Research -- Amber Settle


Amber Settle		Associate Professor

Research interests

I am the director of the Innovation in Technology Education Center (iTec), which started as Educational Research Group. I am the PI on an NSF-funded project on Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum. I am also a member of the Theoretical Computer Science Group.

Areas of interest
	distributed algorithms
	cellular automata
	applications of reasoning about knowledge to distributed systems
	information retrieval
	information technology education, including game development and design and computational thinking

I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chicago in 1999. My advisor was Janos Simon. The work for my Ph.D. thesis focused on the firing synchronization problem.

From June 2002 - June 2003 I served as Todd Bittner's advisor as he completed his Master thesis.

Publications

Journals

A. Settle and C. Settle, Distance Learning and Student Satisfaction in Java Programming Courses. In the Journal of Universal Computer Science, 13(9): 1270 - 1286, 2007. http://www.jucs.org/jucs_13_9/distance_learning_and_student
Dettori, L. and Settle, A., Course Mentoring: Toward Achieving Consistency in the Curriculum. In Information Systems Education Journal 3(25), http://isedj.org/3/25/. ISSN: 1545-679X, 2005. Originally appeared in ISECON 2004: Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference, Newport, Rhode Island, 2004.
Berthiaume, A., Bittner, T., Perkovic, L., Settle, A., Simon, J., Bounding the Firing Synchronization Problem on a Ring. Theoretical Computer Science 320(2-3): 213-228, 2004. (ScienceDirect reference)
Settle, A., Berthiaume, A., Lulis, E., Mirza, A., Informed Discussion in Information Technology Survey Courses. In Information Systems Education Journal 1(6), http://isedj.org/1/6/, ISSN: 1545-679X, 2003. Originally appeared in ISECON 2003: Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference, San Diego, California.
Settle A. and Berthiaume, A., Debating E-commerce: Engaging Students in Current Events. In Journal of Information Systems Education 14(3): 279-285, 2003. (Word document) Originally appeared in ISECON 2002: Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference, San Antonio, Texas.
Settle, A. and Simon, J., Smaller Solutions for the Firing Squad. Theoretical Computer Science 276(1): 83-109, 2002. (Postscript, PDF)
Kulyukin, V. and Settle, A., Ranked Retrieval with Semantic Networks and Vector Spaces. In the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 52(14): 1224-1233, 2001. (Word document)

Refereed conference proceedings

J. Linhoff, and A. Settle, Motivating and Evaluating Game Development Capstone Projects, To appear in ICFDG 2009: The International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, Disney Wonder, April 2009.
J. Linhoff and A. Settle, Teaching Game Development Using XNA, In ITiCSE 2008: The 13^th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, Madrid, Spain, June 30 - July 2, 2008.
A. Settle, J. Linhoff, and A. Berthiaume, A Hybrid Approach to Projects in Gaming Courses, In GDCSE 2008: Microsoft Academic Days Conference on Game Development in Computer Science, Celebrity Century, February 28 - March 3, 2008. (PDF)
Perkovic, L, and Settle, A., Computing Branches Out: On Revitalizing Computing Education, In FECS 2007: The International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering, Las Vegas, NV, June 2007. (PDF)
Settle, A., Burke, R., and Dettori, L., Game Design and a Writing Course in the Liberal Arts, In FECS 2007: The International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering, Las Vegas, NV, June 2007. (PDF)
Settle, A., and Settle, C., Graduate Student Satisfaction with an Online Discrete Mathematics Course. In CCSC-MW 2005: The Consortium for Computing Science in College: Midwest Region Conference, Decatur, Illinois, September 2005.
Marrero, W. and Settle, A., Testing First: Emphasizing Testing in Early Programming Courses. In ITiCSE 2005: 10^th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, Monte da Caparica, Portugal, June 2005. (PDF)
Berthiaume, A., Perkovic, L., Settle, A., and Simon, J., New Bounds for the Firing Squad Problem on a Ring, In SIROCCO 9: Proceedings of the 9th International Colloquium on Structural Information and Communication Complexity, Andros, Greece, pp. 17-31, Carleton Scientific, June 2002. (Postscript, PDF)
Settle, A. An Introductory Course in an Undergraduate E-commerce Technology Degree Program. In ISECON 2001: Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, November 2001. (Word document, ECT 250 Web site).
Settle, A. and Simon, J., Improved Bounds for the Firing Synchronization Problem. In SIROCCO 5: Proceedings of the 5th International Colloquium on Structural Information and Communication Complexity, Amalfi, Italy, pp. 66-81, Carleton Scientific, June 1998. (Postscript, PDF)

Refereed conference panels

Curzon, P., Peckham, J., Taylor, H., Settle, A., and Roberts, E., Computational Thinking (CT): On Weaving It In, To appear in ITiCSE 2009: The 14th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science, Paris, France, July 2009. (PDF, Slides)
Astrachan, O., Hambrusch, S., Peckham, J., and Settle, A., The Present and Future of Computational Thinking, In SIGCSE 2009: The 40th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Chattanooga, Tennessee, March 2009.
Nelson, Bhagyavati, Miles, Settle, Shaffer, Watts, and Webber, Online Teaching Practices (Both Best and Worst), In CCSC-SE 2005: The Consortium for Computing Sciences in College: Southeastern Region Conference, Hickory, North Carolina, November 2005. (Presentation)

Workshop presentations

Computational Thinking Panel, CPATH NSF Workshop, November 2008. (Slides)

Technical reports

A. Settle, W. Marrero, and C. Settle, Preliminary Results with a Targeted Online Java Course, College of Computing and Digital Media Technical Report 08-005, DePaul University, August 2008.
Settle A. and Settle, C., Distance Learning and Student Satisfaction in Java Programming Courses, School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems, DePaul University, November 2005.
Berthiaume, A., Perkovic, L., Settle, A., and Simon, J., Firing Synchronization on the Ring, School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems, DePaul University, January 2002.
Kulyukin, V. and Settle, A., On the Equivalence of Semantic Networks and Vector Spaces under Ranked Retrieval, School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems, DePaul University, November 1999.
Settle, A., New Bounds for the Distributed Firing Synchronization Problem (Ph.D. thesis), Computer Science Department, University of Chicago, February 26, 1999.
Settle, A., and Simon, J., Non-Minimal Time Solutions for the Firing Synchronization Problem, Computer Science Department, University of Chicago, August 25, 1997.
Settle, A., A Symmetric Nine-State Automaton for the Generalized Firing Synchronization Problem, Computer Science Department, University of Chicago, May 2, 1997.
Kimmel, P. and Settle, A., Reducing the Rank of Lower Triangular All-Ones Matrices, Computer Science Department, University of Chicago, November 6, 1992.

Presentations

A Hybrid Approach to Projects in Gaming Courses, At the Microsoft Academic Days Conference on Game Development in Computer Science, Celebrity Century, March 2008.
Computing Branches Out: On Revitalizing Computing Education. At the International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering, Las Vegas, Nevada, June 2007.
Game Design and a Writing Course in the Liberal Arts. At the International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering, Las Vegas, Nevada, June 2007.
Testing First: Emphasizing Testing in Early Programming Courses. At the Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, Monte da Caparica, Portugal, June 2005.
Informed Discussion in Information Technology Survey Courses. At the Information Systems Education Conference, San Diego, California, November 2003.
Debating E-commerce: Engaging Students in Current Events. At the Information Systems Education Conference, San Antonio, Texas, November 2002.
New Bounds for the Firing Squad Problem on a Ring, At the 9^th Colloquium on Structural Information and Communication Complexity, Andros, Greece, June 2002.
An Introductory Course in an Undergraduate E-commerce Technology Degree Program. At the Information Systems Education Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, November 2001.
Improved Bounds for the Firing Synchronization Problem. At the 5^th International Colloquium on Structural Information and Communication Complexity, Amalfi, Italy, June 1998.

Grants

CPATH CB: Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum. Budget: $245,068. Dates: July 2008 � June 2010. Co-PI: Ljubomir Perkovic.
Microsoft XNA lab grant. Budget: approximately $15,000 including 20 XBox 360s, 20 XNA Creator�s Club Memberships, and funds for the purchase of switchable composite/DVI input monitors for CDM labs and faculty participants. Date: Summer 2007. Co-PI: Joe Linhoff.