Voices in Tech: From Code to Comics — A journey in creativity, curiosity, and learning to think in patterns (virtual)

This webinar tells the story of how a simple visual thinking approach — fractal gridding (FG) —can transform the way we learn, create, and teach computer science. Through a personal journey that begins with a first college coding class and evolves into publishing an educational comic book, this session explores how creativity and computation can work hand in hand.

What to expect

Participants will see how FG was used to make complex computer science ideas more accessible, from developing coding skills to designing and sharing CS concepts through comics. The webinar also highlights how this approach extended into the classroom, shaping the way a computer science course was taught, and how it continues to support deeper computational thinking today.

Who should attend

Whether you’re an educator, student, or simply curious about new ways to approach learning, this talk offers an engaging look at how structured thinking can inspire creativity and make computer science more approachable for everyone.

Learn how thinking in patterns can unlock both creative expression and problem-solving skills.

This virtual Voices in Tech Series event is presented by The Tech Collective.

Speaker highlights

Ecy Femi King is a data scientist at McGraw Hill and an award-winning comic book author. She creates educational STEM comics using her signature fractal grid storytelling style — a narrative method she pioneered based on the fractal gridding method invented by her father.

She’s author of the award-winning “Bit by Bit: A Graphic Introduction to Computer Science” (Stanford University Press) as well as “Una Kushε,” and has created comics in collaboration with CMU CS Academy and as a Harvard GSE Digital Thriving Fellow. Her work has been used to train Stanford TAs and been recognized for innovation by Fast Company, the NYC Department of Education, and Stanford Magazine.

She graduated from Stanford University with a BS with Distinction in SymSys (Human-Centered AI, 2023) and an MS in Computer Science (HCI, 2024). At her 2023 graduation, she and her first educational comic were shouted out by the Stanford University President during the university’s official commencement address. At Stanford, she was a three-time class president, writer for the Stanford Daily, and member of the Stanford Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Deeply involved in Stanford’s CS teaching community (CS198), she served as Head TA for the introductory CS class, TA’d for several years, instructed a CS lab, trained incoming TAs, and has taught coding internationally with initiatives such as JamCoders.

Part of a father-daughter duo, Ecy gives talks on international stages with her dad on fractal gridding, STEAM, computer science, visual thinking, storytelling, and sketchnoting.

She was born in Scotland and raised in California’s Central Valley (Fresno/Clovis), and her family is from Sierra Leone. She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and enjoys doodling, writing, coding, pan-Africanism, visual thinking, music, puns, joyful conversations, and of course, fractal gridding everything and anything she can. Learn more about fractal gridding adventures.