Saturdays with CSIL — How Undergraduates are Transforming CS Education for Local High School Students

Many people know of the Computer Science Instructional Laboratory (CSIL), located on the first floor of the John Crerar Library, as a hallmark of the University of Chicago’s Department of Computer Science. CSIL is also one of the only general-access computer labs on campus. Since 1985, CSIL has provided various computing services to students, faculty, staff, and university affiliates, from hardware and software support to mini-course instruction. Other than Cosmos Boekell, the director of CSIL, the rest of CSIL is staffed by undergraduate student workers. In addition to supporting curricula, providing computing resources, and creating an incubatory space for staff, CSIL also prides themselves on their computer science outreach programs, which contribute to the departmental Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) plan. Three programs that CSIL conducts that are in line with BPC are the Youth Internship Program (YIP), part of The Office of Civic Engagement, Saturdays with CSIL, and the Adult Digital Literacy 101 program, which provides basic computer literacy for senior citizens. CSIL believes that much of computer science has become a societal literacy and that intergenerational education is needed to foster greater competency.

When Bhakti Shah ‘24 brought her vision to Cosmos during the pandemic in Spring Quarter of 2022, CSIL was still formulating the pedagogy and curricula for adults and youth programming. By Spring Quarter of 2023, CSIL conducted its first two Adult Digital Literacy 101 workshops at Chicago’s Southeast and Southwest Senior Centers, respectively. By Autumn Quarter of 2023, CSIL was able to realize its first two pilots of Saturdays with CSIL and offer two areas of study — Programming Languages Theory, developed by Shah and Introduction to Machine Learning with Python, developed by Naryna Azizpour ‘26. The third and most recent installments of these courses were taught by Hadrian Reppas ‘26 (Programming Languages), and by Hung Le Tran ‘26 (Intro to Machine Learning). These courses underwent over a year of iterative refinement to get to where it is today.

“The first pilot started as an adult literacy program, and we did these programs at Chicago’s Southeast and Southwest Senior Centers,” Boekell recalled. “In the summer of 2023, Bhakti proposed doing something similar for youth. Saturdays with CSIL started with two one-off courses. We did seventh through twelfth grade and realized that we might have cast too wide of a net. We refined it and restricted it to ninth through twelfth grade. The second installment was in the spring quarter — we turned it into a four-Saturday sequence instead of just the one-offs we conducted the first time.”

Saturdays with CSIL was attended by students from a range of high schools, primarily in the neighboring areas that may not have the same exposure to computer science as other Chicago schools, such as John F. Kennedy High School, Lindblom Math & Science Academy, and Simeon Career Academy. The sequenced format allowed the program to cover more material and improved retention for students who attended regularly. In addition to being completely free-of-charge, these courses, especially the Programming Languages Theory course, emphasized a prerequisite of having no prior experience with writing code.

“Bhakti was really, really passionate about the programming languages course,” Boekell said. “In fact, the prerequisite was that you had no prior experience. She really wanted to take students who didn’t already have someone with a pedagogy telling them how to learn these concepts. Since many programming concepts are largely abstract to the common person, it’s important to consider how someone might access this knowledge, especially when you give them their first impression. Sometimes people can be intimidated and we definitely don’t want to scare someone away from the topic.”

By this fall, the third installment of the program had 50-60 people on the waitlist, demonstrating its success after several rounds of improvement. Boekell plans to continue refining and improving the Saturdays with CSIL program and is looking at ways to increase funding for this and their various other initiatives. Next quarter, they will continue their adult literacy programs.

CSIL is always looking for ways to improve their existing programs or develop new ones. In addition to their educational outreach programs, CSIL has a wonderful space on the first floor of the John Crerar Library that is a great resource for access to hardware, studying, and collaboration. Boekell urges students to utilize the space and to reach out with any ideas. Their doors are open to everyone, regardless of their background or exposure to computer science.