I am a Computer Science PhD student at the University of Chicago, advised by Diana Franklin. Previously, I completed a dual degree in Computer Science and Psychology from the University of Arizona. Before college, I grew up in a small moutainous town in Northwest Vietnam.

My research creates instructional technologies and resources for computer science, that enable an academically supportive and personally meaningful environment for a wider range of learners. I envision a world where every student has access to computer science instruction and is given a chance to form a personal connection to it.

My PhD work has focused on achieving this vision at the K-12 level. I work with in-service computer science educators to help them customize structured curricula to better reflect the interests, characteristics, and experiences of the students they serve. I have identified challenges teachers face in customization and co-designed with them scaffolds to support this process, built an interactive AI-powered tool that teachers can use to create customized materials for a block-based programming curriculum, and investigated how this teacher-AI collaboration shapes curriculum design and teaching practices in real classrooms.

Note: You may find me as Ngoc Minh Tran somewhere on the Internet – yes, that is my full name! But my first name is Minh – pronounced “Mink” with a silent “k”.

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Publications

* denotes equal contribution

Teachers’ Experiences Customizing Scratch Instructional Resources with an Interactive AI-Powered Tool
_{Minh Tran, Nitzan Koren, David Gonzalez-Maldonado, David Weintrop, Diana Franklin}
^{ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2027 (to appear)}

Finding Goldilocks: Exploring Teachers’ Approaches to Create Customized Materials for Use-Modify Scratch Activities
_{Minh Tran, Nitzan Koren, Elana Blinder, Jen Palmer, David Weintrop, Diana Franklin}
^{ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2027 (to appear)}

Scaffolding Teachers to Draw on Students’ Cultures and Lived Experiences to Customize Computing Resources with “About My Students” Collage Activity
_{Minh Tran, Erica Goodwin, J. Elisabeth Kasner, Jen Palmer, David Weintrop, Diana Franklin}
^{ACM Virtual Global Computing Education Conference (SIGCSE Virtual), 2026 (to appear)}

Conjuror: A GenAI-powered Tool to Support Teachers Customizing a Scratch Curriculum
_{Minh Tran*, David Gonzalez-Maldonado*, Diana Franklin}
^{ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE), 2026
Best Paper Nomination}

Can GPT Help? Supporting Teachers to Brainstorm Customized Instructional Scratch Projects
_{Minh Tran, David Gonzalez-Maldonado, Elaine Zhou, Diana Franklin}
^{ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2025}

Harmonizing Scratch Encore: Scaffolding K-8 Teachers in Customizing Culturally Responsive Computing Materials
_{Minh Tran, Heather Killen, Jen Palmer, David Weintrop, Diana Franklin}
^{ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2024}

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Teaching

Creating Computer Games for Learning
_{Position: Instructor of Record}
^{University of Chicago (Summer 2026, Pre-College Program)}

Computers for Learning
_{Position: Teaching Assistant | Instructor: Diana Franklin}
^{University of Chicago (Fall 2025)}

Inclusive Technology
_{Position: Teaching Assistant | Instructor: Marshini Chetty}
^{University of Chicago (Winter 2023)}

Object-Oriented Programming and Design
_{Position: Teaching Assistant | Instructor: Jonathan Misurda}
^{University of Arizona (Fall 2020; Spring 2021; Fall 2021)}