Education:
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, PhD Computer Science
Ateneo de Manila University, Master in Information Technology, 2014
University of the Philippines Los Banos, BS Computer Science, 2010
I am a PhD candidate at the WPI Department of Computer Science and a Visiting Researcher at the Brown University Department of Computer Science. My research and interests revolve around understanding human cognition and behavior in people’s use of computational tools and technologies. I explore people's cognitive processes and mental models about computational tools, how these mental models shape their interactions and workflows with their tools, as well as how people’s environments and contexts influence these interactions. I work with Dr. Kathi Fisler in studying programmers' cognitive processes when designing programs. I also work with Dr. Ivon Arroyo in the Advanced Learning Technologies lab in developing technology that helps learners develop computational thinking skills.
Office Location
Fuller Laboratories 314, Fuller Laboratories B17
Contact
Phone:
774-670-7329
Lab website
Research Interests
Research Interests:
Computing education
Educational technologies
Learning sciences
Human-Computer Interaction
User Research/Human-factors research
Qualitative Analytics
Scholarly Work
Scholarly Work:
Francisco Castro and Kathi Fisler. Qualitative Analyses of Movements Between Task-level and Code-level Thinking of Novice Programmers. In Proceedings of the 51st Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE). ACM 2020.
Francisco Castro. Balancing Act: A Theory on the Interactions Between High-Level Task-thinking and Low-Level Implementation-thinking of Novice Programmers. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER), pag
Francisco Castro. Towards a Theory of HtDP-based Program-Design Learning. In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER), pages 260-261. ACM 2018.
Francisco Castro and Kathi Fisler. Designing a Multi-Faceted SOLO Taxonomy to Track Program Design Skills Through an Entire Course. In Proceedings of the 17th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling), pages 10-1
Francisco Castro, Shriram Krishnamurthi, and Kathi Fisler. The Impact of a Single Lecture on Program Plans in First-Year CS. In Proceedings of the 17th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling), pages 118-122. AC
Kathi Fisler and Francisco Castro. Sometimes, Rainfall Accumulates: Talk-Alouds with Novice Functional Programmers. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER), pages 12-20. ACM 2017.
Francisco Castro and Kathi Fisler. 2016.On the Interplay Between Bottom-Up and Datatype- Driven Program Design. 47th Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. SIGCSE 2016. Memphis, Tennessee
Francisco Castro. 2016. Pedagogy and Measurement of Program Planning Skills. In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research. ICER ’16. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 273–274.
Francisco Castro, Seth Adjei, Tyler Colombo, and Neil Heffernan. 2015. Building Models to Predict Hint-or- Attempt Actions of Students. The 8th International Conference on Educational Data Mining (Madrid, Spain, 26-29 June 2015).
Francisco Castro. 2015. Investigating Novice Programmers’ Plan Composition Strategies. In Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual International Conference on International Computing Education Research. ICER ’15. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 249–250.
Regina Estuar, Dennis Batangan, Andrei Coronel, Francisco Castro, Anna Amarra, Rose Caliso, and John Vergara. 2014. eHealth TABLET: A Developing Country Perspective in Managing the Development and Deployment of a Mobile - Cloud Electronic Medical Record
Regina Estuar, Dennis Batangan, Andrei Coronel, Anna Amarra, and Francisco Castro. 2013. Bottom Up Approach and Devolved Design of a Health Information System: eHealth TABLET. Brain and Health Informatics. Lecture Notes in Computer Science.
Mercedes Rodrigo, Thor Andallaza, Francisco Castro, Marc Armenta, Thomas Dy, and Matthew Jadud. 2013. An Analysis of Java Programming Behaviors, Affect, Perceptions, and Syntax Errors among Low-Achieving, Average, and High-Achieving Novice Programmers.
Francisco Castro and Jaderick Pabico. 2013. A Study on the Effect of Exit Widths and Crowd Sizes in the Formation of Arch in Clogged Crowds. Philippine Computing Journal. Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 21-29
Francisco Castro and Jaderick Pabico. 2013. Microsimulations of Arching, Clogging, and Bursty Exit Phenomena in Crowd Dynamics. Philippine Information Technology Journal. Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 11-16. (Best Paper)