Nischal Shrestha

Transfer Issues in Software Engineering

Hi, I'm Nischal. I'm interested in applying HCI research to build new techniques and tools to help software engineers become more productive. Specifically, I do research in learning transfer for programming languages, investigating new techniques and tools that can help programmers learn second and subsequent languages effectively and efficiently. I work in the alt-code lab at NC State University and I am advised by Dr. Chris Parnin.

Conference papers

2020

Here We Go Again: Why Is It Difficult for Developers to Learn Another Programming Language? [pdf]

Nischal Shrestha, Colton Botta, Titus Barik and Chris Parnin

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 2020 (To appear)

We find that learning new programming languages is difficult due to cross-language interference.

2019

Instrument Designs for Validating Cross-Language Behavioral Differences [pdf]

Nischal Shrestha and Chris Parnin

IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages & Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC), 2019

We designed three instruments that can help identify and validate meaningful behavior differences between two languages to pinpoint potential misconceptions.

Exploring Tools and Strategies Used During Regular Expression Composition Tasks [pdf]

Gina R. Bai, Brian Clee, Nischal Shrestha, Carl Chapman, Cimone Wright, Kathryn T. Stolee

IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC), 2019

We conduct an exploratory case study to reveal the tools and strategies developers use during regular expression composition.

2018

It's Like Python But: Towards Supporting Transfer of Programming Language Knowledge [pdf]

Nischal Shrestha, Titus Barik and Chris Parnin

IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages & Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC), 2018

We explore a tool to support learning new programming languages, given experience in one or more languages.

Doctorate consortium papers

Towards Supporting Knowledge Transfer of Programming Language Knowledge [pdf]

Nischal Shrestha

IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages & Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC), 2018

I outline the current research on learning transfer for programming languages and provide first steps for better transfer support.

Teaching

CSC 116: Introduction to Computing - Java (Summer 2019)

An introductory course in computer science.