Sofía De Jesús

Computer Science Strategy Specialist
Expanding Pathways in Computing

Email: sdejesus@tacc.utexas.edu

Sofía De Jesús, M.S. is a Computer Science Strategy Specialist for Computer Science Education at UT Austin's Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). She currently works with teachers globally, providing professional development in English and Spanish. Sofía is a leader in the Computer Educator Opportunities (CEO) Initiative, helping with the national expansion of the project. She also helps lead the AI Literacy for Innovation Growth and Networking (ALIGN) Project.

Sofía has over 25 years of experience in education, working as a mathematics, STEM, and Computational Thinking teacher with students from middle school through college. She has also worked as a Program Manager in computer science curriculum and as Editorial Director in educational publishing. Sofía has published work in Cognitive Load related to working with multilingual learners and computer science support in ACM SIGCSE, RESPECT, and EDULearn. She is the author of Applied Computational Thinking with Python, which published its second edition with PacktPub in 2023. Sofía regularly presents at national and international conferences, leading conversations in Artificial Intelligence education and research, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, supporting multilingual learners in the classroom, and accessibility in STEM and CS education. She currently serves as Board Director for Divas in Tech and is on the Advisory Board for BootUp PD and Generative Minds: The Journal for Artificial Intelligence in Education.

Selected Publications

De Jesús, S., & Martinez, D. (2023). Applied computational thinking with python: Algorithm design for complex real-world problems. Packt Publishing. Birmingham, UK.

De Jesús, S., & Martinez, D. (2020). Applied computational thinking with python: Design algorithmic solutions for complex and challenging real-world problems. Packt Publishing. Birmingham, UK.

De Jesús, S., Barnes, T., Stehlik, M., Kosbie, D., and Bozzo Cawley, E. (2025). Cognitive load and supporting multilingual learners in Computer Science K-12 Classrooms. Proceedings of the 2024 on RESPECT Annual Conference, 13–17. https://doi.org/10.1145/3704637.3734736

De Jesús, S., Barnes, T., Stehlik, M., Kosbie, D. and Bozzo, E. 2025. Cognitive Load and Supporting Multilingual Learners in Computer Science K-12 Classrooms. In Proceedings of the 2025 RESPECT Annual Conference (RESPECT 2025), July 14-16, 2025, Newark, NJ, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3704637.3734736

De Jesús, S., Barnes, T., Stehlik, M., Kosbie, D., and Bozzo, E. Cognitive Load Dilemma: Adding Language Support to CS Curriculum. Proceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/3641555.3705071

Barnes, T., De Jesús, S., Stehlik, M., Kosbie, D., and Bozzo, E. (2025). Building Bridges to Early College Success: Using Text-based Programming and Engaging Graphics to Enhance Computer Science Education. Proceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/3641555.3705062

Smith, J., Koressel, J., De Jesús, S., Kmoch, J., and Twarek, B. (2025). What Can 10k State CS Standards Reveal about Learning? A New Dataset for Investigation. Proceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/3641555.3705062

Taylor, M., Cawley, E., De Jesus, S., Stehlik, M., & Kosbie, D. (2022). CMU CS Academy: A text-based programming language approach for high school computer science education. EDULEARN22. https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2022.2184

Current Projects

  • Computer Educator Opportunities (CEO) Initiative
  • A.I. Literacy for Innovation, Growth, and Networking (ALIGN) Project
  • Texas CS Pipeline
  • Scaling Innovative Pedagogy (ScIP)

Areas of Research

  • Artificial Intelligence in education, Cognitive Load Theory in support of multilingual learners, computer science education

Memberships

  • CTSA