Community Connections Events Calendar

Enjoy an ice cream social for students, faculty and staff.

“One Developer, Two Decades and Thirty Million Users Later: How Python Tutor Became a Long-Lasting and Widely Used Academic Software Project”

Since 2009, Philip Guo has been developing Python Tutor, a tool that lets users write code in a web browser and see what happens step-by-step as the computer runs it. The tool visualizes variables, objects, pointers, data structures and stack frames. These visuals help students to debug their homework, teachers to explain concepts and programmers to prepare for job interviews. Despite its name, this tool visualizes code written in Python, Java, C, C++ and JavaScript, which are five of the most popular languages used in both teaching and industry.

Throughout the past two decades, over 30 million students and teachers from over 180 countries have used Python Tutor to visualize over 500 million pieces of code. Guo will reflect upon the design decisions (and non-decisions) he made to turn an off-the-cuff prototype into one of the most widely used pieces of academic software. He will cover three eras of Python Tutor development:

• Act I – Inception, the unique conditions that birthed this idea as a grad student side project.
• Act II – Acceleration, sustaining a decade’s worth of user growth as he began his career as a professor.
• Act III – Disruption, when Generative AI both threatens the health of this project and may also be what revitalizes it.

About the Speaker

Philip Guo is a professor of cognitive science at UC San Diego. His research spans human-computer interaction, computing education and human-centered AI for education. He studies how people learn computer programming and data science, and he builds tools to help people better understand code and data. For instance, his Python Tutor educational tool has been used by 30 million students and teachers from over 180 countries throughout the past two decades. Python Tutor received a UIST Best Paper award and the ACM SIGCSE Test of Time award for long-term impact. His other lines of research have received 10-year long-term impact awards from VL/HCC and ISSTA, along with Best Paper awards at CHI, UIST, SIGCSE, VL/HCC, ICSE and ISSTA.

The Office of Emergency Preparedness and Safety will conduct its annual Fire Life Safety Building Evacuation Exercise on Wednesday, Sept. 9, from 10:40 a.m. to 11:10 a.m. This exercise helps ensure that students, faculty, staff, and visitors know how to respond and where to go in the event of a fire or other life safety emergency requiring evacuation.

The exercise begins at 10:40 a.m. with the activation of fire alarms in the following buildings:
Jacobs, Keck, Sprague, Parsons, Galileo, Olin, Beckman, McGregor, Shanahan Center, Kingston, and the Platt Campus Center.

All individuals in academic and administrative buildings are expected to evacuate promptly and proceed to the nearest evacuation site. After evacuating, please check in by either scanning the QR located at the evacuation site, or by checking in directly with an Evacuation Coordinator. Community members will be able to resume their normal schedules once the exercise has concluded. Please note that residence halls are not included in this drill.

For more information, please contact Kelly Salazar, emergency preparedness and safety manager.

The makerspace will be celebrating it’s fifth anniversary! Similar to last year’s open house, there will be light snacks and beverages, crafts, music and fun! This event is for all students, staff and faculty from the consortium.

This is an informational meeting for all eligible students interested in applying for the Goldwater and Astronaut scholarships. Speakers will include Kerry K. Karukstis, professor of chemistry emerita, and a Barry Goldwater consultant and reviewer as well as previous Goldwater and Astronaut scholars from Harvey Mudd. A portion of the meeting will include a Q-and-A.

The Office of Human Resources is excited to offer HR Connections, a gathering designed to provide a welcoming space where employees can connect with HR, share feedback and engage in open conversations about their workplace experiences. Whether over breakfast or afternoon tea, our goal is to foster meaningful dialogue, build relationships and better understand the needs and perspectives of our campus community.

Each session is intentionally kept small to encourage open discussion while bringing together a variety of ideas and experiences. Gatherings are hosted by Dana Nagengast, along with another member of the HR team. Participation is voluntary, and staff are asked to RSVP in advance.

Welcome back, student employees!

Kick off the new academic year with HR! Join us to meet the HR team, learn where to find us and connect with the people who are here to support you throughout your student employment experience. Stop by for food, swag and fun crafts as we welcome you back and show our appreciation for all that you do.