I direct the Code & Cognition Lab.
My lab includes students from The Information School,
The Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, the College of Education, and occasionally other units on campus. I run the lab in a doctoral
student-centered manner: students define their own projects within the scope
of my interests, and often move me into new research areas.
- Our weekly lab meetings are open to any doctoral students or postdocs
at UW.
- Read our lablets page for details on how we
engage undergraduates in research.
- Read our onboarding document for context on ever-evolving culture of the lab.
I work hard to be a better mentor and advisor every year. In fact, in 2021,
my students nominated me for the Marsha L. Landolt Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award, and I won one of two honorable mentions. I guess I'm doing something
right?
Current UW Ph.D. student? Lurk in
#codeandcognitionlab
on ComputingEd@UW Slack. DM or email me about your interests. I'm always open to chatting,
collaborating, serving on committees, and when I have capacity, advising.
You're also welcome to visit any of our lab meetings. Check out our lab
calendar (linked above) to see when we're meeting.
Future UW Ph.D. student?
Read my CER FAQ and recent publications to ensure we share interests. Don't write me to ask if I'm admitting
students in the coming year; I'm always considering new students unless
this page says otherwise. Don't ask me to evaluate your CV; I don't have
time to evaluate your application twice; do write if you
have specific questions about my lab's recent research. Apply to the iSchool or CSE in Autumn.
Current UW undergrad or masters student?
Read about engaging in undergrad research. If that sounds interesting, read about my lab's
undergraduate/masters Wordplaypen,
and follow the instructions there to join. I also recruit for
full-time summer research assistants in Winter through the DUB REU program.
Current Postdocs
Jean Salac
postdoc
2022 - present
Jean is interested in justice-focused computing education for youth, namely how youth can learn to examine technology's role in their lives and society and how educators can support this learning process. Current Advisees
Mara Kirdani-Ryan
phd
2018 - present
Mara is a PhD candidate in Computer Science and Engineering. They utilize techniques from sociology to surface cultural norms within computing, as well as techniques from social work to deconstruct these norms so that computing might act as a force for collective liberation. Alannah Oleson
phd
2018 - present
Alannah is a PhD candidate in the Information School. They study educational interventions to support critical and ethical software design processes, with a particular focus on countering design bias and marginalization. Jayne Everson
phd
2020 - present
Jayne is a PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering. She studies the implicit assumptions in classrooms that prevent belonging in CS. Rotem Landesman
phd
2021 - present
Rotem is a PhD student in the Information School. She studies ways to measure youth wellbeing in digital spaces, as well as how we can support youth to critically examine technology’s role in their lives using a philosophical lens. She is co-advised by Katie Davis. Eman Sherif
phd
2022 - present
Eman is a PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering. She is interested in broadening participation in computing through social justice oriented curricula. Megumi Kivuva
phd
2022 - present
Megumi is a PhD student at the iSchool studying justice-centered CS education. Lena Armstrong
undergrad
2022 - 2023
Lena is a computer science and cognitive science double major at the University of Pennsylvania. She is interested in improving CS education and mitigating algorithmic bias to create more inclusive and meaningful experiences with technology. Camilo Montes de Haro
undergrad
2023 - present
Camilo is an undergraduate student at Bellevue College. He is interested in broadening participation in CS by leveraging and innovating new technologies. Affiliated Ph.D. students
Kelly Mack
phd
2022 - present
Kelly (she/her) is a PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering exploring how to make accessible technology to support people with disabilities, especially in the context of higher education. Yim Register
phd
2018 - present
Yim is a PhD student in the Information School, broadly interested in machine learning literacy. Before joining UW, they studied cognitive science at the University of Rochester. Faculty Collaborators
This isn't a complete list of collaborators, just those I've gotten
around to adding.
Brett Wortzman
faculty
2018 - present
Brett is faculty in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering where he often teaches CSE 142. We often collaborate on studies we run in his class. Jason Yip
faculty
2018 - present
Jason is my colleague in the iSchool where he studies collaborative learning in families. We collaborate on research related to CS and design learning. Min Li
faculty
2017 - present
Min is faculty in the College of Education where she studies educational measurement and psychometrics. We collaborate on research related to assessment. Katie Davis
faculty
2017 - present
Katie is my colleague in the iSchool where she studies new media in young people's personal, social, and academic lives. Anne Beitlers
faculty
2016 - present
Anne is faculty in the College of Education. We often collaborate on teacher education research, teaching, and administration. Thomas D. LaToza
faculty
2004 - present
Thomas is faculty at George Mason University's Department of Computer Science. We've collaborated heavily on methods, programming strategies, and tools. Former Ph.D. students
Leah Perlmutter
phd
2022 - 2023
Leah worked with Amy as a PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering at UW. She is now an Assistant Professor at Grinnell College. She is interested in post-secondary CS education, including TA practices, emotion while programming, sociotechnical topics in CS curricula, CS identity construction, and CS culture. Stefania Druga
phd
2019 - 2023
Stefania Druga a Ph.D. candidate in the Information School. Studies computer-supported creative coding for youth and the design of AI literacy tools and resources for Families. She is co-advised by Benjamin Mako Hill. Benjamin Xie
phd
2016 - 2022
Benji was a PhD student in the Information School, and briefly a postdoc in the lab. He designs interactions with data that support their interpretations and uses for equity-oriented goals. Greg Nelson
phd
2016 - 2021
Greg was a PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering. He studied HCI and computing education broadly, specifically on programming language learning and assessment. Kyle Thayer
phd
2015 - 2020
Kyle was a PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering, co-advised by Katharina Reinecke. His dissertation investigated barriers to learning to code knowledge through bootcamps, developed a novel theory of API knowledge, and contributed a new way to mine the web for API usage patterns. He is now a Lecturer at the University of Washington Information school, where he continues investigating the intersection of diversity and computing education as a teacher and researcher. Dastyni Loksa
phd
2013 - 2020
Dastyni was a Ph.D. student in the the Information School. His dissertation focused on problem solving in programming, with a particular focus on self-regulated learning, spanning the fields of HCI and computing education. After graduating, he joined as tenure-track faculty at Towson University, teaching CS and preparing CS teachers. Amanda Swearngin
phd
2015 - 2019
Amanda was a Ph.D. student in Computer Science & Engineeering. Her dissertation contributed design tools that leverage program analysis, program synthesis, constraint solving, and machine learning. She is now a Research Engineer at Apple in Accessibility and Machine Learning. Zakariya Dehlawi
phd
2014 - 2018
Zak was a Ph.D. student in the the Information School, co-advised by Amy Ko and Barbara Endicott-Popovsky. He received his Master of Science in Security Informatics from Johns Hopkins in 2011 and bachelor degrees in Computer Engineering and Political Science from the University of Washington in 2009. His research focused on security practices in software teams and organizations. After leaving the Ph.D. program, he worked as Senior Security Engineer at Security Innovation, Inc. Paul Luo Li
phd
2009 - 2016
Paul Luo Li was a Ph.D. student in the Information School at the University of Washington, advised by Amy. His dissertation work focused on software engineering expertise. After graduating, Paul continued his full-time role as a Senior Data Scientist at Microsoft. Michael J. Lee
phd
2009 - 2015
Michael Lee was a PhD student in the Information School at the University of Washington, advised by Amy Ko. His dissertation work focused on educational programming games, and game design factors that affect learning and engagement. After graduating, Mike began as an Assistant Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Information Systems. BJ Burg
phd
2011 - 2015
BJ was a Ph.D. student in the CSE Department at the University of Washington, co-advised with Mike Ernst. Her dissertation focused on web development productivity tools to support debugging, program comprehension, and reverse engineering tool. After graduating, BJ joined Apple's WebKit team. Parmit K. Chilana
phd
2008 - 2013
Parmit K. Chilana was a PhD student at the Information School co-advised by Jake Wobbrock. Her dissertation focused on crowdsourced help systems and organizational factors in gathering and understanding user feedback about software. After graduating, Parmit began as an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo. Casey Hickerson
phd
2009 - 2010
Casey was at the iSchool briefly and studied design practices. Former Affiliated Ph.D. students
Mina Tari
phd
2018 - 2022
Mina was a PhD student in the Information School exploring women of color's experiences in introductory computing courses. She's a homegrown UW student, coming from the Informatics and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies programs. Mina works with Amy and the lab to apply a critical feminist lens to questions regarding equity in computing education. Laura Vonessen
phd
2018 - 2019
For her qualifying exam, Laura led a project on faculty professional development for teaching accessibility, sponsored by AccessComputing, with help from Saba Kawas. Matt Davidson
phd
2017 - 2022
Matt was a doctoral student in the College of Education. He studied how to use process data to make assessments more equitable and informative. Annie Yan
phd
2016 - 2021
Annie is a Ph.D. student in the Information School working with Carol Palmer. Annie worked with Amy on predicting dropout in a coding tutorial. Ada Kim
phd
2016 - 2018
Ada was a Ph.D. student in the Information School working with Katie Davis. Ada worked with Amy on a pedagogical analysis of coding tutorials as part of a research practicum. Saba Kawas
phd
2016 - 2022
Saba was a PhD student in the Information School working with Katie Davis. Saba worked with Amy on a nationwide survey of the teaching of accessibility in higher education in the United States. Chenglong Wang
phd
2015 - 2021
Chenglong is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science & Engineering, interested in interactive program synthesis. Rahul Banerjee
phd
2015 - 2020
Rahul worked in the Center for Game Science and has worked with the lab on programming by demonstration systems for creating interactive games. Kristen Shinohara
phd
2008 - 2017
Kristen was a PhD student advised by Jake Wobbrock and Wanda Pratt. She worked with Amy multiple times as a teaching assistant, and later on nationwide survey of higher education instruction on accessibility. She graduated in 2017 and joined the faculty at Rochester Institute of Technology. Kayur Patel
phd
2007 - 2012
Kayur Patel was a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Washington, co-advised by James Fogarty and James Landay. His dissertation focused on tools for supporting the development of machine learned classifiers. Former Postdocs
Roshanak Zilouichian
postdoc
2015 - 2016
Roshanak was a postdoc in the lab working on collaboration, consensus, information visualization, and creativity support tools. After completing her postdoc, she began as a Data Scientist at Microsoft. Former Masters
Brian Chan
masters
2020 - 2022
Brian is a BS/MS student in Computer Science and Engineering interested in making algorithm visualization easier to incorporate into lectures. Former Undergrads
Audrey Le Meur
undergrad
2022
Audrey is a Computer Science major at the University of Minnesota Morris. She is interested K-12 and undergraduate CS education as a tool for broadening participation in computing. Specifically, she studies pedagogy and curriculum to improve self-efficacy and belonging, and pathways to teaching K-12 CS. Jared Lim
undergrad
2022 - 2023
Jared is an Informatics undergraduate in his 3rd year at the Information School. He is interested in improving access to CS education and in establishing a critically conscious pedagogy. Paul Pham
undergrad
2022 - 2023
Paul is an Informatics and Education, Communities, and Organizations double major. He is interested in the intersection between critical, justice-oriented pedagogy and CS education to better understand how to make it more accessible and equitable to learn. Fee Christoph
undergrad
2021 - present
Fee is an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, finishing up her degrees in Computer Science and Interarts Performance. She is interested in interdisciplinary education, and the ways in which diverse fields of study can enhance and complement one another. Some of her main focuses include broadening participation in computing, empowering students to critique the current state of computing, and collaboratively imagining alternatives to computing. Ashley Wang
undergrad
2021 - present
Ashley was an undergraduate in Design, interested in designing tools that emphasize equity and accessibility. They helped create illustrations and design language for the Critically Conscious Computing book. Jessie Huynh
undergrad
2021 - present
Jessie is an undergraduate in the Design division in the School of Art + Art History + Design, and contributes to the STEP CS book. Chris Perdriau
undergrad
2020 - 2021
Chris is a CS student at Oregon State University studying HCI and psychology. He is interested in making technology more inclusive for underserved communities. Anael Kuperwajs Cohen
undergrad
2020 - 2021
Anael is a CS and applied mathematics and statistics double major with a cognitive science concentration at Macalester College. She is interested in breaking down barriers for women and other minorities within the field of CS by pursuing a career in CS education. Jenny Liang
undergrad
2020 - 2021
Jenny was an undergrad studying computer science and informatics. She worked with Amy to study how to use explicit programming strategies to improve collaboration and learning of developers. Emilia Borisova
undergrad
2020 - present
Emilia was an undergraduate student pursuing Informatics and helped with Mara's research on understanding the personal and interpersonal factors influencing computing career choices. Chandrashree Karnani
undergrad
2019
Chandrashree is studying data science in the Informatics program. She's interested in how data can be used to make informed decisions. She's helping with Yim's work on machine learning literacy. Zoshua Colah
undergrad
2019
Zoshua is an Informatics major specializing in UX Design and Data Science who spends his time helping freshman and sophomore students learn more about tech. Christina Zhang
undergrad
2019
Christina is an undergraduate majoring in Computer Science and Informatics. She's working on supporting research on intelligent programming tutors. Meron Solomon
undergrad
2019 - present
Meron is an undergraduate who helped design and teach an innovative new computing course to Upward Bound students in 2019. Patrick Old
undergrad
2018 - 2019
Patrick was an undergraduate studying Informatics and Oceanography. He worked on a project to observe his growth as a teacher via participant observation. Anne Drew Hu
undergrad
2018 - 2020
Anne Drew was a CS & Education double major interested in pedagogical techniques and student motivation in CS Ed. He's now a Ph.D. student at Michigan State University's College of Education. Jane Quichocho
undergrad
2018 - 2019
Jane helped the lab on various learning to code projects. William Kwok
undergrad
2018 - 2019
William is an undergraduate in the Information School. He supported the lab's research on programming tutors by advancing design, development, instruction, and ideation relation to expressing agency when learning computing online. Harshitha Akkaraju
undergrad
2018 - 2019
Harshitha is an undergraduate in the Information School. She supported the lab's research on programming tutors by advancing design, development, instruction, and ideation relation to expressing agency when learning computing online. Alex Tan
undergrad
2017 - 2018
Alex is an Informatics undergraduate in computing education. He supported the lab's research on programming tutors. Harrison Kwik
undergrad
2016 - 2018
Harrison was an undergraduate in computer science interested in equitable learning of computing. He's supported the lab's research on programming tutors while independently investigating the experiences of CS transfer students. After graduating, he began a Ph.D. at Northwestern University. Leanne Hwa
undergrad
2016 - 2018
Leanne was an Informatics undergraduate interested in computing education, mentorship, and identity. She supported the lab's research on programming tutors while independently investigating the role of informal computing mentors amongst south Seattle teens. William Menten-Weil
undergrad
2016 - 2017
Liam was an Informatics student who helped design and engineer our work on programming problem solving tutors, focusing specifically on an advanced tutorial authoring interface. Dakota Miller
undergrad
2016 - 2017
Dakota was an Informatics student who helped design and engineer our work on programming problem solving tutors, focusing specifically on an advanced tutorial authoring interface. Alexandra Rowell
undergrad
2016 - 2017
Alex was an Informatics student who helped design and engineer our work on programming problem solving tutors, focusing specifically on how to present expert identity. Staffan Hellman
undergrad
2014 - 2015
Staffan was an Informatics student who helped engineer Gidget. He went on to work at Weebly. Steven Raden
undergrad
2014 - 2015
Steven was an Informatics student who helped design and engineer Gidget. He went on to work at IBM as a UX designer. Polina Charters
undergrad
2013 - 2014
Polina was a Psychology student who helped develop many of the instruments for our studies of Gidget, and also ran a study evaluating attitude shifts among adults who played Gidget. She went on to our Masters in HCI+Design. Fanny Luor
undergrad
2013 - 2014
Fanny was a Design student who illustrated all of the art for Gidget. She went on to design and illustrate at Airbnb and Dropbox. Nadav Ashkenazi
undergrad
2013 - 2014
Nadav was a Computer Science and Informatics student who helped engineer Gidget. He went on to Google to help build Earth VR. Michael Beswetherick
undergrad
2012 - 2013
Michael helped engineer Gidget while an Informatics undergrad. He now helps engineer NY Times. Andre Stackhouse
undergrad
2012 - 2013
Andre helped engineer Gidget while an Informatics undergrad, then at Code.org. He now helps engineer Bing at Microsoft. Padma Vaithyam
undergrad
2012 - 2013
Padma was an Informatics student who helped design and engineer Gidget. She went on to Microsoft as a software engineer. Diana Jiang
undergrad
2012 - 2013
Diana was an Informatics student who helped design and engineer Gidget. Xing Zhang
undergrad
2011 - 2012
Xing was an Electrical Engineering student that helped evaluate Feedlack, our verification tool for finding missing feedback in interfaces. Stephen Ip
undergrad
2011 - 2012
Stephen was an Informatics student who helped with our studies of bug triage. Charlie Tran
undergrad
2011 - 2012
Charlie was an Informatics student who helped with our studies of bug triage. He went on to become a program manager at Microsoft. Valentina Ferrari
undergrad
2011 - 2012
Valentina was an Informatics student who helped with our studies of bug triage. She went on to become a UX designer at Adobe. Neeraja Duriseti
undergrad
2010 - 2011
Neeraja was an Informatics and Applied Math student who helped analyze a corpus of tens of thousands of news articles about software failures. Bryan Dosono
undergrad
2010 - 2011
Bryan was an Informatics student who helped analyze a corpus of tens of thousands of news articles about software failures. He went on to do a Ph.D. in Information Science at Syracuse University.
To the extent possible under law,
Amy J. Ko
has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to the design
and implementation of
Amy's faculty site. This work is
published from the
United States. See this site's GitHub repository to view source and provide feedback.