Sara Riggs, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the UVA engineering department and has research experience in the areas of multimodal displays, adaptive displays and cognitive limitations. She has been awarded over $6 million in research grants from organizations like the National Science Foundation and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. She received her Ph.D. and MSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and a BS/BA in Industrial and Systems Engineering and Economics from Virginia Tech. On Tuesday, September 24 she shared her insights on “AI in Programming Cybersecurity Workforce Development.”
Riggs’s research is centered around the relationship between AI and novice computer science students when it comes to completing tasks and homework. She and her team measured aspects like performance, workload, emotion and self efficacy when students used AI aides to do computer science tasks. Riggs found that while AI increased programming efficiency and reduced effort and mental workload, it did not improve students’ emotions or self efficacy.
This research is vital as it examines how students will respond to AI aides in the computer science classroom. Having this knowledge will allow computer science instructors to introduce AI to the classroom in a way that will make students more productive while reducing mental workload and utilizing the instructors as a means of emotional support and self efficacy.
