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Nicole Hutchins
Programmer
Learning Scientist
Teacher
Virgin Islander

About Me

I am driven by the goal of quality education for all. Education empowers and inclusive education better enables the development of innovative solutions for today's biggest problems. As technology rapidly advances, it is important we ensure equal opportunities for all students.

Currently, I am a Research Scientist at the Institute for Software Integrated Systems at Vanderbilt University. My research targets the development of tools to better support teachers in the complex technological ecosystems of today’s K-12 classrooms.

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Current Projects

Teacher Professional Development

Co-Designing Tools for Today's K-12 Classrooms
Computational Modeling Environments

Computational Modeling and Engineering Design in K-12 Classrooms
Socially Beneficial Coding

Coding for Good in K-12 Classrooms
CS4ALL

Computer Science for All

Resume

Education

2022
Vanderbilt University

PhD Computer Science

Dissertation: Co-Designing AI-Enhanced Educational Technologies for Today’s Dynamic Classrooms

2021
Vanderbilt University

M.S. Computer Science

2010
University of Texas at Austin

BA Humanities Honors: Economics, Politics, and Philosophy

Thesis: Social Enterprise as a Tool for Economic Development in Latin America

Experience

Vanderbilt University

Research Scientist, Institute for Software Integrated Systems

Co-PI: Co-Designing a Cognitive Teaching Assistant to Support Evidence-Based Instruction in Open-Ended Learning Environments, National Science Foundation EAGER Award #2327708

Co-PI: Betty’s Brain for the OECD Platform for Innovative Learning Assessments, Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Phase 3 Funding

(Vanderbilt) Co-PI: ALTER-Math: AI-augmented Learning by Teaching to Enhance and Renovate Math Learning, Learning Engineering Virtual Institute

Senior Personnel: NSF AI Institute for Engaged Learning

Vanderbilt University

PhD Student, Institute for Software Integrated Systems

Dissertation Research with mentor Dr. Gautam Biswas

Graduate Research Assistant on C2STEM (NSF Award DRL-1640199) with PIs: Dr. Gautam Biswas, Dr. Akos Ledeczi, Dr. Shuchi Grover, Dr. Kevin McElhaney, and Dr. Daniel Schwartz

Graduate Teaching Assistant for Program Design and Data Structures with mentor Dr. Gerald Roth

O’Reilly Media

Assessment Design Consultant

Adaptive assessment development with mentor Dr. Taylor Martin.

GHCDS

Upper School Computer Science Teacher

Classes: AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles, Intro to Programming, Robotics, Web Design, Computer Science in the Modern World (required 9th grade course)

Additional Activities: Provided professional development opportunities for Upper School faculty

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Publications

Journal Publications (Peer-Reviewed)

  1. Burriss, S., Hutchins, N.M., and Oliver, K. (under review). Redesigning an AI Bill of Rights with/for Young People: Exploring and Advocating for AI Ethics with Middle and High School Students. Computers & Education: Artificial Intelligence.
  2. Snyder, C., Hutchins, N.M., Cohn, C., Fonteles, J., and Biswas, G. (under review). Using Collaborative Interactivity Metrics to analyze students’ Problem-Solving Behaviors during STEM+C Computational Modeling Tasks. Learning and Individual Differences.
  3. Hutchins, N.M., & Biswas, G. (2023). Co-designing teacher support technology for problem-based learning in middle school science. British Journal of Educational Technology, 00, 1– 21.
  4. Zhang, N., Biswas, G., & Hutchins, N.M. (in review). The Role of Strategies in Student Learning: Measuring and Analyzing Strategic Learning Behaviors. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education
  5. Emara, M., Hutchins, N.M., Grover, S., Snyder, C., & Biswas, G. (2021). Examining Students' Regulation of Collaborative, Computational, Problem-Solving Processes in Open-Ended Learning Environments. Journal of Learning Analytics.
  6. Hutchins, N.M., Biswas, G., Zhang, N., Snyder, C., Ledeczi, A., & Maroti, M. (2020). Domain-Specific Modeling Languages in Computer-Based Learning Environments: A Systematic Approach to Support Science Learning through Computational Modeling. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 30(1), 537–580.
  7. Hutchins, N.M., Biswas, G., Maroti, M., Ledeczi, A., Grover, S., Wolf, R., Blair, K.P., Chin, D., Conlin, L., Basu, S., and McElhaney, K. (2019). C2STEM: A System for Synergistic Learning of Physics and Computational Thinking. Journal of Science Education and Technology.
  8. Vadaparampil S.T., Hutchins N.M., Quinn G.P. (2013). Reproductive health in the adolescent and young adult cancer patient: an innovative training program for oncology nurses. J Cancer Ed, 28(1), 197–208

Conference Publications (Peer-Reviewed)

  1. Hutchins, N.M., Biswas, G. (2023). Using Teacher Dashboards to Customize Lesson Plans for a Problem-Based, Middle School STEM Curriculum. Proceedings of the 13th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK 2023), Arlington, TX, USA.
  2. Hutchins, N.M., Biswas, G. (2023). Catalyzing teachers’ evidence-based responses to students’ problem-based learning in STEM. Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of the Learning Sciences – ICLS2023. Montreal, Canada: International Society of the Learning Sciences.
  3. Hutchins, N.M., Basu, S., Rachmatullah, A., McElhaney, K, Alozie, N., Mohammed, N., & Biswas, G. (2022). A technology-enhanced learning environment integrating science, computing, and engineering for upper-elementary grades. Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of the Learning Sciences. Montreal, Canada: International Society of the Learning Sciences.
  4. McElhaney, K., Basu, S., McBride, E., Hutchins, N.M., & Biswas, G. (2023). Design and Implementation of a Week-long, High School Curriculum Unit Integrating Physics and Computational Modeling. Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of the Learning Sciences – ICLS2023. Montreal, Canada: International Society of the Learning Sciences.
  5. Cochran, K., Cohn, C., Hutchins, N.M., Biswas, G., Hastings, P. (2022). Improving Automated Evaluation of Formative Assessments with Text Data Augmentation. In: Rodrigo, M.M., Matsuda, N., Cristea, A.I., Dimitrova, V. (eds) Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED 2022). Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13355. Springer, Cham.
  6. Snyder, C., Hutchins, N.M., Biswas, G., Narasimham, G., Emara, M., & Yett, B. (2022). Instructor facilitation of STEM+CT discourse: engaging, prompting, and guiding students’ computational modeling in physics. In Chinn, C., Tan, E., Chan, C., & Kali, Y. (Eds.). Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2022. Hiroshima, Japan: International Society of the Learning Sciences.
  7. Basu, S., McElhaney, K., Rachmatullah, A., Hutchins, N.M., Biswas, G., & Chiu, J. (2022). Promoting Computational Thinking Through Science-Engineering Integration Using Computational Modeling. In Chinn, C., Tan, E., Chan, C., & Kali, Y. (Eds.). Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2022. Hiroshima, Japan: International Society of the Learning Sciences.
  8. Hutchins, N.M. & Biswas, G. (2022). Teacher Noticing and Response to Students’ Computational and Engineering Design Strategies. Presented at the American Educational Research Association 2022 Symposium on AI and the Future of STEM Instruction: Designing New Models to Automate Feedback to Teachers.
  9. Snyder, C., Narasimham, G., Hutchins, N.M., Biswas, G., Yett, B. (2022). Examining how prior knowledge impacts students’ discussions and knowledge construction during computational model building. In Proceedings of the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting.
  10. Hutchins, N.M., Basu, S., McElhaney, K., Chiu, J., Fick, S., Zhang, N., & Biswas, G. (2021). Coherence across conceptual and computational representations of students’ scientific models. In E. de Vries, J. Ahn, & Y. Hod (Eds.), 15th International Conference of the Learning Sciences – ICLS 2021. International Society of the Learning Sciences.
  11. Hutchins, N.M., Snyder, C., Emara, M., Grover, S., & Biswas, G. (2021). Analyzing debugging processes during collaborative, computational modeling in science. In C. Hmelo-Silver, B. de Wever, & J. Oshima (Eds.), 14th International Conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning – CSCL 2021. International Society of the Learning Sciences.
  12. Hutchins, N., Biswas, G., Wolf, R., Chin, D., Grover, S., & Blair, K. (2020). Computational thinking in support of learning and transfer. In Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Nashville, TN, USA.
  13. Conlin, L., Hutchins, N., Grover, S., & Biswas, G. (2020). “Doing Physics” And “Doing Code”: Students’ Framing During Computational Modeling in Physics. In Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Nashville, TN, USA.
  14. Emara, M., Grover, S., Hutchins, N., Biswas, G., & Snyder, C. (2020). Examining Students’ Debugging and Regulation Processes During Collaborative Computational Modeling in Science. In Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Nashville, TN, USA.
  15. Snyder, C., Hutchins, N., Biswas, G., Emara, M., Yett, B., & Mishra, S. (2020). Understanding Collaborative Question Posing During Computational Modeling in Science. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, Ifrane, Morocco.
  16. Snyder, C., Hutchins, N., Biswas, G., Mishra, S., & Emara, M. (2020). Exploring Synergistic Learning Processes through Collaborative Learner-to-Learner Questioning. In Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Nashville, TN, USA.
  17. Yett, B., Hutchins, N., Snyder, C., Zhang, N., Mishra, S., & Biswas, G. (2020). Evaluating Student Learning in a Synchronous, Collaborative Programming Environment through Log-Based Analysis of Projects. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, Ifrane, Morocco.
  18. Yett, B., Hutchins, N., Stein, G., Zare, H., Snyder, C., Biswas, G., Metelko, M., & Ledeczi, A. (2020). A Hands-On Cybersecurity Curriculum Using a Robotics Platform. In Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) Annual Meeting, Portland, USA.
  19. Yett, B., Snyder, C., Hutchins, N.M., & Biswas, G. (2020). Exploring the Relationship Between Collaborative Discourse, Programming Actions, and Cybersecurity and Computational Thinking Knowledge. In Proceedings of IEEE TALE.
  20. Yett, B., Snyder, C., Zhang, N., Hutchins, N.M., Mishra, S., & Biswas, G. (2020). Using Log and Discourse Analysis to Improve Understanding of Collaborative Programming. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE). Best Student Paper Award
  21. Hutchins, N., Shi, C., & Biswas, G. (2019) A High School Computational Modeling Approach to Studying the Effects of Climate Change on Coral Reefs. In Proceedings of the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada.
  22. Hutchins, N., Biswas, G., Grover, S., Basu, S., & Snyder, C. (2019). A systematic approach for analyzing students’ computational modeling processes in C2STEM. In Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED 2019), pp. 116-121, Chicago, USA.
  23. Grover, S., Hutchins, N., & Biswas, G. (2019) Examining Synergistic Learning of Physics and Computational Thinking through Collaborative Problem Solving in Computational Modeling. In Proceedings of the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada.
  24. Lédeczi, Á, Maroti, M., Zare, H., Yett, B., Hutchins, N, Volgyesi, P., Broll, B, Darrah, T., Metelko, M., Smith, M., Biswas, G., & Koutsoukos, X. Teaching Cybersecurity with Networked Robots. (2019). In Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN.
  25. Snyder, C., Hutchins, N., Biswas, G., & Grover, S. (2019). Understanding Students’ Model Building Strategies through Discourse Analysis. In Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED 2019), 263-268, Chicago, USA.
  26. Snyder, C., Hutchins, N., Biswas, G., Emara, M., Grover, S., Conlin, L. (2019). Analyzing Students’ Synergistic Learning Processes in Physics and CT by Collaborative Discourse Analysis. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, Lyon, France.
  27. Hutchins, N., Biswas, G., Conlin, L., Emara, M., Grover, S., Basu, S., & McElhaney, K. (2018). Studying Synergistic Learning of Physics and Computational Thinking in a Learning by Modeling Environment. In Yang, J. C. et al. (Eds.). In Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE), Manila, Philippines, pp. 153-162. Best Student Paper Award, Nominated Best Paper Award
  28. Hutchins, N. (2018). Developing Learning Environments that Support Synergistic Learning of STEM+C. In DSC Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE), Manila, Philippines (pp. 25-28).
  29. Hutchins, N., Darrah, T., Zare, H., & Biswas, G. (2018).A DSML for a Robotics Environment to Support Synergistic Learning of CT and Geometry. Kong, S. C., Sheldon, J., & Li, K. Y.. (Eds.). In Proceedings of International Conference on Computational Thinking Education 2018. Hong Kong, 77-82.
  30. Hutchins, N., Biswas, G., Maroti, M., Ledeczi, A., & Broll, B. (2018). A design-based approach to a classroom-centered OELE. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED), London, 155-159
  31. Darrah, T., Hutchins, N., & Biswas, G. (2018). Design and Development of a Low-Cost Open-Source Robotics Education Platform. In Proceedings of the 50th International Symposium on Robotics, Munich, Germany.
  32. Hutchins, N., Zhang, N., & Biswas, G. (2017). The Role Gender Differences in Computational Thinking Confidence Levels Plays in STEM Applications. Kong, S. C., Sheldon, J., & Li, K. Y.. (Eds.). In Proceedings of International Conference on Computational Thinking Education 2017. Hong Kong, 33-38.
  33. Quinn GP, Hutchins N, Nelson A, & Vadaparampil ST. (2012). Working with expert panels to develop a training program for oncology nursing. In Proceedings of the International Cancer Education Conference, Ann Arbor, MI.

Book Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)

  1. Biswas, G. & Hutchins, N.M.. (2022). Towards a Deeper Understanding of K-12 Students’ CT and Engineering Design Processes. In Ouyang, F., Jiao, P., McLaren, B., Alavi, A. (Eds.). Artificial Intelligence in STEM Education: The Paradigmatic Shifts in Research, Education, and Technology. CRC Press.

Conference Presentations and Symposia (Peer-Reviewed)

  1. Kafai, Y., Biswas, G., Hutchins, N., Snyder, C., Brennan, K., Haduong, P., et al. (2020). Turning Bugs into Learning Opportunities: Understanding Debugging Processes, Perspectives, and Pedagogies. In Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Nashville, TN, USA.
  2. Dorsey, C., Haavind, S., Hutchins, N., & Levin, M. (2019). Computational Thinking in STEM from Preschool to High School: Research and Practice. In Proceedings of International Society for Technology in Education Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  3. Biswas, G., Hutchins, N., Lédeczi, Á., Grover, S., Basu, S. (2019). Integrating Computational Modeling in K-12 STEM Classrooms. In Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, USA.
  4. Hoppe, U., Looi, C., Biswas, G., Hutchins, N. (2018). Introduction to Computational Thinking. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers in Education, Manila, Philippines.

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Contact

nicole.m.hutchins@vanderbilt.edu