Faculty

Jennifer Wong-Ma
Associate Professor of Teaching, Vice-Chair of Undergraduate Studies

With almost 20 years in the classroom, Dr. Wong-Ma’s research work aims to support and diversify student representation in CS, to develop illustrative teaching tools for complex computing topics, as well as create and study the effectiveness of automated teaching tools for CS education. Jennifer received her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from UCLA (Go Bruins!) and previously taught at Stony Brook University. In her free time, she enjoys traveling around the world with her husband and two boys.

Sergio Gago-Masague
Associate Professor of Teaching, Vice-Chair of Professional Programs, Director of Capstone Projects

Since joining UCI in 2012, Dr. Gago-Masague has focused on user-centric solutions based on information systems and IoT. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses, emphasizing embedded systems/IoT, search systems, and industry capstone projects, and has developed new teaching methods to promote equity and inclusion. He collaborates on research in health, sustainability, and education. Dr. Gago-Masague has also held key positions such as Chair of the UCI Council of Enrollment Management and Admissions (CEMA) and Chair of the Council on Learning, Teaching, and Student Experience (CLTSE) at UCI. In his free time, he enjoys starting new projects, cooking Spanish food, dancings, and traveling to new places with his wife and kids.

Graduate Students

Jared Apillanes
PhD Student, Computer Science

Jared Apillanes is a PhD student at UC Irvine in the Computer Science Department. During his undergraduate career at UCI, he worked with intro CS course instructors to identify and correct inefficient and non-inclusive pedagogy and decrease faculty and staff overhead. He is currently exploring how CS education can be enhanced and supported by emerging technologies, both at an administrative and classroom level. Outside of the lab, he enjoys cat sitting, cooking, and cycling around Irvine to find the best hidden parks and views.

Barbara Martinez Neda
PhD Candidate, Computer Science

Barbara is a PhD candidate in the department of Computer Science. Inspired by her own experiences as an undergrad, her research focuses on understanding and developing computational tools for early identification of students’ challenges in CS.  In the TLC Lab, Barbara also mentors undergraduate Dream Project Fellows as they begin their journeys with research in CS. During her free time, Barbara enjoys attending CrossFit classes, running, and going on dinner dates with her husband to find the best restaurants in town.

Amisha Priyadarshini
PhD Student, Computer Science

Amisha Priyadarshini is a PhD student in the Dept. of Computer Science, working under the guidance of Prof. Sergio Gago-Masague. She holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Mathematics from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela, India. Her research focuses on enhancing fairness in Machine Learning models, particularly within the context of student admissions data. She is also passionate about working with and coding mathematical models for her research. Beyond her academic pursuits, she enjoys journaling, reading and annotating books, and maintaining an online blog for book-keeping. She loves to unwind with a book, and slow lo-fi music in the background

Manuel Eduardo Segura
PhD Student, Computer Science

Manuel Eduardo Segura is a Ph.D. Student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine working under Professor Sergio Gago-Masague. He has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics from California State University, Los Angeles, and has a Master of Science in Computer Science from California Polytechnic University, Pomona. He also has 13 years of prior professional experience in embedded software, mainly writing embedded flight software components for satellites.

Jason Lee Weber
PhD Student, Computer Science

Jason Weber is a PhD student and aspiring educator in Computer Science at UC Irvine. During his MS in CS at Oregon State University, he conducted qualitative and mixed-method research on K-12 and undergraduate computing curricula. Currently, he’s exploring the intersection of AI and CS Education, where his research aims to understand how novel AI tools are revolutionizing the educational landscape and how AI techniques can be employed to enhance student learning and engagement. Away from research, Jason finds solace in a warm cup of coffee or espresso, especially on a rainy day. He’s always open for discussions centered around teaching CS.

Justin Tian Jin Chen

Justin Tian Jin Chen graduated from UCI with a B.S. in Computer Science, specializing in Intelligent Systems. He works with Jason on LLMs for CS Education, primarily on prompt engineering, building LLM evaluators, and exploring LLM explainability. In his free time, he loves to go out with his wife and two dogs, Daisy and Ollie <3

Max Wang

Max Wang graduated with a Bachelors in Applied Math and Statistics Cal Poly Pomona and volunteered as a researcher. He has worked under the TLC team as a data scientist. He has worked under Dr. Sergio Gago and Dr. Jennifer Wong-Ma.

Undergraduate Students

Bryce Green

Bryce is an undergraduate student currently working towards his B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering. Bryce is currently working under PHD student Jason Weber, focusing on researching the impact of LLM’s in Computer Science Education. Some of his interests are gaming and singing.

Sergio Mendieta

Sergio is an undergraduate student majoring in Computer Science and Engineering. He is also an assistant in research centered around analyzing the extent that LLM’s are used in Computer Science Education. On his off time, he likes to cook, play video games, and sing with UCI’s Circle of Fifths.

Amanjeet Singh

Amanjeet is an undergraduate student studying Informatics. He is working with Machine Learning models, and statistical and visual analysis tools for academic probation prevention.

Daniel Song

Daniel is an undergraduate Computer Science major with a specialization in Intelligent Systems. He is working under the Teaching and Learning in Computing lab, helping to create a web scraper for data collection and analyze student’s behaviors between submissions for Gradescope. In his free time, he likes playing the guitar, piano, and also making games.

Kai Yu

Kai is an undergraduate student studying computer science. He is working on LDA topic modeling with interests in generative AI and NLP models.

Scroll to Top