Two people smile during a presentation in a Khoury lab

Computer Science Education at Khoury College of Computer Sciences

Leading the way in teaching and broadening participation

Computing education studies how students learn computing, effective pedagogies for teaching computing, and helping diverse populations of students succeed in computing. At Khoury College of Computer Sciences, our research runs the gamut from broadening participation in computing through systemic changes; how to best train teaching assistants; teaching ethics in technology; studying how to incorporate generative AI into the introductory sequence; how computing can be combined with other fields to create interdisciplinary computing majors; how to create new pathways to the MS in computing; and national trends in curriculum and best practices in curricular design.

Sample research areas

  • Interdisciplinary computing majors
  • Systemic, sustainable changes to remove institutional barriers to expand student opportunity to discover persist in and graduate from computing programs
  • The impact of generative AI in helping students learn to code
  • Pathways to the MS in CS, DS, AI, and Cybersecurity for students who did not study computing as undergraduates
  • Embedding ethics throughout the computing curriculum
  • The structural complexity of computing programs nationally and the impact on broadening participation in computing

Faculty members

  • Carla E. Brodley

    Carla Brodley is the dean of inclusive computing at Khoury College and the founding executive director of Northeastern’s Center for Inclusive Computing, which aims to remove barriers to participation in the field. She was dean of Khoury College from 2014 to 2021.

  • Arjun Guha

    Arjun Guha is an associate professor at Khoury College. His programming languages research addresses security and reliability problems in web programming, systems, and robotics.

  • Albert Lionelle

    Albert Lionelle is an associate teaching professor at Khoury College, and the director of the Align Online program. His research centers on the use of computing tools and inclusive pedagogy to enable better computer science education.

  • Felix Muzny

    Felix Muzny is a clinical instructor and the director of teaching assistants at Khoury College. They care deeply about making computing classrooms more welcoming for all students, and their teaching and research both focus on computing education, digital humanities, and the intersection of sociology, ethics, and computing.

  • Logan Schmidt

    Logan Schmidt is an assistant teaching professor at Khoury College, and the assistant director of computing programs for the Vancouver campus. He is a graduate of the Align program himself, and in both his research and teaching work he aims to introduce newcomers to computer science fundamentals in a way that helps them effectively build new careers.