Jennifer S. Kay
I'm a Professor of Computer Science at Rowan University. My
current research
focuses mostly on CS Education, Educational Robotics, and
effective online education. I am the proud recipient of Rowan
University's Lindback
Distinguished Teaching Award as well as Rowan's President's
Award for Excellence in Innovative Instructional Delivery. I
did my Masters and Ph.D. work in Computer Science at Carnegie
Mellon University, and have Bachelors Degrees in Math and Computer
Science from the University of Pennsylvania.
Teaching | Research
| Office Location | Office
Hours | Robots!
| Publications
| Need a Recommendation from Me? | | Fun | Biographical
Teaching
I am the proud recipient of Rowan University's Lindback
Distinguished Teaching Award as well as Rowan's President's
Award for Excellence in Innovative Instructional Delivery
In Fall 2022 I am teaching:
- Foundations of Computer Science (asynchronous remote)
- Foundations of Computer Science (in person)
- Robotics (in person)
Previous semesters:
Please note: old classes pre-blackboard/canvas include hyperlinks,
accessing newer materials is a little more complicated. I am happy
to share my material with other instructors, please email me for
access.
GradRobotsS22, FoundS22, AIF21, FoundF21, FoundS21, AIS21,
HonorsFoundS21, FoundF21,
AIF20, FoundF20, FoundS20, gradRoboticsS20, FoundF19, HIPRF19,
FoundS19, IOOPS19, FoundF18,
RoboticsF18,
HonorsISPRobotsS18, FoundS18, gradrobotsf17
foundf17, founds16, libbyf15, ioopf15, foundf15, libbys15, ioops15, libbyf14, robotsf14, gradRobotsf14, libby1314 honorsispS14 ioopS14 ioopf13 introscif13 introscis13 honorsintroscis13 introscif12 robotsf12 gradrobotsf12 founds12 indstudys12 introscif11 introrobotsf11 ioopf11 introrobotss11 intros11 founds11 robotsf10 introrobotsf10 introscif10 intros09 introrobotss09 founds09 introscif08 introrobotsf08 csps08 introsci intros06 robof06 intros06 introf04 robos04 intros04 founds04 introf03 csps03 founds03 introf02 cspf02 csps02 robos02 foundf01 cspf01 algoss01 csps01 cspf00 csps00 robos00 dsf99 cspf99 dsminif99 cspsp99 dsf98 cspf98
Research
My areas of interest include computer science education,
educational robotics, effective systems for learning at scale
(MOOCs), tools for online STEM education, intelligent software
agents, robotics (especially mobile
robots), vehicle teleoperation, human-computer interaction, user
interfaces, computers and the elderly, cryptography, computer
vision, and artificial intelligence.
My Publications are listed below.
Please visit the Rowan
University Laboratory for Educational Robotics (RULER) home
page
For my Ph.D., I developed the STRIPE
system, which was part of Carnegie
Mellon's Navlab
Project. STRIPE is a system for teleoperating vehicles
across low bandwidth links, and links with delays.
While working on my Ph.D., I also did some work in cryptography.
You can take a look at a technical report of mine: Cryptanalysis
Techniques:
An
Example
Using
Kerberos
[ You may also want to look at my official Rowan
Research page, though beware that it gets updated even less
frequently than this one ]
Office Location: Robinson 328S
- Coming from off campus? See this annotated map if you have
arranged to park at the "welcome gate." Here's a copy
of the campus
map without my annotations - Robinson hall is in the
Northeast quadrant of the campus map
- Once in Robinson: Find the elevator (there's only one) and
take it to the third floor. With your back to the elevator, turn
right and go straight through the door ahead of you (it may be
closed, but isn't locked during business hours). Walk until you
hit a wall, and then turn right. Walk until you hit a door. My
door is to the left of the one you hit.
Office Hours
Please visit https://tinyurl.com/kay-office-hours
for information.
ROBOTS!
I'm the director of the Rowan University
Laboratory for Educational Robotics (RULER Lab).
Check out our web
page for lots of information about educational
robotics, as well as many resources
for K-12 and University Educators who wish to use
robotics in the classroom.
While I'm interested in a bunch of different aspects of computer
science, I find myself returning again and again to the fields of
robotics. As a graduate student at CMU, I got to play with really
big
robots. Nowadays the robots my students and I play with
tend to be a lot smaller, but some of them fly,
others dance,
and some even wear fancy
costumes!
My favorite first activity for anyone learning about robotics is
to ask them to do a robot
dance.
I think that robots are a great way to get people excited
about computer science - I've exposed hundreds of computer science
educators to robotics through the Robot Rodeo and
Experience It! events at
the SIGCSE 2011,
SIGCSE 2012, and SIGCSE 2014 conferences
for computer science educators (check out this great
news
report
about
the
Rodeo from CBS
11 News in Dallas) as
well as through workshops
for
K-12
teachers at Rowan and two
free
MOOCs
(online
courses) for K-12 teachers (also free to others) that teach
LEGO robotics sponsored by
From 1997 - 2013 I co-chaired the Rowan's FIRST
LEGO League Qualifier that brought hundreds of 9-14 year olds
to campus to participate in a robotics and research competition that
is designed to get kids excited about STEM. In 2016,
I passed on the torch as Rowan became the Southern NJ
FLL partner.
Publications
Refereed Publications
- Jennifer S. Kay, "Peer Grading
without Protest: The SPARK Approach to Summative Peer
Assessment." In the Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical
Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2022,
March 2022. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3478431.3499284
Download pdf
- Jennifer S. Kay, Colin Lambe, Tyler
J. Nolan, Thomas M. Grello, and Anthony Breitzman, Apples to
Apples: Differences in Viewer Retention When Longer Content is
Chopped into Smaller Bites". In the
Proceedings
of
the Sixth (2019) ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale
(L@S
'19). ACM,
New York, NY, USA.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3330430.3333617
Download pdf
- Jennifer S. Kay, Tyler J. Nolan,
and Thomas M. Grello. 2016. The
Distributed Esteemed Endorser Review: A Novel Approach to
Participant Assessment in MOOCs. In Proceedings of the
Third (2016) ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S '16). ACM,
New York, NY, USA, 157-160.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2876034.2893396
- Jennifer S. Kay, Janet G. Moss,
Shelly Engelman, and Tom McKlin,
Sneaking In Through The Back Door: Introducing K-12 Teachers
to Robot Programming," in the Proceedings of the 45th ACM Technical
Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2014,
March 2014.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2538862.2538972
download pdf
- Jennifer S. Kay and Tom McKlin,
"The Challenges of Using a MOOC to Introduce 'Absolute
Beginners' to Programming on Specialized Hardware", in the
Proceedings of Learning
@
Scale, March 2014.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2556325.2567886
Download pdf
- Jennifer S. Kay and Janet G. Moss,
"Using Robots to Teach Programming to K-12 Teachers,"
Proceedings of FIE 2012,
ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference October 2012.
Locally
cached
copy
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2012.6462375
- Douglas Blank, Jennifer S. Kay,
James B. Marshall, Keith O'Hara, and Mark Russo, "Calico: A
Multi-Programming-Language, Multi-Context Framework Designed for
Computer Science Education." In the Proceedings of the 43rd ACM Technical
Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2012,
March 2012.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2157136.2157158
Download pdf
- Kevin Freisen, Tim Sanders, and
Jennifer S. Kay, "Public
School
Students
Left
Behind:
Contrasting
The
Trends
In
Public
And
Private
School Computer Science Advanced Placement
Participation." Proceedings of FIE 2011, ASEE/IEEE
Frontiers in Education Conference, October 2011. Locally
Cached
Copy
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2011.6143080
- Stacey L. Montresor, Jennifer
S. Kay, Michel Tokic, and Jonathan M. Summerton, " Work
In Progress - Programming In A Confined Space: A Case Study In
Porting Modern Robot Software To An Antique Platform." Proceedings of FIE 2011, IEEE
Frontiers in Education Conference, October 2011. Locally
Cached
Copy
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2011.6143099
-
Jennifer S. Kay,
Contextualized approaches to introductory computer
science: the key to making computer science relevant or
simply bait and switch?, SIGCSE '11 Proceedings of the 42nd ACM
technical symposium
on Computer science education, 2011.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1953163.1953219
- Robots
as
Recruitment
Tools
in
Computer
Science:
The
New
Frontier
or
Simply
Bait and Switch?"
Jennifer Kay
In Proceedings of the AAAI
Spring Symposium on Educational
Robotics and Beyond: Design and Evaluation, March 2010.
Locally Cached Copy
- Robots
in
the
Classroom
... And the Dorm Room
Jennifer Kay
Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, Vol. 25, No. 3,
January 2010, pp.128-133. Winner, Best Paper Award CCSCE
2009 Locally
Cached Copy
- From
Mad
Libs
to
Tic
Tac
Toe:
Using
Robots
and
Game
Programming
as a Theme in an Introduction to
Programming Course for Non-Majors
in Proceedings of the 22nd International FLAIRS
Conference, May 2009. Locally
Cached
Copy
- Pushing
Beyond
Traditional
School
and
Course
Boundaries:
High
School
and
University
Students
Collaborate on an
Interdisciplinary Project
Adrian Rusu, Amalia Rusu, Jennifer Kay, and Hong
Zhang
Proceedings of FIE 2007: The Frontiers in Education
Conference, Milwaukee, October 2007. Locally Cached Copy
- Getting
Down
&
Dirty:
Incorporating
Homogeneous
Transformations
and
Robot
Kinematics
into
a
Computer Science Robotics Class."
Jennifer Kay
Proceedings of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Robots and
Robot Venues, March 2007.Locally Cached Copy
- Two
Lab
Exercises
for
an
Introductory Robotics Class
Jennifer Kay
AAAI
Spring
Symposium on Accessible Hands-on AI and
Robotics Education, March 2004. Locally Cached Copy
-
Teaching Robotics from a Computer Science
Perspective
Jennifer Kay
Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, vol. 19,
no. 2, December 2003. Locally Cached Copy
- Open Source
Software and Computer Science Education
Keith O'Hara and Jennifer Kay
Journal of Computing Sciences
in Colleges, vol. 18, no. 3, Februrary,
2003. Locally Cached Copy
- Investigating
Open
Source
Software
and
Educational
Robotics
Keith O'Hara and Jennifer Kay
Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges,
vol. 18, no. 3, Februrary, 2003 Locally Cached Copy
- Building
Confidence
and
Skills:
A
Prep
Course
for
Computer
Programming
Linda Head, Jennifer Kay, John Schmalzel, Glenn Arr,
Christopher Foster, Steven McDermott, Michael Sterner,
Kenneth Whelan, and Jason Wollenberg, ECE Student
Teaching Team,
Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for
Engineering Education Annual Conference &
ExpositionAlbuquerque, NM, June 2001 Locally Cached
Copy
- Using
the
Force:
How
Star
Wars
Can
Help
You
Teach
Recursion
Jennifer Kay
Journal of Computing in Small Colleges, vol. 15, no. 5,
May 2000.Locally Cached
Copy
-
-
Machine
Learning and Human Interface for the CMU Navlab
Charles Thorpe, Charalambos
Athanassiou, Jennifer Kay, Tom Mitchell, and Dean
Pomerleau
Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on
Robotics Research, Pittsburgh, PA, October 1993.
-
STRIPE:
Supervised
TeleRobotics
Using
Incremental
Polygonal
Earth Geometry
Jennifer Kay and Charles Thorpe
Proceedings of the Third International Conference on
Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Pittsburgh, PA, February
1993. Locally cached copy
-
MARVIN
&
TINA:
A
Multiprocessor
3D
Vision System
Michael Rygol, Stephen Pollard, Chris Brown, and Jennifer
Kay
Proceedings of the Second International Conference on
Applications of Transputers, Southampton, UK, July 1990.
Ph.D. Thesis
- STRIPE: Remote Driving
Using Limited Image Data
Jennifer Kay
Ph.D. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University, January 1997.
Available as technical report CMU-CS-97-100, Computer
Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, PA.
Book Chapter
Invited Publications
Refereed Panel Presentations and Published Summaries
- CS Professional Development MOOCs
Erin Mindell (Moderator), Karen Brennan,
Gwendolyn Britton, Jennifer S. Kay, and Jennifer Rosato
to appear in the Proceedings of the 45th ACM Technical
Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2014,
March 2014
- Panel:
Beyond
First
Impressions
and
Fine Farewells: Electronic Tangibles
Throughout the Curriculum
Jennifer S. Kay (Moderator), Frank Klassner, Fred G.
Martin, David P. Miller, Keith J. O?Hara,
Proceedings of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Educational
Robotics and Beyond: Design and Evaluation, March 2010,
pp. 58-59.
Old Tech Reports ... incomplete ... adding them as I find
them
- Cryptanalysis Techniques: An Example Using Kerberos,
Jennifer Kay, CMU-CS-95-115, Carnegie Mellon School of
Computer Science Locally
Cached Copy
Instructions for Current Rowan Students
Looking for a Recommendation
Do the following:
- Email me and ask me if it's ok (this is just normal
courtesy, you need to do this before you request a
recommendation from anyone!
Be sure to let me know the date the recommendation would
be due! Be sure to let me know how I would send this
recommendation
- Fill out the CS Dept
recommendation request form
- After doing that, please email me a bulleted list of
things that you would include if you were me and
you were writing this letter. Don't be shy! No promises that
I will use any of it, but this will help me to sell you and
also helps jog my memory about what was special about you in
my class (or our other interactions).
Fun Stuff
These links are really old. One day, I'll have time to add some
of my more recent favorites.
Biographical
I did my undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania, in
Computer Science
(in the School of
Engineering and Applied Science) and in Mathematics
(in the School of Arts and
Sciences). I also worked in the GRASP Lab
at Penn.
While I was an undergraduate I also spent a year as a
visiting student at Somerville
College, Oxford
University, which is in Oxford,
in the United Kingdom.
I've also been a research assistant at the AI Vision Research Unit
in the Psychology
Department at the University
of
Sheffield.
I graduated with my Ph.D. in Computer Science
from Carnegie Mellon in
December of 1996. I was a member of the CMU Vision and Autonomous
Systems Center (VASC), which is a part of the Robotics Institute.
I used to be a member of the AI Laboratory in the Advanced Technology
Laboratories in Camden,
New Jersey .
I was also a part-time
faculty
member in the Computing
Sciences
Department at Villanova
University.