I actively share my research and expertise with the world.

I try to reach many audiences, including not only academia, but K-12 education across the state, nation, and world, not-for-profit and for-profit industries focused on programming, learning technologies, and learning in general, state and federal government, and the broader public.

Here is a timeline of impacts I've tried to document over my career.

press (2025) evidence
I was interviewed by ACM Inroads about my effort to have impact on education through research.

policy (2025-2026) evidence
I was invited by the Washington State Board of Education to lead the subcommittee on technology, media literacy, and computer science, to form recommendations for the next version of the state's graduation requirements

community (2025) evidence
I was interviewed for the ACM Inroads "Prominent Propagator" column.

press (2025-20225) evidence
I appeared on Fox 13 local news live with state Superintendent Chris Reykdal to discuss the impacts of generative AI on schools in K-12 and higher education.

press (2025-20225) evidence
I was interviewed by the Chronicle about my grant being terminated by DOGE.

press (2024) evidence
I was interviewed by the Seattle Times about the state of CS education in the state.

press (2024) evidence
The University of Washington highlighted our work on computational embroidery.

press (2024) evidence
GitHub highlighted Wordplay in a blog post about its security tools

press (2024) evidence
I was interviewed by Dave Levine for the KZSU Stanford Radio 90.1FM show Hearsay Culture on the topic of generative AI and education.

press (2023) evidence
I wrote a short piece about accessibility and programming.

press (2023) evidence
I was interviewed about the strengths and weaknesses of large-language models for scientific computing.

press (2022) evidence
I was interviewed more extensively about our Google gift for STEP CS tuition subsidy.

press (2022) evidence
I was interviewed about our Google gift for STEP CS tuition subsidy.

press (2022) evidence
I was interviewed about coding bootcamps.

press (2021) evidence
I was interviewed by Jared O'Leary on their BootUP CS podcast, where I talked about reflection, mentorship, and vulnerability.

press (2020) evidence
I was interviewed about the impact of online learning on learning to code.

social (2020) evidence
Our research on software engineering expertise was read by tens of thousands of software developers on Hacker News

product (2020-present) evidence
Our work on PL Tutor influenced the JustJavaScript course by Dan Abramov

consulting (2020)
I consulted with Microsoft's VS Code, VS Online, and GitHub Education teams about how to support CS educators

product (2020-present) evidence
Codeitz, our Python tutorial which incoporates our theory of programming instruction, is publicly available, and used to support Python instruction

curriculum (2020-present)
We influenced the teaching of HCI education in higher education

knowledge (2020-present)
Our work has opened discourse on the responsibility of CS educators to address the role of CS in injustice

resource (2020-present) evidence
I've heleped shape the peer review process for ACM International Computing Education Research Conference

policy (2020)
I've coordinated with House representatives on policies that will expand the numbers of CS teachers nationwide

consulting (2019)
I consulted with APM's Marketplace Tech on the effects and limits of automation

social (2018) evidence
Our research on coding tutorials read by tens of thousands of software developers on Hacker News

knowledge (2018-present)
Greg Nelson's arguments about the role of theory in computing education research have spurred signfiicant debate in CS education. This debate was continued in a 60 minute panel session at ICER 2018 in Finland, an then another 90 minute panel session at SIGCSE in Minneapolis

resource (2018-present) evidence
I've helped shape the peer review processes for the ACM Transactions on Computing Education journal

resource (2018-present) evidence
I've helped shape the reviewing criteria for the ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium's research track

knowledge (2018-present)
Our work on assessment has imported more rigorous methods from educational measurement into CS education

policy (2018-present)
Our research on transfer students has influenced admissions policy at the University of Washington

curriculum (2018-2019)
I have served on the Seattle Public Schools CS Advisory board, shaping strategic goals

social (2017) evidence
Our research on coding bootcamps has been read by tens of thousands of software developers on Hacker News

resource (2017-2019)
I consulted with Google, NSF, CRA, and Code.org on strategies for strengthening the pipeline of computing education research, researchers, and research funding

policy (2017-present) evidence
The CS for All Washington advocacy group I direct has used our research to affect statewide CS education policy

community (2017-present) evidence
I've run a quarterly meetup, Sound CS Ed, to bring together hundreds of CS education teachers, researchers, policy makers, and product designers in Puget Sound

press (2016) evidence
I co-authored an article with Susanne Hambrusch for the Huffington Post titled "Why the Software Industry Needs Computing Education Research

press (2016) evidence
Tia Ghose interviewed me for LiveScience about the efficacy of coding toys

press (2016) evidence
I was interviewed by Jeff Meyerson for the Software Engineering Daily podcast on February 24 about research, reaching tens of thousands of engineers

knowledge (2016) evidence
Our ACM Learning Webinar on software engineering expertise was viewed by hundreds of thousands of developers

consulting (2016) evidence
I consulted with Microsoft on their project, sharing evidence from computing education research to inform the design of their learning technologies

resource (2016-present) evidence
I write and share online books that summarize the state of knowledge in HCI and Software Engineering

resource (2016-present) evidence
I shared my practices and experiences with productivity and time management in the Changing Academic Life podcast

resource (2016-present) evidence
I share thoughts on academia and academic life on my blog, read by tens of thousands

knowledge (2016-present)
Our surveys are widely-cited and used by doctoral students to quickly learn about the state of the art and knowledge

resource (2016) evidence
Co-authored a whitepaper discussing the importance of computing education research

resource (2016-present) evidence
Since 2016 I've maintained a popular FAQ for newcomers to the community

resource (2016-present) evidence
I write blog posts on about computing education research topics are read widely amongst researchers and CS teachers

community (2016-present) evidence
As part of our research, we have taught in the University of Washington's Upward Bound program each summer, reaching dozens of students underrepresented in computing from Seattle's low-income immigrant and refugee communities

knowledge (2014-2016)
Our research on bug reporting has been read widely in industry, including by product teams at Microsoft, Adobe, Google, and ABB

product (2014-present) evidence
Gidget has been played by tens of thousans of youth adults online, in summer camps, and in high schools

product (2014-present) evidence
Gidget influenced the design of Apple's Swift Playgrounds

curriculum (2014-present) evidence
Gidget has been played by tens of thousands of youth adults online, in summer camps, and in high schools

product (2013-2020) evidence
Our research on Lemonaid, our crowdsourced help tool, was the basis for AnswerDash, a company that I co-founded with Jacob Wobbrock and Parmit Chilana that offers an instant self-service answers product for web applications and e-commerce sites. The company has impacted other company's product offerings, including Zendesk's self-service technologies. AnswerDash was acquired in 2020 by CloudEngage, a platform for customer personalization

curriculum (2013-present) evidence
Our research on programming problem solving, programming language learning, programming strategies, and debugging has shaped Code.org's teacher professional development and it's secondary school curricula, impacting hundreds of thousands of U.S. youth

curriculum (2013-present) evidence
Our research on software engineering expertise informed the curriculum at New York's Academy for Software Engineering

product (2013-present) evidence
Gidget influenced the design of Code.org's Code Studio

press (2012) evidence
NewScientist featured my work on Frictionary

press (2012) evidence
PC World featured our work on Facebook's design culture

product (2011-present) evidence
Portions of Timelapse and Scry were upstreamed to WebKit and may eventually appear in the Safari Web Inspector developer tools. These projects inspired similar features at the venture-backed startup replay.io.

press (2010) evidence
Seattle's King5 news interviewed me about software failures

product (2010-present)
Our work on interface mining has been replicated in several industry projects focused on supporting interface development

product (2010-present) evidence
My work on Barista influenced the Greenfoot editor

press (2005) evidence
PC Magazine featured my research on the Whyline debugging tool

knowledge (2005-present)
Our work on research methods is widely read by new Ph.D. students across computer science to inform how they evaluate new developer tools and how they use theory

press (2004) evidence
The Associated Press interviewed me on my dissertation work on the Whyline

product (2004-2008) evidence
Our work on end-user software engineering has inspired hundreds of commercial tools for supporting end-user programming and impacted research efforts in professional software engineering

product (2004-2008)
Our work on understanding machine learning has indirectly shaped several of the tools used in industry to develop and debug machine learned programs

product (2004-2008) evidence
Our studies on program understanding and ideas for program understanding tools was partially the basis of the Debugger Canvas plugin for Visual Studio

product (2004-2008) evidence
Frictionary was used in one of the features in AnswerDash, the company I co-founded based on my CAREER grant