A Computational Fabrication Course: Exploring Philosophical Reflection, Real-World Use, Personal Expression, and Social Connection

Computational Fabrication—the creation of physical objects via programming and digital fabrication—is emerging as an important research area in human computer interaction and other computing domains. This paper describes a new semester-long course on the topic. We introduce the course and discuss emergent themes. We argue that computational fabrication can provide unique educational experiences, including opportunities for integrating computation with philosophical reflection, personal expression, real-world use, and social connection. We believe these affordances are noteworthy in the context of education, particularly computer science education, and suggest exciting research topics about the social dimensions of computational fabrication that could be explored in more depth.