I am a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at NC State University, advised by Tiffany Barnes and Dongkuan (DK) Xu. I expect to graduate in May 2027 and am on the 2026–27 faculty job market.
More help isn’t always better, but less help isn’t always the answer either. I’ve seen both in my studies: AI responses that give students too much of a solution, and programming scaffolds that help beginners do better. My research seeks to understand when and why support helps students learn, and how to design educational tools accordingly.
I develop AI-powered tools for computing education and evaluate them in real classrooms. I also study how students, educators, and software developers use and shape AI, as well as the challenges novice programmers face and the scaffolding that supports their learning. My work draws on human–computer interaction, computing education, and AI. I combine system building, mixed-methods research, educational data mining, and participatory design.
My long-term goal is to advance human–AI co-intelligence, in which people guide what AI contributes while AI helps them accomplish more and build their own knowledge and skills.
Designing the GenAI Help Learners Receive
I designed and deployed MerryQuery, used by 750+ students across three semesters, to study AI assistance in computing classrooms. HelpLens compares the instructional choices in teaching-staff and LLM responses to authentic programming questions.
- MerryQuery AAAI 2025 · Best Demo
- HelpLens: teaching-staff and LLM responses In preparation
GenAI in the Hands of Students, Developers, and Teachers
Through ExLAIM, I lead K–12 teachers and undergraduate developers in co-designing classroom AI tools. I also interviewed industry developers about how they evaluate and integrate AI-generated code.
- ExLAIM: teachers and developers building together Submitted to CHI
- LLMs in software development EMSE 2027
- Student-facing LLM tools: a systematic review Submitted to Computers and Education: AI
Novice Struggle and Scaffolding
I study novice programmers’ struggle and progress using programming traces, think-alouds, and classroom studies. My work on Parsons problems examines how scaffolding changes problem-solving processes and outcomes.
- Scaffolding Novices ICER 2024
- Jigsaw: decomposing and planning programming problems VL/HCC 2024 · Best Paper
- Exploring Novices’ Struggle and Progress VL/HCC 2023
As a Preparing the Professoriate Fellow, I co-taught a 250+ student introductory programming course, and I have been a teaching assistant across the computing curriculum, from discrete mathematics to machine learning. I also lead ExLAIM, an NSF-funded project whose six-week program brought K–12 teachers and undergraduate developers together to co-design classroom AI tools. For K–12 teachers, I co-led three iterations of a one-week professional development program on classroom AI use. In my teaching, I prioritize collaborative work and use worked examples to walk through problems with learners.
In mentoring, I break research into manageable steps, guiding mentees from developing questions and ideas to conducting studies, writing papers, and presenting their work. I have mentored 20 undergraduate researchers from nine institutions, 3 master’s students, and 11 K–12 teachers; 14 have co-authored published or submitted work, and two have begun Ph.D. programs.
News
All news| Aug 7, 2026 | Our study of how early-adopter developers integrate LLMs across the software development lifecycle is now published in Empirical Software Engineering! 📄 |
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| Jul 2, 2026 | Our paper on the human-centered design of LLM-powered educational chatbots with secondary teachers appeared at AI-HCI 2026! 📄 |
| Jun 27, 2026 | Our paper on adversarial assignment perturbation and student help-seeking in GenAI chatbot use led by Sam Gilson was presented at AIED 2026! 🎉 |
| Jun 1, 2026 | Kicked off ExLAIM this summer, an ExLENT-funded program I lead that pairs student developers with K–12 teachers to co-design classroom AI tools, this year with 7 undergraduate developers (2 team leads and 5 developers) and 9 teachers! 🤝 |
| Mar 5, 2026 | Our systematic literature review on student-facing LLM tools in computing education is available as a preprint and under review at Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence! 📄 |
| Feb 18, 2026 | A condensed version of MerryQuery’s usage analysis has been accepted at SIGCSE 2026 and is now available! 📄 |
| Jan 13, 2026 | Started as a Teaching Fellow for Introduction to Programming (CSC 113), a 250+ student MATLAB course, through NC State’s Preparing the Professoriate program! 🎓 |
| Dec 18, 2025 | Honored to have been selected for the Mentored Teaching Fellowship! 🏆 |
| Nov 21, 2025 | Happy to be on the panel for the Introduction to MATLAB course! 🎤 |
| Nov 13, 2025 | Excited to be invited to DELTA’s roundtable discussion on AI in education! 🎉 |
| Sep 25, 2025 | Excited to be invited to give a talk about MerryQuery in an NLP course at Utah State University! 🎤 |
| Sep 1, 2025 | Excited to be featured in AIHub’s AAAI interview series discussing my PhD journey and human-centered AI research! 🎉 |
| Jul 28, 2025 | Proud to have mentored Jayani Sivakumar and Susanna Quayle on MerryQuery improvements over the Summer! 🌟 |
| Jul 2, 2025 | Excited to share my appearance on the Root Access Podcast discussing MerryQuery and AI in education! 🎙️ |
| Apr 16, 2025 | Our study on early-adopter developers’ LLM integration across the software development lifecycle is now live on arXiv! 📄 |
| Apr 16, 2025 | NC State Computer Science featured our AAAI demonstration award! Grateful for the department’s support! ✨ |
| Apr 1, 2025 | Thrilled to be accepted into NC State’s Preparing the Professoriate (PTP) program! 🎓 |
| Mar 10, 2025 | Received AAAI 2025 Best Demonstration Award for MerryQuery! 🏆 |
| Feb 4, 2025 | Honored to have been awarded the AAAI 2025 Travel Grant! |
| Nov 19, 2024 | Our paper, “MerryQuery: A Trustworthy LLM-Powered Tool Providing Personalized Support for Educators and Students,” has been accepted to the AAAI-25 Demo Track! |
| Nov 2, 2024 | My research proposal, “Developing LLM-Powered Trustworthy Agents for Personalized Learning Support,” has been accepted to the AAAI-25 Doctoral Consortium! |
| Sep 4, 2024 | Won Best Research Paper Award at IEEE VL/HCC 2024 for our tool for programming problem decomposition! |
| Aug 29, 2024 | Gave a presentation of MerryQuery, our educational AI-based platform, for an ECI 519 class |
| Aug 12, 2024 | Presented our paper about scaffolding at ICER 2024! |
| Aug 2, 2024 | Completed the LearnLab summer school at Carnegie Mellon for the second time—an incredible experience! |