Workshop: Integrating Computer Science and the Learning Sciences


Ateneo de Manila University’s Dr. Didith Rodrigo and her graduate students conducted a workshop entitled “Integrating Computer Science and the Learning Sciences” for students and faculty of the Computer Studies Division and guests from PSITE last Saturday, January 21.

The Ateneo Laboratory for the Learning Sciences, which Dr. Rodrigo heads, brings together artificial intelligence, data mining, statistics, education, cognitive psychology, human factors, and other disciplines to sto study, enhance and develop environments that improve the learning experience. Dr. Rodrigo and her team discussed their ongoing research in novice programmer behavior and affect, affect and intelligent tutoring systems, and affect-sensitive games.

Topics discussed were:

  • Integrating Computer Science and the Learning Sciences (Dr. Rodrigo)
  • Building an Affect-Sensitive Pedagogical Agent (Thor Collin Andaliaza)
  • Mining Student Help-Seeking Behaviors (Jose Carlo Soriano)
  • Mining Novice Programmer Behaviors (Emily Tabanao and Dr. Rodrigo for Thomas Dy and Diane Marie Lee)
  • Building an Affect-Sensitive Game (Dr. Rodrigo for Jason King Li and Tricia Monsod)
  • Studying Player Affect (Francis Jam Macam)

The team brought several of their equipment to demonstrate their work. Among these were the OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator which could control a computer by reading a user’s brainwaves.