As technology advances, the difference in cost and technical specifications between proprietary devices used in professional settings and education grows. We present the OpenFlexure Microscope, a locally manufacturable and 3D-printed, brightfield microscope as a solution to bridge the gap between teaching equipment and the devices medics are expected to use throughout labs around the world. The OpenFlexure Project develops all the hardware, software and documentation for education across all levels and disciplines. A locally manufacturable and affordable digital microscope allows pathologists to image and practice on local samples - something that is key to medical education - whilst also breaking down international barriers through collaborative initiatives such as the School of Open Pathology which seeks to connect pathologists around the world. High schools are becoming more invested in interdisciplinary projects across all age groups and the OpenFlexure Microscope gives students the opportunity to learn about biology, engineering, physics and computing science all in the same package. We have run workshops for high school science teachers around Glasgow, Scotland where we have shown them how to build the microscope and discussed challenges of integrating our microscope into a classroom environment.
GNU Octave is programming language intended for numerical computations. Often quoted as the MATLAB open-source clone or alternative, Octave has been in constant development for more than three decades already. Hundreds of engineering departments worldwide and tens of thousands of student have benefited from this free and open source software. Traditionally, Octave has been primarily targeting engineering applications due to its advanced computational capabilities with multidimensional arrays. Complementary to the core Octave capabilities, there has been Octave Forge, which for a long time served numerous packages extending Octave functionality for various domain-specific engineering applications. Since 2022, there has been a shift towards expanding the Octave ecosystem beyond engineering applications. This coincided with the development of Octave Packages, a new package indexing system that facilitates the development and integration of Octave package within the Octave ecosystem. This shift is most prominent by the recent advancements of the statistics package as well as a number of other packages focused on data analysis and visualization. This talk aims at a concise presentation of the current state of the Octave ecosystem with a special attention to the educational aspects and its benefits for educators and students alike. The talk will focus on statistics and data analysis with GNU Octave, and discuss its educational benefits in these two widely popular fields. https://octave.org https://gnu-octave.github.io/packages/ https://github.com/gnu-octave/statistics https://github.com/pr0m1th3as/datatypes
Processing is one of the most widely used open-source tools for creative coding and computer science education. Since its first release in 2001, it has helped millions of students, artists, and designers learn programming through visual and interactive projects. It has been used in classrooms, art installations, interactive media, and data visualization worldwide. Processing popularized the term creative coding and helped establish it as a field that bridges art, design, and computer science.
The values that shaped Processing (accessibility, creativity, and democratization) remain essential, but the context has changed. Computer science education is dealing with rapid shifts in technology and society and today’s learners encounter a software ecosystem dominated by opaque but tantalizing systems and automation. This raises new questions: What does it mean to learn to code today? Can we re-imagine coding tools in a way that preserves learner agency, curiosity, and critical thinking? Could creative coding hold some of the answers?
In this talk, we’ll share what we’re learning as stewards of Processing and how these efforts invite us to rethink creative coding’s role in the future of computer science education.
More about Processing:
While "AI" is all the rage in current educational debates, the associated skills are mostly about prompting chat bots and generally becoming a productive user of commercial offerings. This talk will introduce new approaches to educate learners about the algorithms that make up modern AI systems, specifically neural networks, how to build them from scratch using free and open source materials, how to use them to diagnose data sets and enhance your personal projects, and how to form an informed critical and skeptical competence towards them.
Execubot (execubot.fr) is an open-source serious game designed to help students learn Python. It also offers a collaborative environment where both students and teachers can create and submit custom levels. Execubot can be used independently by learners or integrated into the classroom, with teacher-controlled settings that adapt the experience to specific learning objectives.
Hedy is an open-source programming language designed to make programming easier for children. It’s also easy for teachers without a technical background to adopt. Hedy bridges the gap between block-based tools like Scratch and text-based programming in Python.
In this talk, we’ll explore how Hedy gradually introduces programming concepts in three stages: Basic, Advanced, and Expert. Across 16 levels, learners progress from simple print statements to fully functional Python code. We’ll share how teachers around the world use Hedy in classrooms, how our global translator community has made Hedy available in over 40 languages, and how open-source collaboration drives its continuous evolution.
You will gain insight into Hedy’s design principles, pedagogical impact, and the challenges that come with developing an educational programming language. Whether you’re an educator, developer, or open-source contributor, come see how Hedy lowers the barriers to programming and inspires the next generation of coders!