research-article

Fiction as an Introduction to Computer Science Research

Authors:

Judy Goldsmith,

Nicholas MatteiAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), Volume 14, Issue 1

Article No.: 4, Pages 1 - 14

https://doi.org/10.1145/2576873

Published: 01 March 2014 Publication History

Abstract

The undergraduate computer science curriculum is generally focused on skills and tools; most students are not exposed to much research in the field, and do not learn how to navigate the research literature. We describe how fiction reviews (and specifically science fiction) are used as a gateway to research reviews. Students learn a little about current or recent research on a topic that stirs their imagination, and learn how to search for, read critically, and compare technical papers on a topic related to their chosen science fiction book, movie, or TV show.

References

[1]

AAAI. 2011. AI topics: Science fiction: Views of the future involving AI. http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/AITopics/ScienceFiction. (Last accessed 2011)

[2]

M. Anderson and S. L. Anderson. 2007. Machine ethics: Creating an ethical intelligent agent. AI Mag. 28, 4.

[3]

I. Asimov. 1950. I, Robot. Gnome Press.

[4]

R. A. Bates. 2011. AC 2011-1669: AI & sciFi: Teaching writing, history, technology, literature and ethics. In Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.

[5]

J. C. Bean. 2011. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. Wiley.

[6]

E. Bowring and M. Tambe. 2009. Bridging the gap: Introducing agents and multiagent systems to undergraduate students. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Educational Uses of Multi-Agent Systems (EDUMAS).

[7]

E. L. Boyer. 1997. Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. Jossey-Bass.

[8]

J. J. Bryson. 2010. Robots should be slaves: Key social, psychological, ethical and design issues. In Close Engagements with Artificial Companions, Y. Wilks Ed., 63--74.

[9]

J. Cameron. 1986. Aliens. Director, James Cameron.

[10]

C. L. Colbeck. 1998. Merging in a seamless blend: How faculty integrate teaching and research. J. Higher Edu. 69, 6, 647--671.

[11]

Computing Research Association. 2008--2009. Taulbee Survey. (Last accessed 10/2010)

[12]

K. P. Cross and M. H. Steadman. 1996. Classroom Research: Implementing the Scholarship of Teaching. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

[13]

B. G. Davis. 2009. Tools for Teaching 2nd Ed. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

[14]

J. C. F. de Winter and D. Dodou. 2010. Five-point Likert items: T test versus Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon. Pract. Assess. Res. Eval. 15, 11, 2.

[15]

S. R. Delaney. 1966. Babel-17. Ace.

[16]

L. S. Dils. 1987. Science fiction and the future, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1987/2/87.02.04.x.html. (Last accessed 1987)

[17]

T. Dirks. 2010. Robots in film: A complete illustrated history of robots in the movies. http://www.filmsite.org/robotsinfilm.html. (Last accessed 2010)

[18]

H. Fancher and D. W. Peoples. 1982. Blade Runner. Director, Ridley Scott, based on a novel by Philip K. Dick.

[19]

R. A. Fleming, E. F. Bazen, and M. E. Wetzstein. 2005. Measuring the impact of externalities on The College of Agriculture. Teaching evaluations. J. Agricultural Appl. Econ. 37, 3, 635--645.

[20]

A. Garvey. 2010. Writing in an upper-level CS course. In Proceedings of the 41st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE’10). ACM, New York, 209--213f.

Digital Library

[21]

J. Goldsmith. 2012a. CS 463 AI in fiction. http://www.cs.uky.edu/~goldsmit/TOCE/books.html. (Last accessed 3/2014)

[22]

J. Goldsmith. 2012b. CS 463 Project proposals. http://www.cs.uky.edu/~goldsmit/TOCE/proposals.html. (Last accessed 3/2014)

[23]

J. Goldsmith. 2012c. CS 463 projects. http://www.cs.uky.edu/~goldsmit/TOCE/projects.html. (Last accessed 3/2014)

[24]

J. Goldsmith and N. Mattei. 2011. Science fiction as an introduction to ai research. In Proceedings of the 2nd AAAI Symposium on Educational Advances in Artificial Intelligence (EAAI).

[25]

J. T. Guerin and D. Michler. 2011. Analysis of undergraduate teaching evaluations in computer science. In Proceedings of the ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE).

Digital Library

[26]

J. G. Haworth and C. F. Conrad. 1995. Curricular Transformations: Traditional and emerging voices in the academy. In Revisioning Curriculum in Higher Education, J. G. Haworth and C. F. Conrad Eds., Simon & Schuster, 191--202.

[27]

R. A. Heinlein. 1950. Waldo & Magic, Inc. Doubleday Books.

[28]

M. E. Hoffman, T. Dansdill, and D. S. Herscovici. 2006. Bridging writing to learn and writing in the discipline in computer science education. In Proceedings of the 37th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE’06). 117--121.

Digital Library

[29]

D. Jones and N. Parker. 2009. Moon. Director, Duncan Jones.

[30]

J. Kagan. 1988. Hellspark. Tor.

[31]

S. Kubrik and A. C. Clarke. 1968. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Director, Stanley Kubrik.

[32]

S. Lawrence, L. Giles, K. Bollacker, and I. Councill. 2005. CITESEER. http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/citeseer.html. (Last accessed 2005)

[33]

P. Lin, K. Abney, and G. A. Bekey. 2012. Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Digital Library

[34]

H. W. Marsh and L. A. Roche. 1997. Making students’ evaluations of teaching effectiveness effective: The critical issues of validity, bias, and utility. Amer. Psychol. 52, 11, 1187--1197.

[35]

A. McGovern and J. Fager. 2007. Creating significant learning experiences in introductory artificial intelligence. ACM SIGCSE Bull. 39, 1, 39--43.

Digital Library

[36]

W. J. McKeachie. 1997. Student ratings: The validity of use. Amer. Psychol. 52, 11, 1218--1225.

[37]

S. H. McLeod and M. Soven. 1992. Writing Across the Curriculum. Sage Publications.

[38]

P. Mihail, B. Rubin, and J. Goldsmith. 2014. Online discussions: Improving education in CS?. In Proceedings of the 45th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE’14).

Digital Library

[39]

B. Motz. 2010. Cognitive science movie index. https://www.indiana.edu/~cogfilms/. (Last accessed 2010)

[40]

D. O’Bannon and M. Tejada-Flores. 1995. Screamers. Director, Christian Duguay, based on short story “Second Variety” by Philip K. Dick.

[41]

W. G. Perry. 1980. Cognitive and ethical growth: The making of meaning. In The Modern American College, A. W. Chickering and Associates Eds., Josey Bass, 76--109.

[42]

L. H. Pesante. 1991. Integrating writing into computer science courses. In Proceedings of the 22nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE’91). 205--209.

Digital Library

[43]

R. Rucker. 2003. The Hacker and the Ants: Version 2.0. Four Walls Eight Windows.

[44]

M. Sahami. 2008. Using AI to motivate greater participation in computer science. AAAI Spring Symposium. Tech. rep. SSS08, AAAI Spring Symposium.

[45]

R. J. Sawyer. 2002. AI and Sci-Fi: My, Oh, My! In Proceedings of the 12th Annual Canadian Conference on Intelligent Systems.

[46]

J. Slonczewski. 2009. Daughter of Elysium - An Elysium Cycle Novel. Phoenix Pick.

[47]

N. Stephenson. 1992. Snowcrash. Bantum Books.

[48]

H. M. Walker. 1998. Writing within the computer science curriculum. ACM SIGCSE Bull. 30, 2, 24--25.

Digital Library

[49]

I. Watson. 2003. The aims of artificial intelligence: A science fiction view. IEEE Intell. Syst. 18.

Digital Library

[50]

D. Weikle. 2013. Two concrete examples of upper-level writing assignments in an algorithms course. J. Comput. Sci. Colleges 28, 3, 14--20.

Digital Library

[51]

Wikipedia. 2013a. Artificial intelligence in fiction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence_in_fiction. (Last accessed 3/2013)

[52]

Wikipedia. 2013b. List of fictional computers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_computers. (Last accessed 3/2013)

[53]

Wikipedia. 2013c. List of fictional robots and androids. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_robots_and_androids. (Last accessed 3/2013)

Cited By

Arn LHuang EPak DYeh TSchwartz L(2024)"Do They Act the Way They Look"Proceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685337(1-14)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3679318.3685337
Arn LHuang E(2024)“Robots Can Do Disgusting Things, but Also Good Things”: Fostering Children’s Understanding of AI through StorytellingACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/367761324:3(1-55)Online publication date: 27-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677613
VanDeGrift TStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)Book Club Model for Engaging with Data Science and Ethics: Using Weapons of Math DestructionProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630792(1374-1380)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630792
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Fiction as an Introduction to Computer Science Research
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

Recommendations

Science fiction in computer science education
SIGCSE '12: Proceedings of the 43rd ACM technical symposium on Computer Science Education

The use of science fiction (SF) to engage students in computer science learning is becoming more popular [1-6]. There is ample material available to help both undergraduate and graduate students make connections between technical content and human ...
Virtual Reality Visions from Science Fiction Movies
Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2024
Abstract
Science fiction movies have been a source of entertainment for many decades, but they have also been an inspiration for many people in the science and technology domains. Science fiction is not just about entertainment: it has been recently ...
Writing Science Fiction as an Inspiration for AI Research and Ethics Dissemination
Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence
Abstract
In this chapter we look at science fiction from a perspective that goes beyond pure entertainment. Such literary gender can play an important role in bringing science closer to society by helping to popularize scientific knowledge and discoveries ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Computing Education

ACM Transactions on Computing Education Volume 14, Issue 1

March 2014

98 pages

EISSN:1946-6226

DOI:10.1145/2600089

Editors:
Robert McCartney
University of Connecticut, USA
,
Josh Tenenberg
University of Washington--Tacoma, USA

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 March 2014

Accepted: 01 November 2013

Revised: 01 October 2013

Received: 01 April 2013

Published in TOCE Volume 14, Issue 1

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article
Research
Refereed

Funding Sources

Department of Communications
National Science Foundation
NICTA
EAGER
University of Kentucky
Australian Research Council
Australian Government
ICT Centre of Excellence Program

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

11
Total Citations
View Citations
766
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)22
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)6

Reflects downloads up to 20 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Arn LHuang EPak DYeh TSchwartz L(2024)"Do They Act the Way They Look"Proceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685337(1-14)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3679318.3685337
Arn LHuang E(2024)“Robots Can Do Disgusting Things, but Also Good Things”: Fostering Children’s Understanding of AI through StorytellingACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/367761324:3(1-55)Online publication date: 27-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677613
VanDeGrift TStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)Book Club Model for Engaging with Data Science and Ethics: Using Weapons of Math DestructionProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630792(1374-1380)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630792
Xiong XRen S(2024)The effectiveness of using science fiction films to foster creativity in a biological contextInternational Journal of Science Education10.1080/09500693.2024.2414436(1-20)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2024.2414436
Krings KBohn NHille NLudwig T(2023)“What if everyone is able to program?” – Exploring the Role of Software Development in Science FictionProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581436(1-13)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581436
Jordan PSilva P(2019)Building an Argument for the Use of Science Fiction in HCI EducationIntelligent Human Systems Integration 201910.1007/978-3-030-11051-2_129(846-851)Online publication date: 6-Jan-2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11051-2_129
Burton EGoldsmith JMattei N(2018)How to teach computer ethics through science fictionCommunications of the ACM10.1145/315448561:8(54-64)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3154485
Bates RSummet VVeilleux NCaspersen MEdwards SBarnes TGarcia D(2017)SIGCSE ReadsProceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3017680.3022354(721-721)Online publication date: 8-Mar-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3017680.3022354
Kalles D(2016)Artificial Intelligence meets Software Engineering in Computing EducationProceedings of the 9th Hellenic Conference on Artificial Intelligence10.1145/2903220.2903223(1-5)Online publication date: 18-May-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2903220.2903223
Jordan PMubin OSilva P(2016)A Conceptual Research Agenda and Quantification Framework for the Relationship Between Science-Fiction Media and Human-Computer InteractionHCI International 2016 – Posters' Extended Abstracts10.1007/978-3-319-40548-3_9(52-57)Online publication date: 22-Jun-2016
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40548-3_9
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Article

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Figures

Tables

Media

View Issue’s Table of Contents