Portrait of Dr. Vicki Almstrum

Dr. Vicki Almstrum

  • Asst Professor of Instruction at Computer Science, College of Science & Engineering

Biography

Vicki Almstrum was born in Nebraska and grew up there and in Arizona. She earned two post-secondary degrees from Arizona State University (B.A. Math Education and M.A. Mathematics), then worked in industry for 8 years (Motorola in the Phoenix area then Philips Electronics in Järfälla, Sweden). After living in Sweden for four years, she moved back to the United States and earned two degrees at the University of Texas at Austin (M.S. in CS and Ph.D. in CS education). Since graduating, she has been on the faculty for two departments at The University of Texas at Austin (Computer Sciences and Electrical Engineering), the Department of Computer Systems at Uppsala University in Sweden, the Game Developer degree program for DeVry University in Austin, TX, and Strayer University in Austin, TX. Her professional interests include research into how people learn and teach topics in computing, methods for capturing the history of the computing field, and actions needed to attract and retain underrepresented groups in STEM areas.

Research Interests

Research into learning and teaching computer science topics; methods of historical preservation and presentation

Teaching Interests

Software Engineering; Computer Ethics; Research Methods; Computer Science Education Research