(Photo of Dan) Me | Travel | Schedule | Awards | Activities | Fun | Skool | 6-month Plan | Life Plan | Contact

Dr. Dan Garcia : Full Frontal Nerdity

Dr. Dan Garcia
ddgarcia@cs.berkeley.edu

There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart...pursue those.
-- Anonymous 		Dan and Yuan Garcia @ 3 years @ Jasons Wedding

Who am I? (Hi-from-Dan Sound) (short biography, curriculum vitæ)

I'm a Senior Lecturer SOE in the Computer Science division of the EECS department at the University of California, Berkeley. I graduated with a Ph.D. from the same department in May 2000, where I worked with the OPTICAL project doing Computer Graphics and Scientific Visualization. On the personal side, I'm married to the beautiful and brilliant Tao Ye and have two wonderful children: son Yuan and daughter Talia.

Teaching

In the Fall of 2013 I'll be teaching a wonderful introductory computing course: CS10 : The Beauty and Joy of Computing (chosen as one of 5 national Advanced Placement pilot courses!). We (co-PIs Lecturer SOE Brian Harvey and Prof Tiffany Barnes of NC State) just received two NSF CE21 grants to train local Bay Area teachers and 100 more nationwide in our AP CS Principles Beauty and Joy of Computing course using the awesome Snap! (Build Your Own Blocks) graphical programming environment and the Blown to Bits book.

Service

I'm deeply interested and active in computer science education, having presented at the SIGCSE annual conference every year since 2001, and was honored to be chosen an ACM Distinguished Educator in 2012. Recently, I was co-guest-editor (with Moti Ben-Ari and Tom Murphy) of the TOCE journal Special Issue on Concurrent, Parallel and Distributed Computation and served on the GRE Computer Science Committee. I currently serve on the ACM Education Board (chairing the Technology that Educators of Computing Hail [TECH] project), the College Board's AP Computing Advisory Group, and I'm actively involved with the Ensemble NSF project to create a website for computing educators. Locally, I am the Faculty Supervisor for our five summer classes, charged with hiring and nurturing the best instructors to cover our summer courses. I'm the faculty advisor for our local chapter of Eta Kappa Nu, the EECS honor society. I serve as the lead faculty advisor for BFOIT, a wonderful Berkeley outreach effort. Finally, I do everything I can to help our local CSTA chapter (CA-Golden Gate) thrive through monthly meetings I help facilitate on campus (and running CS4HS workshops every summer).

Active RAD (Research, Art & Development) Student Groups and Projects

I'm quite enthusiastic about the RAD (research, art & development) groups I advise. If you're interested in joining one of these groups (shown below), check their schedules for times and locations.

Game Theory
(GamesCrafters) 		3D Animation
(UCBUGG) 		Mac+iOS Coding
(MS-DOS X) 		BJC/EdX
Development 		CS Illustrated Ensemble
Computing Portal

(often wacky!)
(who are often wacky!)
(who are often wacky!)
(who are often wacky!)
(who are often wacky!)
(who are often wacky!)
Fall 2013 Mtgs
 MWF 11am-noon in 606 Soda
(Taught as a Decal) 		Fall 2013 Mtgs
 TuTh 7-9pm in 200 Sutardja-Dai Hall
(Taught as a Decal) 		Fall 2013 Mtgs
 MoWe 7-9pm in 200 Sutardja-Dai Hall
(Taught as a Decal) 		Fall 2013 Mtgs
 Mtg Day/Time TBA 		Fall 2013 Mtgs
 Mtg Day/Time TBA 		Fall 2013 Mtgs
 Mtg Day/Time TBA

Not-so-active recent RAD Projects

Weiner Lecture Archives (WLA) Time-lapse HD

Fall 2013 Receiving P/F credit for doing great things with Dan

Untitled Document
Who Are You? Course CCN Units
"Lab Assistant" (now called "academic interns") for CS10 or CS61C CS 97-200 (for fr/so)
CS 197-200 (for jr/sr)		 26514
26820

1 unit for every 3 hrs/wk you work
Student researcher with Dan. (E.g., ensemble, CS Illustrated, online instruction, etc.) CS 99-4 (for fr/so)
CS 199-16 (for jr/sr)
CS2 299-19 (for grads)		 26550
26892
27087		 1 unit for every 3 hrs/wk you work
A TA for CS10, CS61C, Self-paced (grads only), or student leader for UCBUGG/MS-DOS X CS399-9 27264 1 unit for every 10 hrs/wk you work

Upcoming Travel (when I'll be relatively out of touch)

* 2013-06-06 - 2013-06-07: (Week SS    RF  ) HAEF Summer School in Athens, Greece
* 2013-06-17 - 2013-06-21: (Week SS MTWRF  ) HAEF Summer School in Athens, Greece
* 2013-06-27 - 2013-06-28: (Week SS    RF  ) CS4HS 2013 in Berkeley, CA
* 2013-07-08 - 2013-07-12: (Week SS MTWRF  ) BJC @ NJ pt 2 in Newark, NJ
* 2013-07-15 - 2013-07-16: (Week SS MT     ) CSTA Annual Conference 2013 in Quincy, MA
* 2013-07-25 - 2013-07-27: (Week SS    RF  ) Scratch Conference 2013 in Barcelona, Spain
* 2013-08-05 - 2013-08-09: (Week SS MTWRF  ) BJC @ CA PD outro in Berkeley, CA

Fall 2013 Schedule

Dan Garcia : Schedule
proposed
items
in italics		 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
10:00 CS Illustrated
Staff Mtg
777 Soda

Working from home

(off-campus)

 All Classes
Office Hrs
777 Soda		 Ensemble
Weekly Call
Online

Working from home

(off-campus)

 10:00
10:30 10:30

11:00

 GamesCrafters
Meeting
606 Soda		 GamesCrafters
Meeting
606 Soda

Working from home

(off-campus)

11:00

11:30

11:30

12:00

 Faculty
Lunch
Woz		 FRABJOUS CS
Lunch Mtg
Northside

12:00

12:30

12:30

1:00

 CS10
Lecture
10 Evans		 CS10
Lecture
10 Evans

1:00

1:30

1:30

2:00 CS10
Staff Mtg
777 Soda		 Grad Student
Mtg
777 Soda

2:00

2:30

2:30

3:00

 Ensemble
Staff Mtg
777 Soda		 BJC/EdX
Mtg
777 Soda

3:00

3:30

3:30

Teaching Awards

* 2012 Chosen as an ACM Distinguished Educator (22 years after joining ACM)
* 2012 CS10 Listed as one of the famous courses at Cal (2 years after starting CS10)
* 2012 Listed as 10 Really Awesome Computer Science Professors (2 years after starting CS10)
* 2011 CS10 : The Beauty and Joy of Computing chosen as a NSF CE21 grant winner (2 years after we started offering it)
* 2011 CS10 : The Beauty and Joy of Computing chosen as a UC Online Pilot (2 years after we started offering it)
* 2010 CS10 : The Beauty and Joy of Computing chosen as one of five National Pilots for new non-majors computing course AP CS : Principles by College Board (2 years after we decided to create it)
* 2006 Highest HKN Teaching Effectiveness rating (6.7) of any EECS LowerDiv instructor, ever (2 years after the previous high mark)
* 2005 UC Berkeley Everyday / Unsung Hero (2 years after my promotion to PSOE)
* 2005 CS Division IT Faculty Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2 years after my promotion to PSOE)
* 2004 Highest HKN Teaching Effectiveness rating (6.6) of any CS LowerDiv instructor, ever (tied w/1 other) (2 years after the McEntyre Award)
* 2002 CS Division Diane S. McEntyre Award for Excellence in Teaching (2 years after my UCB CS Ph.D.)
* 1997 EECS Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor (2 years after my UCB CS M.S.)
* 1992 UCB Outstanding CS Graduate Student Instructor (2 years after my MIT CS B.S.)
 

RAD Activities (archived)

* Computer Science Education (along with course development and diversity / community outreach)
LEGEND
* Birds of a Feather
* Special Session
* Workshop
* Paper
* Poster
* Invited Talk
* Panel
2013
* Garcia, Daniel D.; Harvey, Brian; Barnes, Tiffany and Titterton, Nate Framing a Rigorous Approach to Beauty and Joy for Outreach to Underrepresented Students in Computing at Scale (FRABJOUS) (Poster), 2013 CE21 PI and Community Meeting, Portland, OR, January 15-16, 2013.
* Garcia, Daniel D.; Titterton, Nate Building the Online Community of Practice with Facilitators (Special Session), 2013 CE21 PI and Community Meeting, Portland, OR, January 15-16, 2013.
* Garcia, Daniel D. Explore and Delineate CS and Multidisciplinary Research Agenda (Workshop), CRA/CCC Sponsored Workshop on Multidisciplinary Research for Online Education, Washington, DC, February 11-12, 2013.
* Sherriff, Mark S.; Garcia, Daniel D.; and Paul, Jody Teaching Track Faculty in CS (Birds of a Feather), SIGCSE 2013, Denver, CO, March 6-9, 2013.
* Garcia, Daniel D. and Armendariz, Dan. Technology that Educators of Computing Hail (TECH): Come, share your favorites! (Birds of a Feather), SIGCSE 2013, Denver, CO, March 6-9, 2013.
* Harvey, Brian; Garcia, Daniel D.; Barnes, Tiffany; Titterton, Nathaniel; Armendariz, Dan; Segars, Luke; Lemon, Eugene; Morris, Sean; and Paley, Josh Snap! (Build Your Own Blocks) (Workshop), SIGCSE 2013, Denver, CO, March 6-9, 2013.
* Garcia, Daniel D.; Harvey, Brian; Barnes, Tiffany; Titterton, Nathaniel; Armendariz, Dan; Segars, Luke; Lemon, Eugene; Morris, Sean; and Paley, Josh AP CS Principles and The Beauty and Joy of Computing Curriculum (Workshop), SIGCSE 2013, Denver, CO, March 6-9, 2013.
* Garcia, Daniel D.; Ginat, David Demystifying Computing with Magic, continued (Special Session, ppt, pdf available) SIGCSE 2013, Denver, CO, March 6-9, 2013.
* Garcia, Daniel D.; Barr, Valerie; Guzdial, Mark; and Malan, David J. Rediscovering the Passion, Beauty, Joy, and Awe: Making Computing Fun Again, part 6 (Panel), SIGCSE 2013, Denver, CO, March 6-9, 2013.
* Garcia, Daniel D.; Moss, LTC Mark; Santiago, Nadya; Forbes, Jeff; and Gates, Ann Effective Teaching (Panel), Academic Career Workshop for Underrepresented Junior Faculty and Senior Graduate Students, Chicago, IL, April 11-14, 2013.
* Garcia, Daniel D.; Vishwanath, Venkat; Morales, Jose; and Moss, LTC Mark Alternative Careers (Panel), Academic Career Workshop for Underrepresented Junior Faculty and Senior Graduate Students, Chicago, IL, April 11-14, 2013.
* Garcia, Daniel D.; Johnson, Terry; Yamanaka, Keiko; Fitch, Todd; and Etter, Stephen. Transforming K-12 Computer Science: The Beauty and Joy of Computing (Panel), NOVUM: A New Look at Yourself, Society, and the World, Berkeley, CA, May 2, 2013.
* Garcia, Daniel D. The Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) (Week-long Workshop), HAEF Summer School, Athens, Greece, June 17-21, 2013.
* Garcia, Daniel D. and Sugden, Glenn. CS4HS @ Cal (2-day Workshop), Berkeley, CA, June 27+28, 2013.
* Garcia, Daniel D. Using Magic to Teach Computer Science (Special Session), CSTA Annual Conference, Quincy, MA, July 15-16, 2013.
2014
* Garcia, Daniel D. Transforming K-12 Computer Science: The Beauty and Joy of Computing (Keynote), The Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference 2014, Seattle, WA, February 5-8, 2014.
* Computational Game Theory (I developed Gamesman under Prof. Elwyn Berlekamp!)
* Berkeley Graphics Recreational Computer Graphics & Animation (Here is some CGI I've done with textures and icons)
* Programming Mac OS X, iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads

Fun Interests

* Heart Candy (friends)
* Tao Ye, mi amor y esposa
* Dr. Michael Rehl, my best friend (since 1977!), who's now a Walnut Creek Chiropractor!
* Family and friends, although keeping up with email is difficult
* GTAT: Angie Schuett, Drew Roselli, Dan Rice and Fielding Mellish
* Jaycito Cofresi, my second cousin from 'da Bronx
* Ronnen Levinson, my fellow upstate NYer ex-housemate
* Would you believe I'm not the only Dan Garcia!
* (Icon of CCS Alumni) Cooperstown Central School (NY) Alumni
* Eye Candy (Television and Movies)
* Thu 30 Rock
* Thu Parks and Recreation
* Thu The Office
* Anything by Aardman Animations (like Wallace & Gromit)
* Body Candy (Sports and Recreation)
* Golf! (low:93, avg:100) My swing w/iron and wood 1, 2, 3 times has changed!! I once hit two birdies!
* Ultimate
* Hoops My high school hoops team finished fourth in the state and has been inducted into the school's athletics Hall of Fame!
* Rock Climbing at the RSF, Tilden Park and nearby parks
* Softball. My ex-teams: Badness 10000 and NP Complete Idiots (who went 8-0 in league play!). I batted, uh, pretty well
* Juggling I learned to do a 5-ball cascade!
* Brain Candy (Puzzles and Games and Learning)
* Puzzles (logic, math, programming, etc.) Books, videos and CDROMs I own
* My Atari 2600, 7800 & emulators. Wanna trade carts?
* Computer Games: TIM, Firestorm, Smart Games, MacMAME.
* Ear Candy (Music and Humor)
* Listening to Monty Python and memorizing sketches
* Jazz, Salsa, Classic Rock, Folk, Rap, Classical, Opera
* Woody Allen films, books, CDs Moose Kidnapped
* Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Cheech & Chong, Eddie Murphy, Smothers Brothers, and other classic comedians
* Random comedy. (e.g. the real and faked "bambulance")
* Random Candy
* My Apple 3.0GHz 8-core 16GiB-RAM 3TB-HD Mac Pro and 3.06GHz 17-inch 8GiB-RAM MacBook Pro (Ferris Sound)
* (Icon of SPAM) SPAM (the food)
* Puerto Rico (PR Flag) ¡Soy Borinqueño (de Nueva York)... Soy ¡Nuyorican!

Education

* Fatherhood! 2005, 2009
* Ph.D. in Computer Science UCB 2000
* M.S. in Computer Science UCB 1995
* B.S. in Computer Science (VI-III) MIT 1990 (entered in Class of 1989) Baker House
* B.S. in Electrical Engineering (VI-I) MIT 1990 (entered in Class of 1989)
* N.Y.S. Regents Diploma from Cooperstown (NY) Central HS 1985
* Public Grade School Education from Public School 94 in 'da Bronx, NY (just like comedian Robert Klein!)

Six month plan

* Be a great mentor to my Master's student Dan Armendariz, Zach MacHardy, and Jonathan McKinsey.
* Teach CS10 (The Beauty and Joy of Computing) and build the world's best edX course around it.
* Polish the Technology that Educators of Computing Hail (TECH) site in Ensemble, the NSDL Computing Pathway
* Be a great EECS / CITRIS AV Czar

Life plan (Monty Python Sound)

* Be a super dad to my two children, a super husband to my wife Tao, and a super [grand]son to my [grand]parents.
* Be the best computer science instructor I can be.
* Research my family genealogy
* Reduce personal entropy.
* Break 90 on the links (previous low: 93 on par 72 course)

Dan Garcia (ddgarcia@cs.berkeley.edu) This page last modified: 2013-05-12@22:35:25 PDT
Office: 777 Soda Hall, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720-1776 (o) 510-517-4041 (f) 510-642-5775
Computer Science Dept., UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, (Bay Area)

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