Hi there. I'm Denae Ford Robinson, PhD
You may also know me by my pen name Denae Ford.
I'm a Research Scientist investigating identity-based signals to support retention in Socio-Technical Ecosystems.
You may also know me by my pen name Denae Ford.
I'm a Research Scientist investigating identity-based signals to support retention in Socio-Technical Ecosystems.
I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science at North Carolina State University where I was advised by Dr. Chris Parnin in the alt-code lab. My research identifies cognitive and social barriers to participation in online socio-technical ecosystems. My dissertation work dismantled barriers to participation taking advantage of identity deployment, peer parity, and community mentorship.
My Ph.D. was funded by the National GEM Consortium Fellowship, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and Microsoft Research Ph.D. Fellowship. I also hold a BS and MS in Computer Science from North Carolina State University where I also minored in Cognitive Science.
[CV | Dissertation | Thesis Proposal]
This talk was the inaugural lecture for GitHub's Octo Speaker Series during the COVID-19 pandemic. This video features an intro from Jason Warner, CTO at GitHub, and Oege De Moor, VP of Research at GitHub.
**All publications use my pen name Denae Ford**
Full publication list can be found on [Google Scholar] or [DBLP]
Lisa Egede, Leslie Coney, Brittany Johnson, Christina Harrington, Denae Ford.
"For Us By Us": Intentionally Designing Technology for Lived Black Experiences.
In the proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) 2024.
July 2024.
*ACM Honorable Mention*
[pdf | doi | data]
Zihan Fang, Madeline Endres, Thomas Zimmermann, Denae Ford, Westley Weimer, Kevin Leach, Yu Huang.
A Four-Year Study of Student Contributions to OSS vs. OSS4SG with a Lightweight Intervention.
In the proceedings of the ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE) 2023.
November 2023.
*ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award*
[doi]
Ruijia Cheng, Ruotong Wang, Thomas Zimmermann, Denae Ford.
“It would work for me too”: How Online Communities Shape Software Developers’ Trust in AI-Powered Code Generation Tools.
In the proceedings of the ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems.
Dec 2022/May 2024.
[arXiv | doi]
Jenny Liang, Thomas Zimmermann, Denae Ford.
Understanding Skills for OSS Communities on GitHub.
In the proceedings of the ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE) 2022.
November 2022.
[pdf]
Denae Ford, Nischal Shrestha, Thomas Zimmermann.
ReBOC: Recommending Bespoke Open Source Software Projects to Contributors.
In the proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) 2022 .
September 2022.
[pdf]
Jazette Johnson, Andrew Begel, Richard Ladner, Denae Ford.
Program-L: Online Help Seeking Behaviors by Blind and Low Vision Programmers.
In the proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) 2022 .
September 2022.
[pdf]
Jenny Liang, Thomas Zimmermann, Denae Ford.
Towards Mining OSS Skills from GitHub Activity.
In the proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conferences on Software Engineering - New Ideas and Emerging Results (ICSE NIER) 2022.
May 2022.
[pdf | data]
Mariam Guizani, Thomas Zimmermann, Anita Sarma, Denae Ford.
Attracting and Retaining OSS Contributors with a Maintainer Dashboard.
In the proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conferences on Software Engineering - Software Engineering in Society (ICSE SEIS) 2022.
May 2022.
[pdf | data | github communities highlight]
Souti Chattopadhyay, Denae Ford, Thomas Zimmermann.
Developers Who Vlog: Dismantling Stereotypes through Community and Identity.
In the proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW).
October 2021.
[pdf | doi | Conference Talk from Souti]
Souti Chattopadhyay, Thomas Zimmermann, Denae Ford.
Reel Life vs. Real Life: How Software Developers Share their Daily Life through Vlog.
In proceedings of the ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE) 2021.
August 2021.
[pdf | doi | data]
Makayla Moster, Denae Ford, Paige Rodeghero.
"Is My Mic On?" Preparing SE Students for Collaborative Remote Work and Hybrid Team Communication.
In proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conferences on Software Engineering, Joint Software Engineering Education
and Training Track (ICSE JSEET) 2021.
May 2021.
[pdf | doi]
Courtney Miller, Paige Rodeghero, Margaret-Anne Storey, Denae Ford, Thomas Zimmermann.
“How Was Your Weekend?” Software Development Teams Working From Home During COVID-19.
In proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conferences on Software Engineering (ICSE) 2021.
May 2021.
*ACM Distinguished Paper Award*
[pdf | doi | data]
Yu Huang, Denae Ford, Thomas Zimmermann.
Leaving My Fingerprints: Motivations and Challenges of Contributing to OSS for Social Good.
In proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conferences on Software Engineering (ICSE) 2021.
May 2021.
[pdf | doi | blog | data | tech minutes highlight | Yu Huang's conf talk | Featured in the 2020 GitHub Octoverse Report]
Paige Rodeghero, Thomas Zimmermann, Brian Houck, Denae Ford.
Please Turn Your Cameras On: Remote Onboarding of Software Developers during a Pandemic.
In proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conferences on Software Engineering - Software Engineering in Practice (ICSE SEIP) 2021.
October 2020.
[pdf | doi]
Denae Ford, Margaret-Anne Storey, Thomas Zimmermann, Christian Bird, Sonia Jaffe, Chandra Maddila, Jenna L. Butler, Brian Houck, Nachiappan Nagappan.
A Tale of Two Cities: Software Developers Working from Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
In Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM).
August 2020.
[pre-print | doi]
Gede Artha Azriadi Prana, Denae Ford, Ayushi Rastogi, David Lo, Rahul Purandare, Nachiappan Nagappan.
Including Everyone, Everywhere: Understanding Opportunities and Challenges of Geographic Gender-Inclusion in OSS.
In IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE).
June 2021.
[pdf+appendix | doi | data]
Denae Ford.
Approaches to Understanding a Socio-Cultural Experience of Global Knowledge Workers.
In Engaging in Race in HCI Workshop at CHI 2020.
April 2020.
[pdf]
Dan Sholler, Igor Steinmacher, Denae Ford, Mara Averick, Mike Hoye, Greg Wilson.
Ten simple rules for helping newcomers become contributors to open projects.
In PLOS Computational Biology 15(9): e1007296.
September 2019.
[pdf | doi]
Denae Ford.
Identity-Based Signals and E-Mentorship to Support Engagement in Online Programming Communities.
Ph.D. Thesis, North Carolina State University.
July 2019.
[pdf | doi| slides]
Denae Ford, Reed Milewicz, Alexander Serebrenik.
How Remote Work Can Foster a More Inclusive Environment for Transgender Developers.
In proceedings of the ACM/IEEE ICSE 2nd International Workshop on Gender Equality in Software Engineering (GE).
May 2019.
[pdf | doi |slides]
Denae Ford, Mahnaz Behroozi, Alexander Serebrenik, Chris Parnin.
Beyond the Code Itself: How Programmers Really Look at Pull Requests.
In proceedings of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering - Software Engineering in Society (ICSE SEIS).
May 2019.
(Acceptance Rate: 30%)
[pdf | doi | blog | slides | video clip | poster]
Titus Barik, Denae Ford, Emerson Murphy-Hill, Chris Parnin.
How Should Compilers Explain Problems to Developers?
In proceedings of the ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE).
November 2018.
(Acceptance Rate: 20%)
[pdf | doi | blog]
Mahnaz Behroozi, Alison Lui, Ian Moore, Denae Ford, Chris Parnin.
Dazed: Measuring the Cognitive Load of Solving Technical Interview Problems At the Whiteboard.
In proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering - New Ideas and Emerging Results Track (ICSE NIER).
May 2018.
(Acceptance Rate: 27%)
[pdf | doi]
Denae Ford, Kristina Lustig, Jeremy Banks, Chris Parnin.
"We Don't Do That Here": How Collaborative Editing with Mentors Improves Engagement in Social Q&A Communities.
In proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI).
April 2018.
(Acceptance Rate: 26%)
[pdf | doi | blog| talk | slides | wrap-up post | podcast | study materials]
Fannie Liu, Denae Ford, Chris Parnin, Laura Dabbish.
Selfies as Social Movements: Influences on Participation and Perceived Impact on Stereotypes.
In proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW) .
November 2018.
(Acceptance Rate: 27%)
[pdf | doi |blog]
Denae Ford, Thomas Zimmermann, Christian Bird, Nachiappan Nagappan.
Characterizing Software Engineering Work with Personas Based on Knowledge Worker Actions.
In proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM).
November 2017.
(Acceptance Rate: 19%)
[pdf | doi | blog]
Denae Ford, Alisse Harkins, Chris Parnin.
Someone Like Me: How Does Peer Parity Influence Participation of Women on Stack Overflow?
In proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC).
October 2017.
(Acceptance Rate: 29%)
[pdf | doi| blog | slides | tool]
Denae Ford, Titus Barik, Leslie Rand-Pickett, Chris Parnin.
The Tech-Talk Balance: What Technical Interviewers Expect from Technical Candidates.
In proceedings of the IEEE ICSE 10th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE).
May 2017.
[pdf | doi | blog | slides]
Denae Ford, Justin Smith, Philip J. Guo, Chris Parnin.
Paradise Unplugged: Identifying Barriers for Female Participation on Stack Overflow.
In proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE).
November 2016.
(Acceptance Rate: 27%)
[pdf | doi | blog | slides | study materials | barriers figure]
Brittany Johnson, Rahul Pandita, Justin Smith, Denae Ford, Sarah Elder, Emerson Murphy-Hill, Sarah Heckman, Caitlin Sadowski.
A Cross-Tool Communication Study on Program Analysis Tool Notifications.
In proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE).
November 2016.
(Acceptance Rate: 27%)
[pdf | doi]
Denae Ford, Titus Barik, Chris Parnin.
Studying Sustained Attention and Cognitive States in Remote Technical Interviews.
In proceedings of the ACM ICER 3rd International Workshop on Eye Movements in Programming (EMIP).
November 2015.
[pdf | doi | blog | slides]
Denae Ford and Chris Parnin.
Exploring Causes of Frustration for Software Developers.
In proceedings of the IEEE ICSE 9th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE).
May 2015.
[pdf | doi | blog | slides | poster | buzzfeed]
There's value in the journey; so I choose to document it...
Brief descriptions of upcoming publications
The magical road to receiving my PhD
For Us, By Us Research Project on well-being
