assignments by students to populate their implemented data structures, including the capability to bring out attributes of the dataset. The visualizations are displayed on the BRIDGES website and are easily shared (with family, friends, peers, etc) via a weblink. Visitors will see several example datasets being used in data structure visualizations using BRIDGES, and see how BRIDGES can be used in their own courses, as well as partner with the BRIDGES team.« less
4. BRIDGES: A System to Enable Creation of Engaging Data Structures Assignments with Real-World Data and Visualizations

   https://doi.org/10.1145/2839509.2844635  

   Burlinson, David ; Mehedint, Mihai ; Grafer, Chris ; Subramanian, Kalpathi ; Payton, Jamie ; Goolkasian, Paula ; Youngblood, Michael ; Kosara, Robert ( January 2016 , ACM SIGCSE 2016)

   Although undergraduate enrollment in Computer Science has remained strong and seen substantial increases in the past decade, retention of majors remains a significant concern, particularly for students at the freshman and sophomore level that are tackling foundational courses on algorithms and data structures. In this work, we present BRIDGES, a software infrastructure designed to enable the creation of more engaging assignments in introductory data structures courses by providing students with a simplified API that allows them to populate their own data structure implementations with live, real-world, and interesting data sets, such as those from popular social networks (e.g., Twitter, Facebook).more »BRIDGES also provides the ability for students to create and explore {\em visualizations} of the execution of the data structures that they construct in their course assignments, which can promote better understanding of the data structure and its underlying algorithms; these visualizations can be easily shared via a weblink with peers, family, and instructional staff. In this paper, we present the BRIDGES system, its design, architecture and its use in our data structures course over two semesters.« less
5. Real-World Assignments at Scale to Reinforce the Importance of Algorithms and Complexity

   Strahler, Jason ; Mcquaigue, Matthew ; Goncharow, Alec ; Burlinson, David ; Subramanian, Kalpathi ; Saule, Erik ; Payton, Jamie ( April 2020 , CCSC NE)

   Computer Science students in algorithm courses often drop out and feel that what they are learning is disconnected from real life programming. Instructors, on the other hand, feel that algorithmic content is foundational for the long term development of students. The disconnect seems to stem from students not perceiving the importance of algorithmic paradigms, and how they impact performance in applications. We present the point of view that by solving real-world problems where algorithmic paradigms and complexity matter, students will become more engaged with the course and appreciate its importance. Our approach relies on a lean educational framework that providesmore »simplified access to real life datasets and benchmarking features. The assignments we present are all scaffolded, and easily integrated into most algorithms courses. Feedback from using some of the assignments in various courses is presented to argue for the validity of the approach.« less