Karl R. Wurst, PhD

Professor of Computer Science

School of Science, Technology, and Health

Worcester State University

About

Contact
Degrees
Interests
Computer Science Department, School of Science, Technology, and Health
Worcester State University
486 Chandler St, Worcester, MA, USA 01602
Office: ST 110E
Phone: +1-508-929-8728, Fax: +1-508-929-8156
Email: kwurst@worcester.edu
I prefer to be addressed, or referred to, as "Professor Wurst" or "Doctor Wurst". My preferred pronouns are "he/him/his", although I am also fine with "they/them/their".
Software Engineering
Open Source Software
Computer Science Education
Robotics

Scholarship, Awards, and Service

Publications
Grants
Awards
Affiliations
Coming Soon...

National Science Foundation DUE-2012999, 2020-2024
Collaborative Research: Broadening Participation in Computing through Authentic, Collaborative Engagement with Computing for the Greater Good

2020 Dr. Imoigele Aisiku Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship
An Investigation of Tools and Platforms to Support Deployment of an Open Source Project to Support Campus Food Pantries
(supporting joint faculty/student summer research work)

2019 Dr. Imoigele Aisiku Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship
An Investigation of Tools and Workflows to Support Participation of Undergraduate Classes in Open Source Projects
(supporting joint faculty/student summer research work)

2017 Red Hat Honors Instructors Who Champion Open Source Education in the U.S.
Raleigh, NC — March 28, 2017 — Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today recognized 21 higher education instructors for their continuing efforts to incorporate open source philosophies, methods, and tools into their academic work. https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/red-hat-honors-instructors-who-champion-open-source-education-us
2014 George I. Alden Excellence in Teaching Award
Awarded by Worcester State University to professors who have made a difference in student's lives through their teaching excellence. Recipients have demonstrated excellence through use of effective instructional strategies, accomodation of multiple learning styles, fostering higher-order thinking among students, commitment to student success, commitment to continuously improving his/her classroom teaching, willingness to innovate or take pedagogical risks, particpation in service activities related to the improvement of education at WSU.
1995 NSF Engineering Education Scholar
Named one of the initial group of thirty-one National Science Foundation Engineering Education Scholars nationally. Participated in a week-long workshop on engineering education and its future supervised by NSF administrators and led by nationally recognized educators.
1994 Taylor L. Booth Teaching Fellow
Awarded by a UConn CSE faculty committee to the applicant with the greatest future teaching potential based on letters of support from teaching supervisors and the student's research advisor.
LibreFoodPantry open source food pantry software community
Coordinating Committee Member
Founding Trustee
Teaching Open Source (a member project of the Software Freedom Conservancy)
Project Leadership Committee Member
Northeast Region of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges
Past Regional Board Member 2001-2021
Past Webmaster and Past Deputy Webmaster
Past Conference Chair and Co-Chair
Contributor to the AMPATH Medical Records System open source software project
OpenMRS
FOSS2Serve
Worcester State University Center for STEM Research and Education
Founding Representative for Computer Science
Worcester State University Center for Teaching and Learning
Past Advisory Board Member
Co-Facilitator of the 2007 Alden Teaching Fellows
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Member
Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education
WSU ACM Student Chapter Faculty Advisor
Upsilon Pi Epsilon, International Honor Society for the Computing and Information Disciplines
Member
KISS Institute for Practical Robotics (KIPR)

Schedule

Spring 2025

Summer I

Not Available

Summer II

Not Available

Office hours are subject to change—classes will be notified of any changes.
Office hours are also available by appointment—please contact me to make arrangements.


Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
08:30 AM Research and Writing

(Not available for appointments)
Generally available

(Email me to make an appointment)
Generally available

(Email me to make an appointment)
Generally available

(Email me to make an appointment)
Research and Writing

(Not available for appointments)
09:00 AM
09:30 AM Student Office Hours
ST 110E
10:00 AM CS-448 02
Software Development Capstone
Sullivan 105
CS-448 02
Software Development Capstone
Sullivan 105
10:30 AM CS Department Meeting
11:00 AM
11:30 AM Student Office Hours
ST 110E
Not available for appointments Generally available

(Email me to make an appointment)
12:00 PM
12:30 PM < CS-448 01
Software Development Capstone
Sullivan 105
Research and Writing

(Not available for appointments)
CS-448 01
Software Development Capstone
Sullivan 105
Research and Writing

(Not available for appointments)
01:00 PM
01:30 PM
02:00 PM Student Office Hours
ST 110E
Generally available

(Email me to make an appointment)
02:30 PM
03:00 PM Generally available

(Email me to make an appointment)
03:30 PM
04:00 PM
 
Online Asynchronous (no meetings) CS-297-OL Selected Topics: Foundations of Python Programming (1 credit)

Course Information

Spring 2025
CS-297-OL Selected Topics: Foundations of Python Programming
Online Asynchronous (no meetings)
1 credit
Syllabus: Under Development
Textbook List: Proposed
OERlogo
Foundations of Python Programming
Brad Miller and Paul Resnick
Runestone Academy
Website
CS-448 01 O2 Software Development Capstone
Syllabus (On GitLab, in progress, subject to change until class begins)
Textbook List: Complete
Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman
Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye
O'Reilly Media, 2009
ISBN-13: 9780134052502
Website
Scrum: A Breathtakingly Brief and Agile Introduction
Chris Sims and Hillary Louise Johnson
Dymaxicon, 2012
ISBN-13: 9781937965044
Available as a $0.99 Kindle book
Read the whole text online here
OERlogo

We will also be using additional freely available learning resources for topics in this course.

Random

Academic Lineage
Erdös Number
Random Photos
Based on the concept that one's Ph.D. advisor is one's academic parent. An interesting exercise, but don't read too much into it. From the Mathematics Genealogy Project.

Mouse over a box for more details, click on a box to go to the full page.

The line from Ambrosius Rhodius goes back further (to include, among others, Copernicus) and I'll finish that later. I also need to do some more work to adjust the tooltip positioning.
Karl R. Wurst
University of Connecticut
2004
Robert McCartney
Brown University
1988
Eugene Charniak
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1972
Marvin Minsky
Princeton University
1954
Albert Tucker
Princeton University
1932
Solomon Lefschetz
Clark University
1911
William Story
Universität Leipzig
1875
Carl Gottfried Neumann
Universität Königsberg
1856
Wilhelm Scheibner
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
1848
Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
1825
Enno Heeren Dirksen
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
1820
Johann Tobias Mayer
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
1773
Bernhard Friedrich Thibaut
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
1796
Friedrich Julius Richelot
Universität Königsberg
1831
Otto Hesse
1840
Abraham Gotthelf Kästner
Universität Leipzig
1739
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
1765
Christian August Hausen
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
1713
Johann Christoph Wichmannshausen
Universität Leipzig
1685
Johann Andreas Planer
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 1686
Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, 1709
Otto Mencke
Universität Leipzig
1665
Jakob Thomasius
Universität Leipzig
1643
Friedrich Leibniz
Universität Leipzig 
1622
Johann Pasch
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
1683
Rudolf Jakob Camerarius
Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
1684, 1686
Michael Walther, Jr.
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
1661, 1687
Aegidius Strauch
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
1651, 1657
Johann Andreas Quenstedt
Universität Helmstedt, 1643
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 1644
Abraham Klein (Calovius)
Universität Rostock
1632
Aegidius Strauch
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
1651, 1657
Georg Calixt
Universität Helmstedt
1607
Christoph Notnagel
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
1630
Ambrosius Rhodius
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
1600, 1610
My Erdös Number is at most 5. (Which is the median value.)

Karl R. Wurst (5) → Holly Yanco (4) → Tucker Balch (3) → Mohammad Taghi Hajiaghayi (2) → Noga Alon(1) → Paul Erdös (0)
Coming soon...
My Ph.D. Dissertation as Haiku
Robot puppets act,
but the human director
will not let them be.
My M.S. Thesis as Haiku
Learning to cook means
expectation failures, but
that is how you grow.