Minh Tran
made with Scratch
I'm a third-year PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Chicago, advised by Diana Franklin. Previously, I graduated with a dual degree in Computer Science and Psychology from the University of Arizona. Before college, I spent my life in a small town in the mountainous Northwest region of Vietnam.
Research
“I’m afraid I know nothing about computer science…”
I’m fascinated by how kids feel when they first expose to CS in a formal setting, especially those who have no or very little personal connection to it. My research spans CS education in K-8 (ages 8-14). Through design-based research, my current work focuses on developing both psychological and practical interventions for creating localized CS learning materials that faciliate student learning while optimizing teacher workload.
Publications
* indicates peer-reviewed publications, + indicates co-first authorship
Can GPT Help? Supporting Teachers to Brainstorm Customized
Instructional Scratch Projects*
Minh Tran, David Gonzalez-Maldonado, Elaine Zhou and Diana Franklin
ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2025 - Accepted
Harmonizing Scratch Encore: Scaffolding K-8 Teachers in
Customizing Culturally Responsive Computing Materials*
Minh Tran, Heather Killen, Jen Palmer, David Weintrop, Diana Franklin
ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2024
Supporting CS Teachers to Customize Culturally Relevant
Instructional Materials: Challenges and Iteratively Designed Solutions
Heather Killen+, Minh Tran+, Jen Palmer, David Weintrop, Diana Franklin
American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting (AERA), 2024
Prompt Engineering for Large Language Models to Support K-8
Computer Science Teachers in Creating Culturally Responsive Projects
Minh Tran
ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER), 2023
Strym: A python package for real-time can data logging, analysis
and visualization to work with usb-can interface*
Rahul Bhadani, Matt Bunting, Matthew Nice, Ngoc Minh Tran, Safwan Elmadani, Dan Work, Jonathan Sprinkle
IEEE Workshop on Data-Driven and Intelligent Cyber-Physical Systems for Smart Cities, 2022
Teaching
Teaching Assistant (at UChicago):
- CMSC 20370/30370 - Inclusive Technology: Design For Underserved and Marginalized Communities (Winter 2023/2024)
Teaching Assistant (at UArizona):
- CSC 335 - Object-Oriented Programming and Design (3 semesters)