IRENE POLYCARPOU

 

Assistant Professor

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Office: BB 280C

Phone: (303) 273-3462 / Fax: (303) 273-3875

E-mail: ipolycar@mines.edu

Research

  • General Research Area: STEM Education and Educational Technologies
  • Research Interests
  • Educational Software
  • Educational Technologies
  • Students' Cognition and Learning Styles
  • Computer Science Curriculum Issues
  • Participatory Software Design
  • On-line Education (E-learning)
  • K-12 Education

Projects

  • National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)
  • Project Title: Recruiting Women into Computer Science through Student Collaboration (Project Summary)
  • This project is sponsored by an NCWIT Academic Alliance Seed Fund grant, sponsored by Microsoft Research
  • CSM students involved with the project: Julie Krause
  • MATH-CITY: An Educational Game for K-12 Mathematics
  • MATH-CITY: An educational game for K-12 mathematics.
  • To download the prototype of the game click on the following link (use Internet Explorer (IE) because the link may not work properly with other browsers): Math-City Download
  • Note: You will have to complete a form and then dowload the zip file of Math-City. When you dowload the zip file, unzip the folder, and double click on 'Math City.jar' file to run the game.
  • CSM students involved with the project: Chris Navrides, Richard Walker, Eric Chiu, Chad Kembel, Julie Krause, Chris Poupore, Jeff Neet, Amanreet Bajwa, Nicholas Hansen, Levente Sipeki, Joe Zeimen, Alyse Haynes, Heidi Lewis, Zach Cabellk, Nathaniel Sapun.
  • BINARY BLASTER: An educational game to practice number conversion (decimal to binary)
  • To downlaod the prototype of the game click on the following link. Binary Blaster Download
  • Note: You will need to install Python and Pygame on your computer before you are able to run the game. You can read the game's "README.txt" file for more information
  • CSM students involved with the project: David Danford, Heidi Lewis, Julie Krause, Kyle Schulz.
  • SUN-TRACKER: A Solar Energy Simulation for K-12 Education
  • Click on the following link to run the simulation on-line: Suntracker
  • Note: The simulation runs better with Internet Explorer.
  • CSM students involved with the project: Chad Kembel.
  • PROOFS BY INDUCTION
  • A software to teach and learn proofs by induction for computer science.
  • CSM students involved with the project: Chris Navrides.

Teaching

  • SPRING 2011
  • CSCI 561: Theory of Computation (Blackboard)
  • FALL 2010
  • Math 358 / CSCI 358: Algebraic Structures(Blackboard)
  • CSCI 598B: Educational Technologies (Blackboard)
  • SPRING 2010
  • Math 358 / CSCI 358: Algebraic Structures (Blackboard)
  • CSCI 599: Education Software Development
  • FALL 2009
  • Math 358 / CSCI 358: Algebraic Structures (Blackboard)
  • CSCI 598 / CSCI 498: Theory of Computation (Blackboard)
  • SPRING 2009
  • Math 358 / CSCI 358: Algebraic Structures (Blackboard)
  • FALL 2008
  • Math 358 / CSCI 358: Algebraic Structures (Blackboard)

Publications

  • Mehta, D., Kouri, T., & Polycarpou, I. (2012). "Forming Project Groups while Learning about Matching and Network Flows in Algorithms". To appear in the Proceedings of the ACM 17th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2012).
  • Krause, J. & Polycarpou, I. (2012). "Formal Learning Groups in an Introductory CS Course: A Qualitative Exploration." To appear in the Proceedings of the ACM 17th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2012).
  • Krause, J. & Polycarpou, I. (2012). "An Exploratory Study on Recruitment and Retention of Women in Undergraduate CS: Collaborative Learning with Formal Learning Groups." ACM-W Newsletter (Winter Issue)
  • Polycarpou, I. & Krause, J. (2012). "Practicing K-12 Mathematics Through a Collaborative Electronic Game." In the Proceedings of the 23rd Annual International SITE (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education) conference.
  • Krause, J., Polycarpou, I., & Hellman, K. (2012). "Exploring Formal Learning Groups and Their Impact on Recruitment of Women in Undergraduate CS." In the Proceedings of the SIGCSE 2012 Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education.
  • Polycarpou, I., Krause, J., Noring, M. (2011). "Binary Blaster: An Educational Game for Practicing Binary number Conversions." In the Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS 2011).
  • Kerri, S., Polycarpou, I., Krause, J., Rader, C. (2011). "Electronic Collaborative Learning with Math-City."In the Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS 2011).
  • Polycarpou, I. (2011). "Using Technology to Enhance K-12 Outreach in Materials Science." In the Materials Research Society (MRS) Bulletin, April 2011 Special Issue on K-12 Outreach, 36 (4), pp.290-297.
  • Polycarpou, I., Rader, C., & Kembel, C. (2011). "Sun Tracker: A K-12 Solar Energy Simulation." In the Proceedings of the Global Conference on Learning and Technology - Global Learn Asia Pacific 2011, Melbourne, Australia, pp.1519-1528
  • Polycarpou, I., Krause, J., Rader, C., Kembel, C., Poupore, C., & Chiu, E. (2010). "Math-city: An Educational Game for K-12 Mathematics." In the Proceedings of the World Conference on Learning, Teaching, and Administration (WC-LT&A 2010), Cairo, Egypt.Social and Behavior Sciences, 9, pp. 845-850
  • Polycarpou, I. (2009). "An Educational Software for Proofs by Induction." In the Proceedings of the 2009 International Symposium on Engineering Education and Educational Technologies: EEET 2009. Available at: http://www.iiis.org/CDs2008/CD2009SCI/EEET2009/index.asp
  • Polycarpou, I. (2009). "Teaching Proofs by Induction in a Discrete Mathematics Course." In the Proceedings of the 2009 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS 2009), pp.3-7.
  • Polycarpou, I. and Pasztor, A. (2008). "An Interactive and Multimodal Software for Teaching Induction for Computer Science." In the Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS 2008), pp.326-331.
  • Polycarpou, I. (2008). "Induction as a Tool for Conceptual Coherence in Computer Science." In the Proceedings of the 46 th Association of Computing Machinery Southeast Conference (ACMSE 2008), pp.440-445.
  • Polycarpou, I, Pasztor, A., & Adjouadi, M. (2008). "A Conceptual Approach to Teaching Induction for Computer Science". In the Proceedings of the SIGCSE 2008 Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, p.9-13.
  • Polycarpou, I. (2007). "A New Approach to Teach Proofs by Induction for Computer Science". In the Proceedings of the Grace Hopper 2007 conference. (Poster Session)
  • Polycarpou, I., Pasztor, A., & Alacaci, G. (2006). "Sources of Students' Difficulties with Proofs by Induction: A Study." In the Proceedings of the Third International Conference in Teaching Mathematics at the undergraduate level (ICTM3), John Wiley & Sons Inc, ISBN 0471072709, paper 446.
  • Polycarpou, I. (2006). "Computer Science students' difficulties with proofs by induction: An exploratory study." In the Proceedings of the 44 th Association of Computing Machinery Southeast conference (ACMSE), pp.601-606.
  • Polycarpou, I. & Achilleos, P. (2000). "Cypriot Artists". Multimedia software about Cypriot artists. Ministry of Education of Cyprus. ISBN: 9963-8529-0-4.
  • Polycarpou, I. & Achilleos, P. (2000). "User Manual for Cypriot Artists software" and "Design and Analysis for Cypriot Artists software." Ministry of Education of Cyprus.

** Note: Students' names are underlined.

Education