While recruiting for my most recent study ((which you can check out here))[_pages/participate.md], I reached out to Adam from Adam Learns Live, who is an established streamer on Twitch focusing on software and game development edutainment streams and, most recently focusing on developing his own indie game Skeleseller! When reaching out to Adam, he suggested an on-stream interview about my PhD journey and my research; how could I say no?

We talked a lot about mentorship and how my personal journey to graduate school wasn’t the most rosey, but I ended up in a place where I think I needed to be with my interests in live streaming research and beliefs that everyone needs access to an education, even if it is not in a formal classroom. Being able to showcase the work I have done in a casual, non-critical setting, was awesome and I felt like my work reached a broader more general audience in a way that was impactful.

I highly encourage everyone to check out Adam’s streams on Twitch; they are as entertaining as they are informative!

ASEE 2024 was my first education-focused conference and, wow, what a group of the most compassionate, insightful, and fun people! Clemson having such a presence was a super cool experience that I wish could happen at every conference.

Having dedicated poster sessions really made a difference from other conferences that I have been to. Almost two hours of feedback, insight, and discussion with others interested in your work is not only motivational but, I think, better than any 5 minutes of questioning at the end of a presentation. Check out my poster on viewer and streamer interactions, as well as the full paper here, and if you want to check out Makayla Moster and I’s joint paper on first generation women in graduate computing degrees.

Outside of the conference, Portland was a wonderful and weird city with so much public transport, the best donuts (mochi donuts, ftw), brews, food, and weather that I could have asked for. Running from the conference to Powells or to get in line at Voodoo couldn’t be beaten, and neither could going to the flagship restaurant for a cookbook that I own, Kyatcha! I could also have spent three whole days in the botanical gardens.

Ice Cream, Skybridges, and Peirogi, oh my!

CSCW 2023 concluded a years-long project with my co-author and labmate Makayla Moster on breakout room use and student and professor opinions on fully remote classes in the COVID and post-COIVD era. We received some great feedback and personal anecdotes on the strategies that worked for others in attendance to make fully remote classes less dreadful. Some of my favourite publications from this round of CSCW are:

“Oh yes! over-preparing for meetings is my jam :)”: The Gendered Experiences of System Administrators Mannat Kaur, Harshini Sri Ramulu, Yasemin Acar, and Tobias Fiebig

Supporting Co-Regulation and Motivation In Learning Programming In Online Classrooms Lahari Goswami, Alexandre Senges, Thibault Estier, and Mauro Cherubini

Hate Raids on Twitch: Echoes of the Past, New Modalities, and Implications for Platform Governance Catherine Han, Joseph Seering, Deepak Kumar, Jeff Hancock, and Zakir Durumeric

I also had the pleasure of attending the Diversity and Inclusion lunch!

Outside of the conference, we were able to explore Minneapolis through the network of elevated and enclosed sky bridges throughout the city. Our favorite spot to co-work outside the conference was Gray Fox Coffee in the Deluxe Plaza Atrium. Even though it was frigid outside, the atrium was warm and bright (the masala chai helped too). The hours spent coworking here paid off for Makayala and I with our upcoming publications at the 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition in Portland.

No trip would be complete without an ice cream stop and hoofing it to Bebe Zito was it!

Finally, we ended the conference with dinner at Kramarczuk’s Sausage Co. and a long walk back to the hotel along downtowns Nicollet Mall.

ICSE 2024 was the first conference that I attended in person as a PhD Student! It was so awesome getting to meet my academic “family” and put faces to the names I am seeing published by my fellow PhD students.

This was also the first conference presentation I have done, and I was absolutely blown away by the number of questions and support I received regarding my work “Under the Bridge: Trolling and the Challenges of Recruiting Software Developers for Empirical Research Studies.” It was so refreshing to see that everyone has encountered this issue and that we all agree that steps need to be made to improve the quality of recruitment for BOTH researchers and our participants.

Link to my presentation slides

And while you spent 32 hours getting to the opposite side of the world (with a little stop in Houston texting your oldest friend “hey, are you busy, can you pick us up from the airport we have 18 hours until our next flight plsplsplsplsplspls”), you might as well take some time to travel a little right? Melbourne was an absolute blast, and completely blew any expectations I had out of the water. The city was so friendly and welcoming it puts Southern Hospitality to shame. Trams, SE Asian food, wine, sausage rolls, Victoria Bitter, Cascade Brewing! After the conference, my partner and I attended the Good Food and Wine Fest, took a little trip out to the Yarra Valley (with a friend from Charleston who ALSO happened to be halfway across the world), and took time to see parts of Tasmania.

Beyond happy that I was able to display my fiber art with the South Carolina Palmetto Hands Fine Craft Compition and Exhibition. Displaying two pieces – one needle felted coral and one tufted brick wall.

New year and new publications means its time for a refresh, site is a work in progress but the core of everything is here!