I spent this past weekend at The Hackers Conference, “an annual invitation-only conference traditionally held in the San Francisco Bay Area.” I was invited by my sister, a computer engineer based in Santa Clara, CA, and I was too curious not to attend.

Here’s my entry in the photo roster (photo taken at conference registration):

Somewhere between a typical academic conference and an unconference, the conference committee builds a program out of the current interests and projects of the attendees. Because I wrote in my registration survey about my department’s current curricular revision project, I was invited to speak on a panel about the future of computing education. I’m grateful the conference has a policy of confidentiality – I was happy to speak about our planned revisions to 20 people, all in the same room, but they are not ready for broad publication. I’ll have more to say about these revisions after they are proposed and reviewed.

I was surprised to run into the panel organizer (another Washington State educator) and a former student before even getting in the door. There were a number of people I know through other parts of my life at the conference as well.

During my panel presentation, I mentioned my interest in a CS curriculum “microkernel,” growing out of my work with the SIGCSE Liberal Arts Committee and our response to CS 2023 (in press). My former student, who was in the audience, encouraged me to propose a Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) session on the CS microkernel topic. We scheduled the BoF session for that very night. Although only three of us showed up, it was a very interesting conversation, which makes me even more hopeful that our BoF proposal will be accepted for SIGCSE 2025. Fingers crossed!

During the “Human Search Engine” at the conference opening session, I took the mic to say that I’m planning a spring first-year seminar section on the topic of Feminist Technologies. What is that? I’m not sure! What do you think? Is there such a thing? So a conference organizer encouraged me to propose a BoF on that topic, too. Several people signed up, and someone put it on the schedule during another session I planned to attend, so I moved it to an earlier time outside on the patio. Again, a small group joined me, and we had a really interesting conversation that helped me think about what kinds of conversations I might have with my students.

Last but not least, I came prepared to talk about a current project outside of work. Finally, the crafts!

Over the summer I was invited to contribute to a New Student Orientation track on “Life, the Universe, and Everything,” organized by colleagues in the Division of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. What can CS contribute? Of course, Conway’s Game of Life!

In the course of preparing a 40-minute activity, I learned about elementary cellular automata, which somehow I had never encountered before. Something clicked, and I realized that elementary cellular automata would lend themselves well to crochet.

I have already completed one shawl – but I realized about 4/5 of the way through that I had made a couple of mistakes in the pattern about 2/5 of the way through. I requested space in the demo room to show off my work, mistakes and all, with a placard inviting everyone to “find the bugs.”

These slides on Elementary Cellular Automata in Filet Crochet Lace include both the slides for the lightning talk giving context for the demo, and additional slides documenting the creative process.

Since I decided to have a “do-over,” I brought my yarn with me and crocheted throughout the conference, whenever my hands were not resting or busy with eating or drinking. Watch for me with my yarn at future conferences too!