Teaching the theory of computation often suffers from a disconnect between mathematical models and practical software engineering. This experience report details a classroom-tested approach refined over five years, showing how Clojure bridges that divide by enabling undergraduate CS students to build live, functional simulators for abstract machines, from basic regular expressions to finite automata and Turing machines. By shifting from dry, textbook theory to an experimental, data-driven methodology, this framework has dramatically enhanced engagement and deepened students’ architectural understanding of language semantics. Attendees will learn how Clojure’s core functional strengths turn intimidating theoretical concepts into tangible, executable code, leaving with a proven pedagogical blueprint that inspires and empowers the next generation of computer scientists and software developers.

Ariel Ortiz

Ariel Ortiz is a programming language enthusiast. Since 1994, he has been a full-time faculty member at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, where he has primarily been involved in teaching undergraduate computer science courses. His areas of interest include programming languages, compiler construction, and web development. He is an active member of the ACM’s special interest group on computer science education, SIGCSE. In 2010, he began teaching Clojure in his classes, but his experience teaching with Lisp-like languages started with Scheme over thirty years ago.