Seth Poulsen

Hi, I'm Seth! I create and evaluate software tools for computer science education.

Much of my research focuses on Proof Blocks, a tool which I created to help students learn to write mathematical proofs. I'm also involved in various educational data analysis projects.

I'm currently a Ph.D. student at University of Illinois Computer Science. Previously, I was a Software Engineer at Amazon.com, working on Kindle Web Rendering and the Kindle Lite Android app.

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Contact

email: sethp3@illinois.edu

Job Application Materials

Peer-reviewed Conference Publications

An analytic comparison of student-scheduled and instructor-scheduled collaborative learning in online contexts by Geoffrey L. Herman, Yucheng Jiang, Yueqi Jiang, Seth Poulsen, Mariana Silva, and Matthew West. American Society for Engineering Education 2022

Proof Blocks: Autogradable scaffolding activities for learning to write proofs by Seth Poulsen, Mahesh Viswanathan, Geoffrey L. Herman, and Matthew West. Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education 2022

🏆Evaluating Proof Blocks problems as exam questions by Seth Poulsen, Mahesh Viswanathan, Geoffrey L. Herman, and Matthew West. International Computing Education Research conference 2021

What's in a linked list? A Phenomenographic study of data structure diagrams by Morgan Fong, Seth Poulsen, and Geoffrey L. Herman. American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference 2021

Insights from student solutions to MongoDB homework problems by Ridha Alkhabaz, Seth Poulsen, Mei Chen, and Abdussalam Alawini. Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education 2021

A Quantitative analysis of student solutions to graph database problems by Mei Chen, Seth Poulsen, Ridha Alkhabaz, and Abdussalam Alawini. Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education 2021

Experiences and lessons learned creating and validating concept inventories for cybersecurity by Alan T. Sherman, Geoffrey L. Herman,Linda Oliva, Peter A. H. Peterson, Enis Golaszewski, Seth Poulsen, Travis Scheponik, and Akshita Gorti National Cyber Summit (NCS) Research Track 2020

Insights from student solutions to SQL homework problems by Seth Poulsen, Liia Butler, Abdussalam Alawini, and Geoffrey L. Herman. Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education 2020

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

Reevaluating the relationship between explaining, tracing, and writing skills in CS1 in a replication study. Computer Science Education by Max Fowler, David H Smith IV, Mohammed Hassan, Seth Poulsen, Matthew West, and Craig Zilles. Computer Science Education 2022

Psychometric evaluation of the cybersecurity concept inventory by Seth Poulsen, Geoffrey L Herman, Peter AH Peterson, Enis Golaszewski, Akshita Gorti, Linda Oliva, Travis Scheponik, Alan T Sherman. ACM Transactions on Computing Education 2022

The Effect of additional math in high school on college success by Seth Poulsen. The Mathemematics Educator 2019

Difference sets disjoint from a subgroup by Courtney Hoagland, Stephen Humphries, Nathan Nicholson, and Seth Poulsen. Graphs and Combinatorics 2019

Peer-reviewed Workshop and Poster Presentations

Autogenerating natural language proofs for proof education Seth Poulsen, Matthew West, and Talia Ringer. The Coq Workshop 2022

Benchmarking partial credit grading algorithms for Proof Blocks problems Seth Poulsen, Shubhang Kulkarni, Geoffrey Herman, Matthew West Artificial Intelligence in Education 2022

🏆A Quantitative analysis of student solutions to graph database problems by Mei Chen, Seth Poulsen, Ridha Alkhabaz, and Abdussalam Alawini. SIGCSE Technical Symposium 2021

The Relationship between course scheduling and student performance by Seth Poulsen, Carolyn J. Anderson, and Matthew West. Educational Data Mining in Computer Science Education 2020

Memory safety in C by abstract interpretation by Joseph Jones, James Wasson, Seth Poulsen, Sean Brown, Peter Aldous, and Eric Mercer. Java PathFinder Workshop 2018

Open Source

Teaching

  • CS 105 (Introduction to Programming) at UIUC with Craig Zilles, Spring 2022
  • CS 173 (Discrete Mathematics) at UIUC with Madhusudan Parthasarathy, Spring 2021
  • CS 173 (Discrete Mathematics) at UIUC with Mahesh Viswanathan, Fall 2020
  • Math 112 (Calculus I) at BYU with Stephen Humphries, Fall 2017