Fernando Rodriguez

July 24, 2019
Assistant Professor, Lecturer 
Director of Undergraduate Studies

Building 72, Room 221 

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Biography 

Fernando Rodríguez is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Games at the University of Utah. He earned his Ph.D. in Human Centered Computing from the University of Florida, where his dissertation work focused on computer science education and how we can use technology to support undergraduate students collaborating on computer programming tasks. During his graduate school studies, he also contributed to the design of Engage, a serious game used to teach computer science and computational thinking to middle school students in a third-person, 3D adventure game with its own visual scripting language. Fernando’s interests include computer science education, collaboration in learning contexts, serious games, and game development in general. 

Courses Taught in Fall 2023 

  • EAE 1010-001, Survey of Games, T/Th 3:40pm – 5:00pm, ASB 220 
  • EAE 2900-002, Introduction to Game Scripting, M/W 1:25pm – 2:45pm, GC 5680 
  • EAE 4500-001, Capstone I, T/Th 2:00pm – 3:20pm, SBEH Auditorium 

Education 

  • Ph.D. in Human-Centered Computing, University of Florida, 2021 
  • M.S. in Computer Science, North Carolina State University, 2015 
  • B.S. in Computer Engineering, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, 2011 

Awards 

  • College of Engineering, Top 15% Teaching Recognition, Spring 2023 
  • College of Engineering, Top 15% Teaching Recognition, Fall 2022 
  • College of Engineering, Top 15% Teaching Recognition, Spring 2022 

Select Publications 

Journal Articles 

  • Kimberly Michelle Ying, Fernando J. Rodríguez, Alexandra Lauren Dibble, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer (2020). Understanding Women’s Remote Collaborative Programming Experiences: The Relationship between Dialogue Features and Reported Perceptions. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 4, no. CSCW3, Article 253, pages 1-29. 

Conference Papers 

  • Alexia Charis Martin, Kimberly Michelle Ying, Fernando J. Rodríguez, Cristina Suzanne Kahn, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer (2022). Intelligent Support for All? A Literature Review of the (In)equitable Design & Evaluation of Adaptive Pedagogical Systems for CS Education. Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE TS), 2022, pages 996-1002. 
  • Kimberly Michelle Ying, Alexia Charis Martin, Fernando J. Rodríguez, Cristina Suzanne Kahn, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer (2021). CS1 Students’ Perspectives on the Computer Science Gender Gap: Achieving Equity Requires Awareness. Proceedings of the International Conference on Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), pages 1-9.  
  • Andrew Emerson, Andy Smith, Cody R. Smith, Fernando J. Rodríguez, Eric N. Wiebe, Bradford W. Mott, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, James C. Lester (2020). Predicting Early and Often: Predictive Student Modeling for Block-Based Programming Environments. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM), pages 39-48. 
  • Fernando J. Rodríguez, Kimberly Michelle Price, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer (2017). Expressing and Addressing Uncertainty: A Study of Collaborative Problem-Solving Dialogues. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), pages 207-214.  
  • Fernando J. Rodríguez, Kimberly Michelle Price, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer (2017). Exploring the Pair Programming Process: Characteristics of Effective Collaboration. Proceedings of the 48th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE TS), pages 507-512.  
  • Fernando J. Rodríguez, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer (2015). Discovering Individual and Collaborative Problem-Solving Modes with Hidden Markov Models. Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED), pages 408-418.  
  • Fernando J. Rodríguez, Natalie D. Kerby, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer (2013). Repairing Disengagement in Collaborative Dialogue for Game-Based Learning. Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED), pages 807-810.  

Workshop Papers 

  • Fernando J. Rodríguez, Cody R. Smith, Andy Smith, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Eric N. Wiebe, Bradford W. Mott, James C. Lester. Toward a Responsive Interface to Support Novices in Block-Based Programming. Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE Blocks and Beyond Workshop.  
  • Fernando J. Rodríguez, Kimberly Michelle Price, Mickey Vellukunnel, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer (2017). Toward Conversational Agents that Support Learning: A Look at Human Collaborations in Computer Science Problem Solving. Proceedings of the Conversational UX Design CHI 2017 Workshop.