Diana Franklin is an Associate Professor in Computer Science. Her research agenda explores ways to create curriculum and computing environments in ways that reach a broad audience for both computer science and quantum computing. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, NCWIT Faculty Undergraduate Mentoring Award, four teaching awards, and four best paper awards (ICER ’20, ICER ’17, IPDPS ’14, and Computing Frontiers ’13).
Franklin received her Ph.D. from UC Davis in 2002. She was an assistant professor (2002-2007) and associate professor with tenure (2007) in Computer Science at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, during which she held the Forbes Chair. From 2008-2015, she was tenured teaching faculty at UC Santa Barbara. Upon joining UChicago, she was Director of Computer Science Education at UChicago STEM Education from 2015-2020. Her research interests include computing education research, quantum computing education research, and ethnic and gender diversity in computing. She is the author of “A Practical Guide to Gender Diversity for CS Faculty,” from Morgan Claypool.
Research
Focus Areas: Computer Science Education, Quantum Computing Education
I am focused on three overall areas at this time. First, I am interested in how students learn computer science concepts, especially at the elementary school level. In particular, I explore how to create learning strategies, curriculum and development environments that can reach a broad spectrum of learners, including students from underrepresented ethnic and gender populations and students struggling academically. Second, I am advising graduate students who are exploring how to improve instruction of theoretical computer science subjects such as discrete math and algorithms. Finally, I am exploring how to convey quantum computing concepts in an intuitive way, minimizing the physics and mathematics required to understand them. My research is housed in the CANON (Computing for ANyONe) Research Lab.
