We are delighted to announce two Tinker Fellows in 2025. The theme for this year’s Robert F. Tinker Fellows Program, which aims to promote innovation, creativity, and cross-disciplinary conversations, focuses on innovations in artificial intelligence, data science education, and STEM models and simulations.

• Devan Walton plans to develop a prototype interface that reimagines how students and AI can collaboratively explore data science concepts through direct manipulation.
• Andrew Ross plans to create tools for multivariate data investigations in CODAP, including a matrix-of-scatterplot tool and potential tools for a correlation matrix and multiple regression.

Devan Walton teaches computer science courses as an Adjunct Instructor at both Boston College and Middlesex Community College. He holds an M.A. in Learning Engineering from Boston College and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University at Albany.

Devan’s journey into education began with “a fascination for human-computer interaction and a curiosity about how people think and reason.” At the intersection of technology and learning, he “discovered the transformative potential of tools that empower students to engage deeply with complex ideas.” As a member of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education Open Education Resources Council, Devan is a vocal advocate for designing AI-enhanced learning environments “that prioritize collaboration, equity, and student agency.”

Devan describes his admiration for CODAP’s interface, which “invites users to explore not just data, but the stories behind the data, fostering a sense of curiosity and discovery.” As a Tinker Fellow, Devan plans to build on this legacy of creating tools that make abstract concepts tangible and manipulable by prototyping a representation-first AI interface that shifts the focus from text-based interactions to collaborative, hands-on exploration of data.

Devan will collaborate with Leslie Bondaryk, Concord Consortium’s Chief Technology Officer, who has recently overseen work focused on the use of artificial intelligence applications, including in projects to develop an AI assistant that enables blind and low-vision students to explore data, use AI to rank students’ mathematics proportional reasoning in open-ended work, and create an AI mentor to guide engineering students.

Devan believes that emerging technologies, such as AI, can empower students to confront challenges that feel monumental and uniquely their own—“moments,” he says, “where learning approaches the sublime.”

Outside the classroom, Devan enjoys birding, a hobby that he says has taught him patience and a deeper appreciation for the natural world. While he jokes that he’s not great at identifying birds, he admits to “finding joy in the quiet moments of observation and reflection that birding brings.” (We have several avid birders at the Concord Consortium. We look forward to sharing observations.)

Andrew Ross is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Eastern Michigan University (EMU). Andrew studied mathematics as an undergraduate and holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, but you could say he’s been surrounded by the field of mathematics his whole life. According to his mother, a former community college math professor, he “crawled around” her office while she was in graduate school. And if he took his first steps there, he continued by following in his mother’s footsteps. He laughs that he’s “very happy that it worked out.”

At EMU, he and Professor Stephanie Casey have incorporated CODAP in their Statistics course for future teachers. They start by assigning the “Getting started with CODAP” tutorial, then include CODAP for exploratory data analysis, linear regression, and categorical association in later parts of the course materials. The class also leverages materials they wrote as part of the MODULE(S2) project. Andrew is happy to report, too, that he has used CODAP “by student request!” in his Mathematical Modeling class.

Andrew is excited about how technology is “making it easier for students to do analysis that will help them improve the world around them.” He’s also excited that many people are trying to get into the habit of asking “Who or what has been left out of this dataset or modeling effort?” in order to identify stakeholders and collaborate with them.

In his free time, Andrew likes to “collect open browser tabs with interesting articles” that he hopes to read—if he ever has any free time. (We sympathize! There are at least a few tab hoarders on staff here, too.)

As part of his Tinker Fellowship, Andrew plans to create tools for multivariate data investigations in CODAP, including a matrix-of-scatterplot tool and potential tools for a correlation matrix and multiple regression. Andrew will collaborate with Concord Consortium president and Data in Space and Time Principal Investigator Chad Dorsey and research associate Kate Miller.