Faculty and students showcase AI innovation at national conference

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. — Undergraduate research took center stage for Penn State Lehigh Valley at the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) Technical Symposium, where faculty and students presented original work and engaged with computing educators from across the country.

The SIGCSE Technical Symposium, the largest conference of its kind in North America, took place Feb. 18-21 in St. Louis, Missouri, and brought together nearly 1,500 computing faculty members and researchers from the United States and abroad. Representing Penn State Lehigh Valley were Jeffrey Stone, associate professor of information sciences and technology; Rifat Sabbir Mansur, assistant teaching professor of information sciences and technology; and students Sumedha Gajanan Pol and Edward Heimbach.

For the campus, the faculty said, the conference highlighted a core priority: providing undergraduate students with hands-on research opportunities and access to national professional communities.

Undergraduate research in action

Stone attended the symposium alongside Pol and Heimbach, who presented a poster titled “Social Impact and Experiential Learning: Developing Virtual Reality Experiences to Prevent Cyberbullying.” The project, co-authored with other Penn State faculty, grew out of a capstone course that integrates development work on Department of Justice-funded virtual reality experiences designed to address cyberbullying.

The project blends technical skill development with social impact — a hallmark of applied research at Penn State Lehigh Valley, according to Stone.

“Our students are not just completing assignments,” Stone said. “They are working on projects that have real-world implications and that connect computing with important societal challenges.”

Both students presented their research to a national audience of computing educators. In addition, Pol served as a student volunteer at the symposium, gaining behind-the-scenes experience supporting one of the field’s premier conferences. The presentation was authored in collaboration with Stone and the other Penn State grant participants.

Stone, a former SIGCSE Technical Symposium co-chair, was also invited to speak at a special luncheon for first-time attendees, offering guidance on how to navigate the conference and build professional connections.

“Bringing students to a conference like this allows them to see the broader computing education community,” Stone said. “They engage with faculty, graduate students and researchers from across the country. That kind of exposure can shape how they see their own potential.”

Reimagining how students learn computer science

R.S. Mansur also presented a poster at the symposium titled “Code, Test, Battle: Gamifying CS2 Through Adversarial Programming Tournaments.” The project introduces a game-based learning system designed for second-semester programming courses, where students often encounter more abstract and challenging concepts.

The system, called “Dungeon Master,” allows student teams to build and customize hero characters throughout the semester. As they learn new programming concepts, those concepts translate into abilities for their heroes. Inheritance, recursion and algorithm design become tools that directly power how their characters compete in automated classroom tournaments.

“As programming concepts become more abstract, students can disengage,” R.S. Mansur said. “I wanted to design an experience where those ideas feel real, relevant and motivating.”

At the end of the semester, student-created heroes compete in live tournaments in the classroom, turning complex code into a visible and shared learning experience.

“It is not about entertainment for its own sake,” R.S. Mansur said. “The system is grounded in behavioral science and integrates industry-standard practices like version control, writing tests before code and collaborative development. Students are practicing the exact skills they will need in their careers.”

R.S. Mansur’s research sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence in education, human interaction with learning technologies and the science of how students learn to program. He is exploring questions about how AI tools can be used responsibly in the classroom, how automated feedback can accelerate learning and how engagement strategies can improve retention in computer science programs.

“Many students leave computer science early,” R.S. Mansur said. “If we can design courses that increase motivation, provide faster feedback and reward genuine skill-building, we can help more students succeed.”

Research as part of the campus culture

Beyond presenting his poster, R.S. Mansur served in multiple leadership roles at the conference, including ACM Student Research Competition judge, senior program coordinator, session chair for a panel on teaching AI concepts to K-12 students, paper reviewer and mentor in the conference’s Buddy Program.

“Being involved at that level meant I was not just attending,” R.S. Mansur said. “I was contributing to the field, representing this campus and helping move the discipline forward.”

Both faculty members emphasized that opportunities like SIGCSE reflect the unique environment at Penn State Lehigh Valley, where close faculty-student collaboration makes undergraduate research both accessible and impactful.

“At a smaller campus, we know our students well,” R.S. Mansur said. “I can see in real time what challenges they face and design research questions that come directly from my classroom. That closeness makes both my teaching and my research stronger.”

For students like Pol and Heimbach, participating as presenters and volunteers demonstrates that research at Penn State Lehigh Valley is not limited to graduate students at large research institutions. Instead, undergraduates are actively contributing to conversations that shape how computer science is taught nationwide.

“Our goal is for students to see themselves as innovators and researchers,” Stone said. “Penn State Lehigh Valley is a place where that ambition is supported and encouraged.”

Through projects that combine social impact, industry relevance and national engagement, the campus continues to position undergraduate research as a central component of the student experience — and as a pathway to leadership in the evolving field of computer science education.

Part of the AI strategy at Penn State

Research initiatives at Penn State Lehigh Valley, including faculty-led projects that integrate artificial intelligence, experiential learning and interdisciplinary innovation, directly align with the University’s AI Transformation strategy and land-grant mission. By embedding AI literacy, ethical reasoning and hands-on, industry-informed problem solving into undergraduate classrooms, the campus advances Penn State’s broader commitment to human-centered AI, cross-disciplinary research and workforce-ready education. These efforts reflect the University’s investment in preparing students not only to understand emerging technologies, but to apply them responsibly and creatively in ways that serve communities across Pennsylvania and beyond.