Nicole Hu

Year in School
Freshman

Major
Computer Science + Economics

Research Interests
Artificial Intelligence Interactive Computing

Research Mentor
Prof. Katie Cunningham

Research/Engagement Experience
None

Interests
Computers and Education, Artificial Intelligence, Interactive Computing

Project Title
TBD

How did I get interested in Computer Science?
I was introduced by my sister to Scratch and Code.org. Since then, I've always been amazed by its infinite capabilities to solve real-world solutions and make a social impact.

What social interests matter to me?
Accessibility in STEM for women, equal opportunities in education for underrepresented groups

What is my most impactful college experience?
One of my favorite experiences was the Women in Engineering orientation, where I met so many incredible women. As a starting freshman, it was reassuring to be in such a supportive and welcoming environment.

These are a few of my favorite things!
Playing tennis, trying new foods, traveling, baking

Research Description
Under the guidance of Professor Katie Cunningham and PhD student Arif Demirtas, my research is focused on better understanding the core skills underlying programming ability. While many people describe learning programming as learning parts of a programming language, like if statements and for loops, we argue that a crucial part of learning programming is learning meaningful, reusable chunks of code, known as programming plans. We are building learning curve models to measure if learning programming plans better explain introductory programming learners' skill growth than learning syntax structures.

Biography
I was born in Canada and moved to the Chicago area when I was really young. I have an older sister who also graduated from UIUC. I have been playing tennis since I was really young and look forward to playing on the club tennis here. I love to travel and this summer, I visited Japan, China, and Taiwan. I am very excited to be a part of CS STARS!