CAREER: Designing an Interactive Partner to Support Pair Programming

Voice-assisted devices showcase the potential of conversational virtual assistants that have human-like interactions. This research seeks to develop an Alexa-like programming partner to transform how programming is learned and how programming is done. The research draws on and expands underlying ideas from human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, and software engineering to address the problem of designing a conversational agent that supports pair programming, where a human and agent engage in rich collaborative interactions on programming activities. Pair programming increases code quality, efficiency, knowledge transfer and self-efficacy, and through developing pair-programming partners, the work will impact software development as well as teaching and learning programming, while helping retain underrepresented groups in computer science programs. The project will advance programmer-computer interactions by creating a human-centered interactive partner that supports pair programming. Foundational research will be performed to: (i) understand the feasibility of a pair programming partner, (ii) investigate the design space of anthropomorphic conversational agents, (iii) determine the intent of human programmer utterances and design appropriate agent responses and (iv) implement a robust and supportive conversational agent. Anthropomorphic properties of the conversational agent will arise by integrating diverse interaction mechanisms (visualizations, dialogue styles, and agent actions), state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, and creativity and problem-solving strategies. Tight data collection, design, evaluation and refinement cycles for key architectural components will incrementally evolve functionality to realize the robust conversational agent for programming. Integration of research and educational activities will contribute to the creation of a sound and practical pair programming agent that enhances student engagement, learning, and programming skills. This project is jointly funded by Human-Centered Computing (HCC) and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.