Sally A. Fincher (born 1959) is a British Computer Scientist and Emerita Professor of Computing Education at the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

. She was awarded the

Suffrage Science award The Suffrage Science award is a prize for women in science, engineering and computing founded in 2011, on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day by the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS). There are three categories of awar ...

in 2018 the SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education in 2010 and a

National Teaching Fellowship The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) is an award for excellence in teaching in higher education for teaching fellows in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. The scheme was first administered by the Higher Education Academy, wh ...

in 2005.

Early life and education

Fincher was an undergraduate student at the

, where she studied

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

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 Applied science, practical discipli ...

. She moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

for her graduate studies, where she was awarded a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree in English from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private research university in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll in 1789 as Georgetown College, the university has grown to comprise eleven undergraduate and graduate ...

Research and career

Fincher leads the

Computing Education Group. Here she has led computing education projects, including the bootstrapping research in Computer Science Education series and the UK sharing practice project. These programmes looked to identify best practise for computer science education and disseminate this information to the teaching community. Beyond innovations in computing education, Fincher studies patterns and the development of patterns for

human–computer interaction Human–computer interaction (HCI) is research in the design and the use of computer technology, which focuses on the interfaces between people (users) and computers. HCI researchers observe the ways humans interact with computers and design te ...

. She created a pattern library for

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

s for human–computer interactions.

Awards and honours

Fincher was honoured by Ann Blandford for ‘making computer science education inclusive and effective’. She served as chair of the Council of Professors and Heads of Computing (CPHC) from 2018 to 2020. Other awards include: * 2003

Mary Kenneth Keller Mary Kenneth Keller, B.V.M. (December 17, 1913 – January 10, 1985) was an American Catholic religious sister, educator and pioneer in computer science. She was the first person to earn a Ph.D. in computer science in the United States. Keller a ...

Computer Science & Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award * 2004 Honorary Doctorate from Antenor Orrego Private University * 2005 Awarded a

by the

Higher Education Academy Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) is a British charity and professional membership scheme promoting excellence in higher education. It advocates evidence-based teaching methods and awards fellowships as professional recogniti ...

(HEA) * 2009 Awarded distinguished membership of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...

* 2010

Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education The Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education award is a prize granted by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group (SIG) on Computer science education ( SIGCSE). Outstanding contributions can include curri ...

from the

(ACM) Special Interest Group (SIG) on Computer Science Education ( SIGCSE) * 2018

Selected publications

Her publications include: * ''Computer Science Education Research'' with Marian Petre * ''The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research'' with Anthony V. Robins * ''Programming Environments for Novices'' * ''Computer science project work : principles and pragmatics''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fincher, Sally Living people 1959 births British computer scientists Alumni of the University of Kent Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Academics of the University of Kent British women computer scientists