About

Mark Sherman is an assistant professor of computer science at Emmanuel and director of the IDDS initiative. He believes that computing is a necessary domain for every person in society to be familiar with, just like math, history, and science. Mark received his Ph.D. in computer science specializing in CS education research at UMass Lowell, and was a postdoc researcher at MIT. He has taught students of all ages and prepared teachers of all levels. His current work focuses on the empowerment of regular people employing computing to solve problems, overcome obstacles, and create change.

As a postdoc at MIT, he continued his dissertation work in creating fine-grain instrumentation to research student learning of programming. He was part of a team at MIT developing the idea of computational action,
a theoretical platform as a superset of computational thinking, asserting that students can learn and perform when trying to solve a locally-important, real-world issue.

Mark has worked with teachers and students of all ages, helping them learn about engineering, robotics, and computer science. He has run workshops is India, China, and many sites in the US.

Mark is an Advocate for diversity in tech, mental health, LGBTQ+ rights, and Open Source. His college experience was defined by competitive ballroom dance, robots, and education research.