Kojo background, research, usage, and recognition.

Kojo has been around since late 2009. Over the past decade, it has been downloaded and used joyfully by people from all over the world. Below, you will find a number of interviews, articles, and papers based on the use of Kojo by different people in different settings over this period of time. These references provide details on the origin and history of Kojo, the pedagogical ideas behind it, its features, and its beneficiaries. They also highlight some of the human interest stories along this journey.

• 2010 - A Kojo interview with Geertjan Wielenga, a software architect at Sun/Oracle Inc., USA.
  The first Kojo interview, conducted by Geertjan Wielenga a few days after Kojo was announced to the world in February 2010. Geertjan is a software architect at Sun/Oracle.

• 2011 - A Kojo article by Martin Odersky, a German/Swiss computer scientist and the creator of the Scala programming language.
  A short note on the development of Kojo by Martin Odersky himself. Martin is a computer science professor at EPFL, Switzerland, and (as mentioned earlier) the creator of the Scala Programming Language.
  Note - EPFL is ranked #14 in the QS World University Rankings 2021.

• 2011 - A Kojo Interview with Phil Bagwell, a British computer scientist and an innovator in the area of persistent data structures for functional programming.
  A detailed Kojo interview, conducted by Phil Bagwell in 2011. Phil Bagwell was a famous computer scientist who played a big role in making functional programming practical through the idea of persistent data structures.

• 2012 - A description by Prof. Bjorn Regnell of the three-level usage of Kojo at Lund University, Sweden.
  A quick overview from 2012 on how Lund University has been using Kojo at their Science center to introduce school children to the world of programming. This is done by Lund University at three levels - during science center visits by children, during one-day summer workshops, and through teacher training and long-term school programs.
  Note - Lund University is ranked #97 in the QS World University Rankings 2021.

• 2014 - A research paper on Kojo written by Prof. Bjorn Regnell (Lund University, Sweden) and Lalit Pant (the creator of Kojo).
  This paper presents an approach to teaching programming and abstract thinking to young learners using Scala and Kojo. Kojo is an open source IDE for the Scala programming language. The approach is based on Scala APIs for turtle graphics and functional pictures, a process of interactive exploration and discovery, and structured learning material that guides learners. The approach encourages playful self-learning of basic programming principles such as sequential execution, repetition, primitives, composition, abstraction, parametrized abstraction, and nested abstractions. It also includes tools to help children read and understand programs. Results from the use of Kojo and Scala in the teaching of young learners in Sweden and India are presented, along with a discussion of experiences and future development.

• 2014 - A Kojo interview with Deepthi Shankar of Thoughtworks, Inc.
  Another detailed Kojo interview, conducted in 2014 by Deepthi Shankar of Thoughtworks, Inc.

• 2014 - Phil Bagwell Award at the annual Scala Days conference.

• 2017 - A Kojo interview with Lightbend, Inc., USA
  This interview provides a quick history and overview of Kojo, and has information on some of the big users of Kojo and their experiences with Kojo. It also talks about the reasons for using Scala as the programming language in Kojo.

• 2020 - A techgig article on programming languages invented by Indian technologists.

• 2021 - Inclusion of Kojo in the Goa coding curriculum.
  The linked curriculum doc has details on how Kojo is meant to be used in grades 7th and 8th. Just search for “Kojo” to quickly get to the Kojo related info.

• 2022 - A list of the top 50 entrepreneurs of Uttarakhand.
  The Kojo work is featured at #23 in the list.

• 2024 - A Kojo usage case study.
  This was done by students Priya Tyagi and Arnab Samanta from IMT Ghaziabad, under the guidance of Kogics Foundation Trustee Vibha Pant, for our partner REACHA.