Gratitude and honor do not express my thankfulness enough to the Graduate School and the Graduate Dean’s Advisory Panel for awarding me this Finishing Fellowship. This fellowship provides me with time, and a weight off my shoulders, to effectively finish my dissertation on schedule. I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Leo C. Ureel II. Their support, guidance, expertise, patience, trust, and encouragement not only make them the best advisor, but also help me to thrive.
Michigan Tech has been my home since I started my undergraduate degree in Computer Science in Fall of 2018. Now, I am a PhD candidate in the Applied Cognitive Science & Human Factors program within the Psychology and Human Factors department. My research revolves around computer science education, often with a focus on first-year college students using an artificial intelligence tool. It is a lovely blend of my background in computer science and applied human factors with user experience and learning. It allows me to flex my programming and machine learning skills, my UI/UX designing skills, as well as my quantitative/qualitative research and statistical analysis skills.
My dissertation is focused on examining the process of computer science students’ user experience and learning while programming with an interactive, web-based tool called WebTA. This application is also referred to as a code critiquer, providing rich and immediate feedback to students on their code. This software allows students to get quality feedback at any time of day and aids instructors in managing large courses.
As I near completion of my PhD, I am excited to disseminate my work and continue my contributions to academia. I currently aim to become a professor in an interdisciplinary field with CS and HF applications.