Creative computer scientist Tim Bell to receive UC Innovation Medal tonight

Computer scientist Tim Bell will receive the University of Canterbury’s Innovation Medal at a special event on campus in Christchurch tonight.

The medal honours efforts to have academic research adopted into the wider community. Professor Bell’s creative work in developing new materials and methods for teaching basic computer science and implementing them on a global scale has had enormous impact on the world.

He led the project of writing the book Computer Science Unplugged, and the project of developing the associated website, videos, and the translations into 17 languages.

He has worked tirelessly to have the novel approach to teaching computer science described in the book adopted by school districts and by university-based science outreach projects all over the world. It is recognised and celebrated as an international movement among math and science educators.

His work on CS Unplugged began in 1989 when he developed exhibits for an initiative that became the Science Alive Centre in Christchurch. Professor Bell is recognised as a champion of computer science education in New Zealand.

``We're one of the first English speaking countries to adopt computer science standards at a national level. We are in the middle of a transitional phase where many schools are teaching it. Until now the focus of computing in schools has been on skills for using computers rather than learning to create innovative software,’’ he said today.

``Israel and Korea are doing very well at computer science; Germany has made good progress; the UK is making changes this year; some states in the US have made progress and there is a pilot programme that looks promising. In NZ we're nearing the end of our second year of having national achievement standards.

``Google have sponsored the CS Unplugged project which is used all around the world; they are sponsoring two Computer Science workshops at UC in December; and they are funding UC to write an online free textbook for high school computer science, since there aren't any applicable English-language texts available at present.

``My goal is to see computer science on a par with other challenging academic subjects, where top students aspire to do well in it and understand the kind of discipline that it is. Currently few students or even the general public understand what computer science is.

``But the innovative computing companies know that it's the qualification they are looking for. Of course, it also will help students who aren't suited to doing computer science to find out before getting too committed to it.

UC Chancellor Dr John Wood and Tertiary Education minister Steven Joyce will be among the guests attending the presentation tonight.

The Innovation Medal, the first of its kind in New Zealand, was awarded for the first time last year to Keith Alexander for developing the world-leading spring-free trampoline.