Centre for Computing Science Education

On Thursday 8 October 2026, Nicola Looker from the CCSE took part in UofG x The Provocateurs at the Stand Comedy Club in Glasgow. The Provocateurs operate in Edinburgh and Glasgow to provide a training activity for researchers looking to communicate about their research differently, particularly through comedy. The outcome is a night of stand-up routines delivered by researchers to a live audience. Each routine lasts around 15 minutes, with time for audience questions. The goal is to translate and communicate research whilst being entertaining.

To get there, Nicola applied to the programme and took part in an introductory workshop at The Stand with about 50 researchers at different career stages, from colleges across the university. The training was organised by the University’s researcher development team and led by stand-up comedian and trainer Susan Morrison. After a further workshop on stagecraft and nerves, Nicola performed in the second show, which was timed to coincide with PGR induction week.

Nicola took to the stage to share her research on programming problem solving as a practice, and what gets lost when school computing reduces it to coding someone else’s specification. She said the following of the event:

“I wanted the chance to practise talking about my research, and it was great to meet other researchers from across the university and have time to think about performing and managing the nerves. Writing the script meant drilling down to my key messages and finding a way to make them both accessible and funny. The workshops and the preparation were really helpful for this. We got a glimpse behind the scenes: people talked about their process, normalised the nerves and shared how they get round them.

"I used my own stories: my dad’s ZX81, learning to program in the 80s, finding my way back to education and ending up as a computing teacher. It took lots and lots of practice, with feedback from the other performers and the UoG team, to refine the script, memorise it and cut out the boring bits. Once you know the script, you can deviate from it, and it sounds more natural. I was last on and terrified but put the nerves aside and just told the story.

"A comedy club audience is obviously very different from an academic one, but this experience has made me much clearer about my research and helped me talk about it more easily. It was also a chance to talk about the CCSE’s work to a wider audience. I still get nervous, but at least now I have some strategies to help!”

We congratulate Nicola on exploring sharing her research through The Provocateurs. Her participation shows that there are many ways to communicate our research, which is something all researchers should be aware of and actively thinking about. It also demonstrates Nicola’s bravery to step out of her comfort zone and try to share her work in an interesting and challenging new way - well done, Nicola!

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First published: 9 October 2026