Pytch goes global 🌎

In November our Project Lead Glenn Strong and Evaluation Lead Nina Bresnihan travelled to Nashville, Tennessee to take part in the annual Frontiers in Education (FIE) conference, one of the leading international events for research in computing education. It was an exciting opportunity to share our work, connect with colleagues from around the world and highlight the impact of Research Ireland funded projects taking place here in Trinity College Dublin.

Chairing a session at FIE 🎤

Glenn chaired a research paper session on Monday afternoon titled Broadening Participation: Support Systems and Student Perceptions. The session brought together researchers exploring how different forms of support and student experiences influence participation and success in engineering and computing education. Glenn guided the discussion and helped create a collaborative environment for presenters and participants to share ideas.

Presenting Pytch to an international audience

On Tuesday morning, Glenn took part in the Open Poster Session 2, where he presented our poster titled:

Pytch – A System to Support Learners of Coding Moving From Blocks to Text
Authors: Glenn Strong, Ben North, Sara Fiori, Augustina Vornehm and Nina Bresnihan (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)

The poster introduced Pytch to an international audience of educators and researchers, highlighting how the system supports learners as they transition from block-based programming to text-based code. Delegates were very interested in Pytch and how it enables young learners to build confidence while developing real programming skills.

Sharing inclusive computing research from OurKidsCode 🤝

Our evaluation lead, Nina Bresnihan, also presented findings from the OurKidsCode project as part of the session on Broadening Participation: Increasing Opportunities. OurKidsCode is a fellow Research Ireland–funded project, based at Trinity College Dublin and closely linked with Pytch.

Nina’s paper, Fostering Community Integration Through Family Creative Coding, was co-authored with colleagues from Trinity College Dublin including our project lead, Glenn Strong. The research explores how family-centred and community-based creative coding activities can support engagement in computing, particularly for younger learners. The presentation was very well received.

A proud week for the Pytch team

We are very proud of Glenn and Nina for their excellent contributions to FIE this year. Their work not only showcases the strength of research happening in Trinity but also demonstrates the commitment of the Pytch team to improving learning opportunities in computer science.

A huge thank you to our co-authors, collaborators and the FIE community for the warm welcome and engaging discussions. We look forward to building on this work and sharing more updates soon.