SURF Mentoring

Potential projects/topics: Dr. Schreib’s research interests lie in designing tools and techniques for providing personalized and interactive learning experiences within large introductory computer science courses, with a primary goal of leveraging technology to address the challenges of scale posed by recent increases in enrollment in computer science programs. She is particularly interested in identifying foundational computer science topics that students find challenging and building software designed to interactively teach these concepts using a combination of guided practice and feedback. Dr. Schreib’s research projects typically involve 1) using full-stack software development to build a pedagogical tool, 2) deploying that tool within a controlled study in a course at Rice, and 3) analyzing its effectiveness in improving student learning outcomes. In the past, she has developed tools that for teaching topics such as basic Python semantics, software testing, and algorithmic complexity. Future research directions include developing tools to teach recursion, Java’s memory model, and algorithms for garbage collection (automatic memory deallocation).

Potential skills gained: Students will gain experience with full-stack software development, including learning how to use JavaScript to implement an interactive web-based user interface and learning how to use Java to implement a backend that performs code analysis and logs data about student misconceptions.

Required qualifications: Students must have completed COMP 140. Additional COMP experience (e.g. COMP 182, COMP 215) is beneficial but not required.

Direct mentor: Faculty/P.I.