In 2025, a group of researchers worked on extracting notional machines for data systems topics, and I was one of them. Our work was inspired by a previous working group report on notional machines by Fincher et al. We investigated fourteen textbooks and nine of our own courses to extract various analogies and visual representations from it.
The outcome of our work is another working group report named Explanations of Data Systems Concepts in CS Education: An Updated View on Notional Machines.
Currently, our notional machines are located here.
Our final report.