Empowering future professionals through data: Rethinking computing education for real-world impact
How can computing education equip future professionals to engage with complex, real-world challenges? Raechel Walker, a PhD student in MIT Media Lab’s Personal Robots Group, presents a novel approach called liberatory computing, which rethinks how data science is taught, centering storytelling, community collaboration, and real-world relevance. This approach, used in two programs in the Boston area, advanced high school students’ technical proficiency and deepened their ability to work across disciplines, connect with broader societal contexts, and communicate insights.