Biography:Andreas Stefik

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Short description: American computer scientist

Andreas Stefik is a professor of computer science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas[1] and the creator of Quorum, a computer programming language created with features that improve access for people with visually impairments.[2] Stefik conducts research in the areas of software engineering, accessibility, and computer science education. He is an advocate for increasing access to computer science in K–12 education.[3]

Education

Stefik began his education pursuing a bachelor's degree in music at Central Washington University, but graduated with a Bachelor's in Mathematics as well as Music.[2] Stefik went on to receive his Master's Degree and PhD in Computer Science from Washington State University

Career and research

As a computer science graduate student, Stefik became interested in the resources available for those who are blind or have low vision that wanted to pursue a degree in computer science.[2] He found there was no language currently available accessible to the blind and visually impaired, and decided to create his own. The work began as a project called Sodbeans,[4] and over the course of ten years he developed the language Quorum with his wife,[5] which is also auditory and therefore more accessible to people with visual impairments.[6] In 2016, Stefik received the White House Champion of Change award for Computer Science Education for his efforts.[7][2][6]

Stefik has also created a model for computer science education for blind or visually impaired students that as of 2016 has been deployed in almost 20 schools.[8]

Through Stefik's research and works, he has received many grants. Most notably, he received grants from the National Science Foundation to help build Quorum.[2]

Notable work

  • An Empirical Investigation into Programming Language Syntax[9]
  • How do API documentation and static typing affect API usability?[10]
  • An empirical study on the impact of static typing on software maintainability[11]

Awards

  • Java Innovation Award, Oracle Corporation, 2011[12]
  • White House Champion of Change for Computer Science Education, 2016[7][13]
  • Code.org Champions of Computer Science, 2018[14]

References

  1. "Andreas Stefik, Ph.D.". https://web.cs.unlv.edu/stefika/. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "His work opens computer science to the blind" (in en-US). 2016-02-12. https://www.reviewjournal.com/life/his-work-opens-computer-science-to-the-blind/. 
  3. Sadler, John (2021-04-30). "Rosen proposes bill to bolster teacher training in computer science - Las Vegas Sun Newspaper" (in en). https://lasvegassun.com/news/2021/apr/30/rosen-proposes-bill-to-bolster-teacher-training-in/. 
  4. "Sodbeans 1.5: Enhanced NetBeans IDE Accessibility for the Blind - DZone Java" (in en). https://dzone.com/articles/sodbeans-15-enhanced-netbeans. 
  5. Gillespie, Katie (December 23, 2018). "Vancouver teacher adapts computer science, math lessons for visually impaired". The Columbian. https://www.columbian.com/news/2018/dec/23/vancouver-teacher-adapts-computer-science-math-lessons-for-visually-impaired/. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 Kugler, Logan (June 11, 2019). "How Tech Needs to Change for Coders with Disabilities". Communications of the ACM. https://cacm.acm.org/news/237426-how-tech-needs-to-change-for-coders-with-disabilities/fulltext. 
  7. 7.0 7.1 "White House Recognizes UNLV Professor as "Champion of Change"" (in en). 21 January 2016. http://www.unlv.edu/news/release/white-house-recognizes-unlv-professor-champion-change. 
  8. Garcia, Tony (January 21, 2016). "White House to honor UNLV professor as 'Champion of Change'". KSNV News3LV. https://news3lv.com/news/local/white-house-to-honor-unlv-professor-as-champion-of-change. 
  9. Stefik, Andreas; Siebert, Susanna (2013-11-01). "An Empirical Investigation into Programming Language Syntax". ACM Transactions on Computing Education 13 (4): 19:1–19:40. doi:10.1145/2534973. https://doi.org/10.1145/2534973. 
  10. Endrikat, Stefan; Hanenberg, Stefan; Robbes, Romain; Stefik, Andreas (2014-05-31). "How do API documentation and static typing affect API usability?". Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Software Engineering. ICSE 2014. Hyderabad, India: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 632–642. doi:10.1145/2568225.2568299. ISBN 978-1-4503-2756-5. https://doi.org/10.1145/2568225.2568299. 
  11. Hanenberg, Stefan; Kleinschmager, Sebastian; Robbes, Romain; Tanter, Éric; Stefik, Andreas (2014-10-01). "An empirical study on the impact of static typing on software maintainability" (in en). Empirical Software Engineering 19 (5): 1335–1382. doi:10.1007/s10664-013-9289-1. ISSN 1573-7616. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-013-9289-1. 
  12. "Sodbeans Wins JavaOne 2011 Duke's Choice Award - DZone Java" (in en). https://dzone.com/articles/sodbeans-netbeans-module-duke-2011-winner. 
  13. "Helping America Code: A Day with Computer Science Champions of Change" (in en). 2016-02-01. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2016/02/01/helping-america-code-day-computer-science-champions-change. 
  14. "2018 Champions for Computer Science Awards | DO-IT". https://www.washington.edu/doit/2018-champions-computer-science-awards. 

External links