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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 in the School of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at »Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ. I am the Co-Head of the Computing and Education research group, and Director of Studies (Computer Science).

My research is in the field of Pedagogical Generative AI and education technology. I routinely publish in premier computer science education conferences and journals such as the SIGCSE TS, and the International Conference on Software Engineering. I build open source education technology, notably the Debugging C Compiler (DCC) project, and it's generative AI debugger. I also maintain Formatif: Teaching and Learning.

I publish general audience articles, my most popular being on the , published in The Conversation.

I am proud of to lead »Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ's collaboration with Day of AI Australia, which brings high quality, curriculum aligned AI literacy to thousands of Aussie kids in every state and territory.

Some of my formal recognitions include:

  • The 2024 Australian Financial Review Higher Education Innovation Award
  • Various »Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ Teaching awards at the Faculty and University level
  • Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Early Career Academic member of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education

Previously, I was a Research Fellow at the .
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,
  • Conference Papers | 2025
    Banks N; Renzella J, 2025, 'Day of AI Australia: Teacher Insights from a Nation-Wide AI Literacy Program for K-12 Students', in SIGCSE TS 2025 - Proceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pp. 1375 - 1376,
    Conference Papers | 2025
    Renzella J; Banks N; Vassar A, 2025, 'Building Global AI Literacy: Preparing Teachers for the Future of AI-Driven Classrooms', in Proceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2, ACM, pp. 1727 - 1727, presented at SIGCSE TS 2025: The 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education,
    Conference Papers | 2025
    Renzella J; Vassar A; Solano LL; Taylor A, 2025, 'Compiler-Integrated, Conversational AI for Debugging CS1 Programs', in SIGCSE TS 2025 - Proceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pp. 994 - 1000,
    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,
    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,
    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,
    Conference Papers | 2024
    Vassar A; Renzella J; Ross E; Taylor A, 2024, 'Fine-Tuning Large Language Models for Better Programming Error Explanations', in ACM International Conference Proceeding Series,
    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,
    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,
    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,
    Preprints | 2023
    Taylor A; Vassar A; Renzella J; Pearce H, 2023, Dcc --help: Generating Context-Aware Compiler Error Explanations with Large Language Models,
    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,
    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,
    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,
    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,
    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 Lee MJW; Nikolic S; Shen J; Lei LCU; Wong GKW; Venkatarayalu N (eds.), Proceedings of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering, TALE 2018, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), AUSTRALIA, Univ Wollongong, Wollongong, pp. 40 - 47, presented at 2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE), AUSTRALIA, Univ Wollongong, Wollongong, 04 December 2018 - 07 December 2018,
    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,

Jake's research income total $665,000, and is comprised of:

  • Australian Economic Accelerator Ignite Program - $480,000
  • 2025 NVIDIA Academic Grant - Cloud GPU hours
  • Google Award for Inclusion Research Program - $100,000
  • »Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ EFFECT Grant - $15,000
  • »Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ 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

  • , 2024 
  • »Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ Engineering Faculty Education Award, 2023
  • »Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ Teaching Excellence Award, 2022

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My Research Supervision

I supervise many MPhil and PhD students in Pedagogical Generative AI, and Educational Technology.