Professor of an unusual subject

Ben Schafer, an associate professor of computer science, hasn’t always taught in a university setting. After he graduated from the University of Northern Iowa, he was a middle school math and science teacher.

“Middle school is an awkward time for kids,” he said. “Middle school was rough on me. I think that in the end, this made me a better teacher. I saw myself in a lot of students.”

While teaching, Schafer worked on educational media software for four years. He then decided to go back to school for computer science at the University of Minnesota.

Schafer made the initial decision to study computer science so he would have a broad range of opportunities when writing basic software on contract.

“I was always going to have a difficult time getting taken seriously beyond that basic level because I didn’t have formal training in computer science.”

Schafer is very enthusiastic about how people interact with computers and software.     

“Computers are fantastic tools that can and have changed the way we go about our daily lives.” He firmly believes that people should know about programming so they can work better with tools that are available.

On the other hand there is a lot of bad software. “There is an interesting set of dynamics between what people think they are asking the computer to do and what it often ends up doing,” said Schafer.

After teaching college Schafer realized that sometimes teaching college students isn’t much different from teaching middle school.

“There are days when my students want to be treated like the young adults that they truly are, and deserve that respect, but there are days where you have to sit them down and say ‘if you want to be treated like an adult than you need to act like one’,” he said.

When it comes to teaching, his area of expertise is introductory courses, teaching students who are just beginning to program computers. He also works with artificial intelligence. As far as research goes, Schafer works with recommender system technology, which is something that helps computer users find items that might interest them. Schafer strongly believes that computer science is very important and it would be useful in all subject areas.  

An interesting hobby Schafer has outside of the classroom is brewing his own beer at home.

“I started out just curious about the brewing process itself. It turns out to such an incredibly easy process to begin with,” said Schafer.

He’s even tried brewing beer with blueberries and beer with Mountain Dew in it.

Brewing beer has taught Schafer to respect what he drinks and to appreciate beer for the interesting and complex drink that it is.

“It’s incredibly cheap and easy to get started, but it can turn into an addictive and expensive hobby,” says Schafer. He has taught three classes on home brewing and hopes to be teaching a fourth adult home brewing class at Hawkeye Community College.

Schafer also spends time traveling with his family. He especially likes exploring small-town Iowa. Schafer says he’s been all over Iowa, but he and his family have focused on the Northeast part of the state.

“My kids love it,” he said. “My oldest daughter loves to get out maps and guide books and help me plain where we might go and what we might do.”

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