Research seminars

14 May: Stephen MacNeil, Andrew Tran & Irene Hou (Temple University)

Generative AI is changing undergraduate education; and undergraduate research too!

The advent of generative AI has triggered transformative shifts in computing education, leaving educators scrambling and students pondering their futures. Amidst this uncertainty, Stephen MacNeil and his team have observed a surge in opportunities for undergraduate involvement in research. Over the past two years, their lab has welcomed over 50 undergraduate researchers, with an impressive 73% of them co-authoring a published paper or poster. 

Engaging in generative AI research has proven cathartic for students, empowering the students with agency and the ability to shape their own futures in computing. In contrast to the uncertainty in the classroom, student researchers appear to be more confident and engaged than ever. This talk will include some of experiences and strategies that MacNeil’s team has used to involve undergraduates in computing education research focused on generative AI, while showcasing outstanding projects spearheaded by undergraduate researchers.

Dr Stephen MacNeil is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA, where he directs the Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) Lab. His work in computing education spans inclusive classroom design, scalable undergraduate research ecosystems, and generative AI in education. He has published over 15+ papers on generative AI and hosted multiple related workshops and ‘birds of a feather’ sessions at computing education conferences. 

Andrew Tran is an undergraduate student at Temple University studying computer science. Since joining the HCI Lab, he has produced 9 papers and posters about generative AI and computing education. In addition to his role as a researcher, he has participated in software engineering internships at startups and Fortune 500 companies. Andrew has held several leadership roles as President of Temple University's ACM chapter and as the Director of Temple University's annual hackathon, OwlHacks.

Irene Hou is a Research Lead at Temple University's HCI Lab. She graduated from UC San Diego with a BS in cognitive science and a minor in computer science. Her current research focuses on the intersection of generative AI, computing pedagogy, and human–AI interaction. She has received acceptance to PhD programs at UCSD, UCI, and UW, and is set to commence her doctoral studies in the fall of 2024.

11 June: Veronica Cucuiat (Raspberry Pi Foundation)

Using a feedback literacy approach, what are secondary educators’ views of LLM-generated explanations of program error messages? 

Decoding cryptic error messages can be a significant obstacle to understanding and progress for anyone new to programming, especially young people. Veronica Cucuiat has been investigating whether large language models (LLMs) could be employed to overcome this barrier.

Veronica has explored expert educators’ views of the explanations of programming error messages provided by LLMs and their suitability for secondary classroom use. In this seminar, she will report on the data gathered from interviews with educators where they used a bespoke code editor prototype to explore the LLM explanations and answered questions on these. She will contextualise educators’ views in feedback literacy theory, and will discuss how such a theory might contribute to teaching and learning of programming using LLMs.

As part of the Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre, Dr Veronica Cucuiat conducts research in the area of computer science education, using varied methodologies to explore how young people learn and engage with digital technologies, as well as the design of meaningful learning experiences. Her background is in computer science, having worked as a software developer and technical leader in the industry. Her PhD was in the area of learning analytics, where she explored ways in which data can be used to evidence the students' construction journeys when creating artefacts using physical computing kits.

16 July: Leo Porter (UC San Diego)

More information coming soon.

8 October: Juho Leinonen & Arto Hellas (Aalto University)

More information coming soon.