Hey, I'm Bridger! I'm a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Computer Science department at Carleton College. I earned my Ph.D. in the Interactive Visualization Lab at the University of Minnesota with Professor Daniel F. Keefe. I use he/they pronouns.
My current research bridges the gap between physical and digital spaces using a combination of extended reality and digital fabrication technologies. Specifically, I build creative extended reality visualization solutions to make multivariate spatial or spatiotemporal data more graspable: both more comprehensible and more tactile.
Besides my research, I have a passion for teaching. I believe that computer science students are poised to change the world, and I believe that computer science educators to not only help students acquire a world-class technical skillset but also to develop the kindness, empathy, and compassion to remember that every piece of code they write may have real-world repercussions that reach far beyond their own lives. In my current teaching at Carleton College, I incorporate practices rooted in Universal Design for Learning and I focus on hands-on learning to provide students opportunities to practice their problem solving, as well as design and programming skills.
This is the blurb that I copy/paste into forms requesting a bio in the third-person:
Bridger Herman (he/they) is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the
Computer Science department
at
Carleton College.
He earned his Ph.D. in the University
of Minnesota's
Interactive Visualization Lab,
working with
Daniel F. Keefe.
Bridger is an enthusiastic computer science educator with a keen interest in
helping people navigate their first computer science experiences to become
thoughtful and critical contributors to a rapidly evolving field with worldwide
impacts. Their research evolves at the intersection of
extended reality visualization,
data physicalization
, and
creativity support tools
, to facilitate more useful, deliberately designed interactions between humans,
computers, and data. Beyond academics, Bridger can generally be found outside
running, cycling, hiking, skiing, or rock climbing, and they enjoy attending
jazz concerts and playing percussion for local music ensembles in their free
time.
Check out some of my work below!
