Dr Jake Renzella

Narrowing the Gap: Supervised Fine-Tuning of Open-Source LLMs as a Viable Alternative to Proprietary Models for Pedagogical Tools Frontier Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Gemini can decipher cryptic compiler errors for novice programmers, but their computational scale, cost, and tendency to over-assist make them pr...

New pre-print alert: arxiv.org/abs/2507.05305

30.07.2025 02:26 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Day of AI Australia selected for Google.org Accelerator: Generative AI cohort Day of AI Australia, together with UNSW, has been selected to join the prestigious Google.org Accelerator: Generative AI cohort for 2025.Day of AI Australia is one of 20…

I’ll be working with Day of AI Australia and Google to build interactive GenAI experiences for Aussie school kids! Read more: blog.google/intl/en-au/f...

17.06.2025 14:55 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Another year, another SIGCSE TS.

Our paper on conversational generative AI for programming debugging: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

A BoF session delivering a session on AI Literacy for K-12, presenting our lessons learned running Day of AI.

Capping it off with a visit to MIT RAISE and MIT Solve.

04.03.2025 03:57 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Is it managed by an employer?

19.12.2024 22:01 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Could be so many reasons, but on a fresh install it’s very snappy on an M1. Few years since a factory system reset, antivirus, SIP (I believe Apple hits their server on every app open!!), or if it’s a managed machine that can slow them down a lot.

19.12.2024 15:23 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

A new approach to an old language | Engineering - UNSW Sydney UNSW's Debugging C Compiler (DCC) uses AI to help students learn C programming by explaining errors without fostering reliance on AI, aiming to prevent future software issues.

Really we’re just going to extreme lengths to ensure we can keep teaching C as our students’ first language: www.unsw.edu.au/engineering/...

@cyberhammond.com @litoria.bsky.social

13.12.2024 04:15 — 👍 4    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

(Not quite) end of term drinks @florasalim.bsky.social

04.12.2024 12:46 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 1

Street full of parked cars in Bordeaux France, Google photo from 2008.

Same location in Bordeaux photo taken by me in 2023.

Before & After: I don’t think people realize the extent to which parked cars degrade public space.

25.11.2024 05:25 — 👍 16332    🔁 2152    💬 234    📌 130

Some mid-conference hacking to pull in real-time numbers into the Debugging C Compiler website, 14 million compilations! dcc.cse.unsw.edu.au

22.11.2024 08:38 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Putting together a starter pack of CS academics in Australia (+NZ), hit me up to be added.
go.bsky.app/N5x6GLQ

21.11.2024 03:11 — 👍 20    🔁 6    💬 3    📌 0

👋

16.11.2024 14:24 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

CSE, UNSW Sydney is hiring multiple Associate Professors (Level D, tenured) on:
- Algorithms
- Computer Graphics
- Embedded Systems
- Formal Methods
- NLP
- Theoretical Machine Learning
- Robotics
Closing 27 Jan 2025. Those wanting to know about working in Sydney and Australia do reach out 🦘🎓
URL👇

16.11.2024 11:35 — 👍 11    🔁 7    💬 1    📌 2

Fine-Tuning Large Language Models for Better Programming Error Explanations | Proceedings of the 24th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research

At Koli Calling in Finland presenting our very early work on fine-tuning Large Language Models to align them with pedagogical behaviour.

These models power our compiler error explanation system: dcc.cse.unsw.edu.au

Read the paper: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

@cyberhammond.com, @litoria.bsky.social

16.11.2024 09:35 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

The Debugging C Compiler (DCC) - A novice-friendly C/C++ compiler The Debugging C Compiler (DCC) - A novice-focused C compiler.

Stoked to finally share that Google have funded our DCC + LLM research (research.google/outreach/air...) as Sasha Vassar, @litoria.bsky.social and I will design and develop pedagogically-minded LLMs to making programming more accessible. We are also launching our new homepage: dcc.cse.unsw.edu.au

21.11.2023 08:36 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Happy SIGCSE notification day! Celebrating the acceptance of our paper "dcc --help: Transforming the Role of the Compiler by Generating Context-Aware Error Explanations with Large Language Models". @litoria.bsky.social @cyberhammond.com

03.10.2023 00:46 — 👍 4    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 1