David J. Malan () is an American computer scientist and professor. Malan is a

Gordon McKay Gordon McKay (1821–1903) was an American businessman and philanthropist. Biography He was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He was trained as an engineer, worked on a railroad, and then on the Erie Canal before he purchased a machine shop. ...

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, and is best known for teaching course

CS50 CS50 (Computer Science 50) is an on-campus and online introductory course on computer science taught at Harvard University and Yale University. In 2016, CS50 became available to high school students as an Advanced Placement Computer Science course ...

, (abbreviation of Computer Science 50) which is the largest open-learning course at

and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

and the largest Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) at EdX, with lectures being viewed by over a million people on the edX platform up to 2017. Malan is a faculty member at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, where his research interests include

cybersecurity Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...

digital forensics Digital forensics (sometimes known as digital forensic science) is a branch of forensic science encompassing the recovery, investigation, examination and analysis of material found in digital devices, often in relation to mobile devices and comp ...

botnets A botnet is a group of Internet-connected devices, each of which runs one or more bots. Botnets can be used to perform Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, steal data, send spam, and allow the attacker to access the device and its conn ...

computer science education Computer science education or computing education is the art of teaching and learning the discipline of computer science, and computational thinking. As a subdiscipline of pedagogy it also addresses the wider impact of computer science in socie ...

distance learning Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

collaborative learning Collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together.Dillenbourg, P. (1999). Collaborative Learning: Cognitive and Computational Approaches. Advances in Learning and Instruction Series. New ...

, and

computer-assisted instruction Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...

Education

Malan enrolled at

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

, initially studying government, and took CS50 in the fall of 1996, which was taught by

Brian Kernighan Brian Wilson Kernighan (; born 1942) is a Canadian computer scientist. He worked at Bell Labs and contributed to the development of Unix alongside Unix creators Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. Kernighan's name became widely known through co- ...

at the time. Inspired by Kernighan, Malan began his education in computer science, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in Computer Science in 1999. After a period working outside of academia, he returned to

postgraduate studies Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and struc ...

to complete a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...

degree in 2004, followed by a PhD in 2007 for research into

and computer forensics, supervised by Michael D. Smith.

Teaching

Malan is known for teaching

, “the more time students spend thinking about getting an A, the less time they're thinking about what it is they should be learning.” quoted from Lee Cuba at Wellesley College an introductory course in

for majors and non-majors that aims to develop

computational thinking Computational thinking (CT) is the mental skill to apply concepts, methods, problem solving techniques, and logic reasoning, derived from computing and computer science, to solve problems in all areas, including our daily lives. In education, CT ...

skills, using tools like Scratch, C,

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

, SQL,

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaSc ...

and

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...

. the course has 800 freshman and sophomore students enrolled at

each year, making it the largest course there. CS50 is available on edX as CS50x, with over a million views from the lectures. His courses on EdX are known by being taken by people of all ages. All of his courses are freely available and licensed for re-use with attribution using

OpenCourseWare OpenCourseWare (OCW) are course lessons created at universities and published for free via the Internet. OCW projects first appeared in the late 1990s, and after gaining traction in Europe and then the United States have become a worldwide means ...

, for example at cs50.tv. CS50 also exists as CS50 AP ( Advanced Placement), an adaptation for

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

s that satisfies the

AP Computer Science Principles Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science Principles (also known as APCSP) is an AP Computer Science course and examination offered by the College Board to high school students as an opportunity to earn college credit for a college-level computing ...

of the College Board. Besides CS50, Malan also teaches at

Harvard Extension School Harvard Extension School (HES) is the extension school of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school is one among 12 schools that grant degrees and falls under the Division of Continuing Education in the Harvard Faculty of Art ...

and

Harvard Summer School Harvard Summer School, founded in 1871, is a summer school run by Harvard University. It serves more than 5,000 students per year. History Harvard Summer School was founded in 1871. It is the first academic summer session established and the ol ...

. Prior to teaching at Harvard, Malan taught mathematics and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

at Franklin High School and

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

Career and research

During 2001 to 2002 he worked for AirClic as an

Engineering Manager Engineering management is the application of the practice of management to the practice of engineering. Engineering management is a career that brings together the technological problem-solving ability of engineering and the organizational, admini ...

. While undergoing his undergraduate studies, Malan worked part-time for the District Attorney's Office in

Middlesex County, Virginia Middlesex County is a county located on the Middle Peninsula in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,625. Its county seat is Saluda. History This area was long settled by indigenous peoples; those encount ...

as a

forensic investigator Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and crimina ...

, after which he founded his own two startups. On the side since 2003, he volunteered as an

emergency medical technician An emergency medical technician (EMT), also known as an ambulance technician, is a health professional that provides emergency medical services. EMTs are most commonly found working in ambulances. In English-speaking countries, paramedics a ...

(EMT-B) for

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

- Emergency Medical Services (EMS). He continues to volunteer as an EMT-B for the American Red Cross. Malan founded and was the chairman of Diskaster, a data recovery firm that offered professional recovery of data from hard drives and memory cards, as well as forensic investigations for civil matters. Malan worked for Mindset Media from 2008 to 2011 as Chief Information Officer (CIO), where he was responsible for advertising the network’s scalability, security, and capacity-planning. He designed infrastructure for collection of massive datasets capable of 500 million

HTTP request The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, w ...

s per day, with peaks of 10K per second. In 2011,Warren, Christin
"Meebo Acquires Ad Targeting Company Mindset Media"
" Mashable", 08 February 2011. Retrieved on 17 May 2017. Mindset Media was acquired by

Meebo Meebo (often stylized as meebo) was an instant messaging and social networking service provider. It was founded in September 2005 by Sandy Jen, Seth Sternberg, and Elaine Wherry, and was based in Mountain View, California. Initially the company o ...

. Malan is also an active member of the

SIGCSE SIGCSE is the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) Special Interest Group (SIG) on Computer Science Education (CSE), which provides a forum for educators to discuss issues related to the development, implementation, and/or evaluation of c ...

community, a Special Interest Group (SIG) concerned with Computer Science Education (CSE) organised by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malan, David J. Computer scientists Computer science educators John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty Chief information officers Living people Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Harvard Extension School faculty Date of birth missing (living people) American computer scientists