Developing digital skills in young people is a key priority for the UK government and is crucial for the country’s future preparedness. A team of leading academics have established the Computing Education Research Centre (CERC) at King’s College London, to launch on 2 May, which connects expertise in education, computing, robotics and digital humanities to help meet this challenge.

CERC is the first interdisciplinary hub focused entirely on research within computer education and brings together prominent specialists in three different university departments. Its research will impact and inform computer science education in the UK and worldwide. This ambitious new venture addresses the need for more research in the broad area of computing, incorporating departments of education, informatics, digital humanities and business.  

Sue Sentance, from the School of Education, Communication & Society, will be co-leading the Centre:

‘’Research into computer science education is urgently needed, particularly at school level where Computing has become a part of the national curriculum in England, and this has been highlighted recently by The Royal Society's report: After The Reboot. I am delighted to be working across disciplines with so many esteemed academics in this new Centre.”

CERC is led by Dr Sue Sentance, Prof. Michael Kölling, and Dr Mark Coté from the departments of Education, Communication and Society (ECS), Informatics and Digital Humanities respectively.

All team members have strong academic reputations in their fields: Professor Michael Kölling received the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) SIGCSE (Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education) Award for Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education in 2013. Dr Elizabeth Sklar has worked for many years in robotics education and Professor Lulu Healy brings her interests in developing technological solutions to promote inclusion. Dr Sue Sentance was recently awarded the BERA/SAGE Public Engagement and Impact award.

 “CERC is an excellent opportunity to improve the teaching of computing through novel, interdisciplinary and well-grounded research. I look forward to collaborating with academics across the college as well as with our external partners…,” says Dr Steffen Zschaler, a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science who will contribute to the centre’s research.

Research will focus on and interweave three different areas: Programming and Robotics, Digital Equity and Data & Education. CERC will additionally be working with external partners from Queen Mary University of London and Computing at School.

For more information on CERC and its activities contact us at cerc@kcl.ac.uk. 

Register for the launch event here.