Publications by Francesco Mondada

FADE-CTP: A Framework for the Analysis and Design of Educational Computational Thinking Problems

Francesco Mondada, Engin Walter Bumbacher, Alberto Piatti

In recent years, the emphasis on computational thinking (CT) has intensified as an effect of accelerated digitalisation. While most researchers are concentrating on defining CT and developing tools for its instruction and assessment, we focus on the charac ...

Springer Science and Business Media LLC2025

Teachers’ Perspectives on Using and Teaching Artificial Intelligence in Early Primary Education

Francesco Mondada

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into various aspects of daily life, the need for AI literacy continues to grow. Accordingly, both educators and students must develop a critical understanding of AI systems and acquire the ski ...

Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH2025

The Competent Computational Thinking Test (cCTt): A Valid, Reliable and Gender-Fair Test for Longitudinal CT Studies in Grades 3-6

Francesco Mondada, Laila Abdelsalam El-Hamamsy, Jessica Elke Dehler Zufferey, Barbara Bruno

The introduction of computing education into curricula worldwide requires multi-year assessments to evaluate the long-term impact on learning. However, no single Computational Thinking (CT) assessment spans primary school, and no group of CT assessments pr ...

SPRINGER2025

Preparing Teachers for an Equitable AI Integration in Education

Francesco Mondada

This workshop proposal aims to inform the design of teacher training on equity in the use and teaching of AI. AI is transforming both teaching practices and student learning environments and learning content. Teachers are increasingly using AI tools for co ...

Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH2025

Extending Sensory Capabilities of a Biohybrid System: Prediction of Honeycomb Fill

Francesco Mondada, Robert Matthew Mills

Interactive robotics is increasingly used to investigate animal behaviour, including communication, mating and collective dynamics. An essential component for such systems is sensing the animals and the relevant aspects of the habitat to enable coherent cl ...

IEEE2025

Architecture of a decentralised decision support system for futuristic beehives

Francesco Mondada, Robert Thomas Edmund Mills, Robert Matthew Mills

Honeybees are essential to human society, providing pollination services globally as well as producing honey and other valuable products. Effective management of apiaries should not only rely on beekeeper knowledge and skill, but also incorporate new infor ...

2024

Quantifying the biomimicry gap in biohybrid robot-fish pairs

Francesco Mondada, Vaios Papaspyros

Biohybrid systems in which robotic lures interact with animals have become compelling tools for probing and identifying the mechanisms underlying collective animal behavior. One key challenge lies in the transfer of social interaction models from simulatio ...

2024

Biohybrid Superorganisms—On the Design of a Robotic System for Thermal Interactions With Honeybee Colonies

Francesco Mondada, Robert Matthew Mills, Rafael Botner Barmak, Raphael Cherfan

Social insects, such as ants, termites, and honeybees, have evolved sophisticated societies where collaboration and division of labor enhance survival of the whole colony, and are thus considered “superorganisms”. Historically, studying behaviors involving ...

2024

How to Support Students to Cultivate Psychological Safety in their Teams

Francesco Mondada, Jessica Elke Dehler Zufferey, Yousef Jalali

The importance of psychological safety in teams has been demonstrated in different settings. Team performance improves when team climate allows team members to be their authentic selves, to ask questions and raise concerns comfortably. However, it is less ...

EPFL2024

Who's Helping Who? When Students Use ChatGPT to Engage in Practice Lab Sessions

Francesco Mondada, Engin Walter Bumbacher, Laila Abdelsalam El-Hamamsy, Jérôme Guillaume Brender

Little is understood about how chatbots powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) impact teaching and learning, and how to effectively integrate them into educational practices. This study examined whether and how using ChatGPT in a graduate-level robotics c ...

Springer Nature Switzerland2024

Predicting the long-term collective behaviour of fish pairs with deep learning

Francesco Mondada, Alexandre Massoud Alahi, Vaios Papaspyros

Modern computing has enhanced our understanding of how social interactions shape collective behaviour in animal societies. Although analytical models dominate in studying collective behaviour, this study introduces a deep learning model to assess social in ...

2024

Development of algorithmic thinking skills in K-12 education: A comparative study of unplugged and digital assessment instruments

Francesco Mondada

In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital competencies, the need for a robust and universal method to assess students’ algorithmic thinking (AT) skills has become increasingly pronounced. Algorithmic thinking refers to the ability to analyse a problem a ...

2024

A Research-Practice Partnership to Introduce Computer Science in Secondary School: Lessons from a Pilot Program

Francesco Mondada, Jean-Philippe Pellet, Laila Abdelsalam El-Hamamsy, Jessica Elke Dehler Zufferey, Barbara Bruno, Helena Kovacs

Context: Introducing Computer Science (CS) into formal education can be challenging, notably when considering the numerous stakeholders involved which include the students, teachers, schools, and policy makers. We believe these perspectives should be con ...

2023

On the use of photovoltaic modules as lightning detection sensors

Francesco Mondada, Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Mario Paolone, Rafael Botner Barmak, Hannes Kohlmann

2023

Un modèle pluraliste d’éducation numérique, l’expérience du canton de Vaud en Suisse

Francesco Mondada, Sonia Agrebi, Dominique Georges Léon Boullier, Nicolas Badoux, Frédérique Michèle Chessel-Lazzarotto, Gregory Vivian Raymond Liegeois

Le canton de Vaud en Suisse a lancé depuis 2019 un nouveau format d’éducation numérique pour tous les niveaux, de la maternelle au gymnase, qui associe étroitement informatique et sciences sociales. Dans ce compte-rendu d’expérience, nous présentons à la f ...

2023

Correction: How are primary school computer science curricular reforms contributing to equity? Impact on student learning, perception of the discipline, and gender gaps (vol 10, 60, 2023)

Francesco Mondada, Laila Abdelsalam El-Hamamsy, Jessica Elke Dehler Zufferey, Barbara Bruno

2023

Modelling the sustainability of a primary school digital education curricular reform and professional development program

Francesco Mondada, Laila Abdelsalam El-Hamamsy, Morgane Solène Denise Chevalier, Jessica Elke Dehler Zufferey, Barbara Bruno, Emilie-Charlotte Monnier

Sustaining changes in teachers’ practices is a challenge that determines the success of curricular reforms, from which Digital Education (DE) is not exempt. As the literature on sustainability is considered “scarce” and “scattered”, long-term studies model ...

2023

From teacher to teacher-trainer: A qualitative study exploring factors contributing to a successful train-the-trainer digital education program

Francesco Mondada, Laila Abdelsalam El-Hamamsy, Jessica Elke Dehler Zufferey, Caroline Pulfrey, Emilie-Charlotte Monnier, Christiane Caneva

This paper explores the experience of 14 teacher-trainers involved in a train-the-trainer digital education program in Switzerland. Data collected between August 2019 and June 2021 through focus groups and collaborative portfolios were analyzed through the ...

2023

A robotic honeycomb for interaction with a honeybee colony

Francesco Mondada, Robert Matthew Mills, Rafael Botner Barmak

Robotic technologies have shown the capability to interact with living organisms and even to form integrated mixed societies composed of living and artificial agents. Biocompatible robots, incorporating sensing and actuation capable of generating and respo ...

2023

Dataset for the evaluation of the scalability of a primary school Digital Education curricular reform

Francesco Mondada, Laila Abdelsalam El-Hamamsy, Jessica Elke Dehler Zufferey, Barbara Bruno

Corresponding article : El-Hamamsy, L.*, Monnier, E.-C. *, Chessel-Lazzarotto F., Liégeois G., Bruno, B., Dehler Zufferey, J., and Mondada, F. (2023). An Adapted Cascade Model to Scale Primary School Digital Education Curricular Reforms and Teacher Profess ...

Zenodo2023