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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 UNSW. 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 Dead Internet Theory, published in The Conversation.

I am proud of to lead UNSW'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 UNSW 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 Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute (A²I²).
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 | 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, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3641555.3705158
    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, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3641555.3705101
    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, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3641554.3701827
    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 ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 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 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, 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

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
  • 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

See Google Scholar.

My Research Supervision

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