Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider

Teaching Professor, Computer Science

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Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider

Hi, nice to have you here!

My name is Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider -- I am faculty in the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois (UIUC). My passion is at the intersection of systems, data, and creating tools to nerd out with both systems and data -- particularly through interactive tools and data visualizations. In my work, I work to educate, encourage, and inspire you to change the world.

I hope you'll stay and nerd out! Here's a few places to get started:


The Latest!

January 21, 2025 — New Visualizations: Trends in High School GPAs

As part of University of Illinois' "Love Data Week" celebrations, I put together a visualization to answer a question I have had for several years: "What is the trend of high school GPAs among admitted freshman, and has COVID-19 changed that trend?"

Nerd out with me exploring the data about the high school GPAs of the incoming freshman classes across Big Ten Universities:

November 4, 2024 — GPA Visualizations + Dataset Updates

The GPA Visualizations have all been updated for Spring 2025 registration: 🎉

July 3, 2023 — National Leadership in Data Science Education Supporting a Significant Visible Social Impact

"Projects chosen [...] demonstrate the spirit of collaboration, innovation and immense promise to impact our campus community and beyond."

The vision and initial work on Data Science DISCOVERY was selected as one of the campus-wide 2024 Investment for Growth projects, and I'm honored to have the support of campus as we continue to grow Data Science at Illinois!

January 23, 2023 — Interview with Illinois Alumni Magazine

"Ten years from now, things we can’t even imagine will be commonplace because of data science."

Late last year, I sat down with Mary Timmins with the Illinois Alumni magazine! Check out her profile of my work in the article "Data Driven" that appears as part of the In Class section of the Winter 2022 Illinois Alumni Magazine!


Teaching

I believe that education should be available and accessible. To the further extent possible, my teaching at Illinois has been archived online and open for anyone to nerd out. You can find links to my courses dating back to 2013:


Visualization Systems

Most of my scholarly work is exploring engagement through data visualization systems and similar art, and much of this work is done in collaboration with undergraduate students and faculty from other domains. If I have done a good job, you'll be able to spend hours nerding out with data in these visualizations:


Projects and Software

Beyond data visualizations, I work on open source tools and software to make life a bit nicer, easier, or more enjoyable. A few recent tools:


Impact

I have been able to share data and knowledge with many through the use of my tools, talks and workshops at conferences, and more.


Contact Information

The best way to reach me is by e-mail (waf@illinois.edu). Alternatively: