Episode 11

Kelly Bodwin Quarto hacks, AI in the classroom, and why R should stay weird

In this episode, we’re joined by Kelly Bodwin — candy corn defender, board game enthusiast, and Assistant Professor of Statistics and Data Science at Cal Poly. We discuss her path from English and French to statistics, how she builds teaching tools and navigates AI in the classroom, and what it takes to keep a programming community weird in the best possible way.

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Kelly is curious, collaborative, and unafraid to lean in on quirky. Kelly shares how she balances teaching three courses with master's student supervision, applied research projects spanning Polish history and beyond, and her belief that the best part of academia is the people. We also dive into the practical and philosophical challenges of staying current in a field that reinvents itself every few years.

What's Inside:

Breakfast mixology
Building Quarto extensions with JavaScript and AI
When ChatGPT helps students learn (and when it doesn't)
Applied stats meets history: analyzing social networks from the Polish Revolution
Why remarkable, welcoming communities matter more than perfect code