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Dr Jake Renzella

Dr Jake Renzella

Senior Lecturer
  • Doctor of Philosophy (Computer Science)
  • Bachelor of Information Technology (Honours)
  • Bachelor of Science (Computer Science)
Engineering
Computer Science and Engineering

I am a Senior Lecturer and Co-Head of the Computing and Education research group in the School of Computer Science Engineering at UNSW. My research is at the intersection of novel software and artificial intelligence-based systems applications and world-class computing education. AI Education systems should genuinely enhance student engagement and improve learning experiences in computing education. My work has been published in premier conferences and journals such as the International Conference on Software Engineering. More importantly, it is embedded in open-source education projects such as SplashKit, and notably, Formatif, used at several Australian and New Zealand universities with over 230,000 students.

I also work in higher education's academic integrity, focusing on student-friendly approaches to retaining integrity. I am an:

Previously, I was a Research Fellow at the Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute (A²I²) in Defence, working on stochastic system modelling and insight generation, and has many years of experience teaching a wide range of computing courses at various universities in Australia.
Phone
+61-2-9348 0605
E-mail
jake.renzella@unsw.edu.au
  • Journal articles | 2022
    Renzella J; Cain A; Schneider JG, 2022, 'Verifying student identity in oral assessments with deep speaker', Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 3, pp. 100044, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2021.100044
  • Conference Papers | 2024
    Jamal R; Renzella J, 2024, 'Enhancing Formative Feedback at Scale with the Intelligent Feedback Assistant', in SIGCSE 2024 - Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pp. 1692 - 1693, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3626253.3635482
    Conference Papers | 2024
    Joshi A; Renzella J; Bhattacharyya P; Jha S; Zhang X, 2024, 'Striking a Balance between Classical and Deep Learning Approaches in Natural Language Processing Pedagogy', in TeachNLP 2024 - 6th Workshop on Teaching NLP, Proceedings of the Workshop, pp. 23 - 32
    Conference Papers | 2024
    Lee Solano L; Renzella J; Vassar A, 2024, 'DCC Sidekick: Helping Novices Solve Programming Errors Through a Conversational Explanation Interface', in SIGCSE 2024 - Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pp. 1714 - 1715, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3626253.3635483
    Conference Papers | 2024
    Taylor A; Vassar A; Renzella J; Pearce H, 2024, 'dcc - Help: Transforming the Role of the Compiler by Generating Context-Aware Error Explanations with Large Language Models', in SIGCSE 2024 - Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pp. 1314 - 1320, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3626252.3630822
    Conference Papers | 2024
    Vassar A; Renzella J; Ross E; Taylor A, 2024, 'Fine-Tuning Large Language Models for Better Programming Error Explanations', in Proceedings of the 24th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research, ACM, pp. 1 - 2, presented at Koli Calling '24: 24th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3699538.3699581
    Conference Papers | 2023
    Modi BA; Cain A; Wood-Bradley G; Renzella J, 2023, 'Using Focus to Personalise Learning and Feedback in Software Engineering Education', in Proceedings - International Conference on Software Engineering, pp. 296 - 301, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICSE-SEET58685.2023.00033
    Conference Papers | 2023
    Modi BA; Cain A; Wood-Bradley G; Tubino L; Renzella J, 2023, 'Improving Computing Education through a Holistic Learning Framework: A Focus Group Study', in 2023 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment and Learning for Engineering, TALE 2023 - Conference Proceedings, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TALE56641.2023.10398342
    Conference Papers | 2023
    Taylor A; Renzella J; Vassar A, 2023, 'Foundations First: Improving C's Viability in Introductory Programming Courses with the Debugging C Compiler', in SIGCSE 2023 - Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pp. 346 - 352, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3545945.3569768
    Preprints | 2023
    Taylor A; Vassar A; Renzella J; Pearce H, 2023, Dcc --help: Generating Context-Aware Compiler Error Explanations with Large Language Models, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2308.11873v2
    Conference Papers | 2021
    Renzella J; Cain A; Schneider JG, 2021, 'Real Talk: Illuminating Online Student Understanding with Authentic Discussion Tools', in SIGCSE 2021 - Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), pp. 886 - 892, presented at Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3408877.3432484
    Conference Papers | 2020
    Renzella J; Cain A; Schneider JG, 2020, 'An intelligent tool for combatting contract cheating behaviour by facilitating scalable student-tutor discussions', in Proceedings - International Conference on Software Engineering, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), ELECTR NETWORK, pp. 298 - 299, presented at Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings, ELECTR NETWORK, 27 June 2020 - 19 July 2020, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3377812.3390795
    Conference Papers | 2020
    Renzella J; Cain A, 2020, 'Enriching programming student feedback with audio comments', in Proceedings - International Conference on Software Engineering, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), ELECTR NETWORK, pp. 173 - 183, presented at Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training, ELECTR NETWORK, 27 June 2020 - 19 July 2020, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3377814.3381712
    Conference Papers | 2018
    Meyers J; Cain A; Renzella J; Cummaudo A, 2018, 'A Proposal for Integrating Gamification into Task-Oriented Portfolio Assessment', in Proceedings of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering, TALE 2018, pp. 1022 - 1027, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TALE.2018.8615174
    Conference Papers | 2018
    Renzella J; Cummaudo A; Cain A; Grundy J; Meyers J, 2018, 'SplashKit: A Development Framework for Motivating and Engaging Students in Introductory Programming', in Proceedings of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering, TALE 2018, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), pp. 40 - 47, presented at 2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE), 04 December 2018 - 07 December 2018, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TALE.2018.8615203
    Conference Papers | 2017
    Renzella J; Cain A, 2017, 'Supporting better formative feedback in task-oriented portfolio assessment', in Proceedings of 2017 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment and Learning for Engineering, TALE 2017, pp. 360 - 367, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TALE.2017.8252362

  • Google Award for Inclusion Research Program - $100,000
  • UNSW EFFECT Grant - $15,000
  • UNSW EF Grant - $30,000
  • Google CS4HS 2018 Grant, Deakin University - $15,000
  • Google CS4HS 2017 Grant, Swinburne University of Technology - $15,000
  • Google CS4HS 2016 Grant, Swinburne University of Technology - $10,000

  • Renzella, J., Cain, A., & Schneider, J.G. (2021). Real Talk: Illuminating Online Student Understanding with Authentic Discussion Tools. In Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 886–892).
  • Renzella, J., & Cain, A. (2020). Enriching programming student feedback with audio comments. In 2020 IEEE/ACM 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training (ICSE-SEET) (pp. 173–183).
  • Renzella, J., Tubino, L., Cain, A., & Schneider, J.G. (2021). Enhancing Online Education with Intelligent Discussion Tools. COVID-19 and Education: Learning and Teaching in a Pandemic-Constrained Environment, 97.
  • Renzella, J., & Cain, A. (2017). Supporting better formative feedback in task-oriented portfolio assessment. In 2017 IEEE 6th International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE) (pp. 360–367).
  • Renzella, J., Cain, A., & Schneider, J.G. (2020). An intelligent tool for combatting contract cheating behaviour by facilitating scalable student-tutor discussions. In Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings (pp. 298–299).
  • Meyers, J., Cain, A., Renzella, J., & Cummaudo, A. (2018). A Proposal for Integrating Gamification into Task-Oriented Portfolio Assessment. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE) (pp. 1022–1027).
  • Renzella, J., Cummaudo, A., Cain, A., Grundy, J., & Meyers, J. (2018). SplashKit: A development framework for motivating and engaging students in introductory programming. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE) (pp. 40–47).

My Research Supervision

  • Bansri Mohdi, PhD Co-Supervisor