SIGCSE-V 2026 conference logo

I’m delighted that three papers led by my students are accepted to SIGCSE Virtual 2026, The 2nd ACM Virtual Global Computing Education Conference:

  1. WiseSpend AI: Engaging K-12 Students in Financial Literacy by Evaluating the Human Role in Training Artificial Intelligence led by Jesús Granados and José Granados.

    The brothers were students in my spring Developing AI Tools for K–12 class where they developed an original software tool, “WiseSpend AI,” which introduces students to machine learning in the context of personal finance.

    My doctoral student John Weaver was their mentor and is co-author. Congratulations, Jesús and José for their first conference paper!

  2. RuleRunners: A Two-Player Collaborative Software Tool for Introducing Rule-Based AI Systems to Middle School Students by Durga Rajarajan.

    Durga reports on student learning after using RuleRunners, an original game where students are introduced to rule-based AI in the context of playing a parkour-style side-scroller game.

    The software is designed for two players, scaffolding them to learn from each other and then compete to find the best set of rules to program an AI agent to solve the game.

    Durga’s game is available now for immediate online use: RuleRunners. Congratulations, Durga!

  3. Ice Cream Express: A Game-Based Tool to Teach AI Pathfinding to K-12 Learners led by Nicole Tian.

    Nicole and her partner Devansh Shah developed Ice Cream Express, a maze game where the goal is to find the shortest path for an ice cream truck to make its home delivery. The maze is a simple grid, but some squares are blocked and others are dirt roads which slow you down.

    Players are introduced to the famous A* (pronounced “A-star”) search algorithm, which finds the shortest path with the smallest exploration space.

    My colleague Dr. Ismaila Sanusi coached Nicole and Devansh in analyzing and presenting the data on student learning outcomes and is co-author.

    Nicole’s game is available now for immediate use: Ice Cream Express. Congratulations, Nicole and Devansh!

The papers will be available during the conference, which will be held online November 12–15, 2026.