Hello-

My name is Dr Rita Garcia. My research interests are in the field of Computer Science Education (CSE) and in supporting diversity in the fields of Computer Science and Software Engineering. My work focuses on helping Computer Science (CS) students build problems-solving skills that will help them organise and plan programming solutions. Through my research, I developed a pedagogy that introduces introductory programming students to the software design process earlier in their studies. This pedagogy was applied within Canvas, a Learning Management System (LMS), so that students could be supported in a learning environment with minimal supervision. My research also investigates the presentation of programming assignments designed to help CS students identify the problem's goals and provide additional assistance to students to better understand the problem. My experience in industry has motivated me to expand my research to study students' collaboration processes performed during group work. The goal of this work is to help reduce language during group work that might exclude women and underrepresented minorities from pursuing careers in the Tech field.