Abstract: Software applications are developed in collaboration with different team members, yet few innovations in development tools consider human factors such as communication styles, creativity strategies, foraging behavior, and gender differences. In this talk, I will discuss my efforts to bridge this gap. I will focus on my ongoing work to create an inclusive pair programming conversational agent to foster collaborations with a human partner, including (1) my approach and design of an anthropomorphic programming agent, (2) empirical results from mixed-method studies that demonstrate the benefits of pair programming when working with an agent vs. another programmer, (3) evaluation results that demonstrate the effectiveness of machine learning algorithms for understanding programmer conversations. I will also talk about my vision, current, and future projects focusing on collective foraging intelligence of expert programmers, same- and mixed-gendered pair programmers, and tools for end-user programmers.

Short Bio: Sandeep Kaur Kuttal is an Assistant Professor at The University of Tulsa, where she directs the Human-Centric Software Engineering Lab. Her research combines Human-Computer Interaction, Software Engineering, and Artificial Intelligence. She focuses on the human aspects of software engineering by studying and modeling programmer behavior and then designing and developing mixed-initiative programmer-computer systems. Sandeep is a recent recipient of the NSF CAREER and AFOSR YIP awards. She has received a best paper award at ACM CHI, best paper at ACM/IEEE ICGSE, and an honorable mention at ACM CHI. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Computer Languages, vice-chair of the steering committee for the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC), and acted as chair or program committee member at CHI, VL/HCC, HCII, ICSE, FSE, ASE, ICST, ICSME, CHASE, ICPC, and IUI. She is passionate about diversity and inclusion.