I favor a practice-oriented approach to research, utilizing qualitative and quantitative methods on real-world data.

My Ph.D. work in the Computer Science Department at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI, was on Communication Strategies for Software Development Communities of Practice where, as a participant observer, I compared different forms of software development practices and studied how software communities are sustained. I bring that learning back to the classroom by integrating it into the Team Software Project course, for a more realistic and authentic software project experience. I have used blended learning techniques such as the flipped classroom with Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) as a tool to integrate critique, reflection and communication-centric material with the structure of Scrum.

Research Interest Areas

• Ethics—Engineering Education and Computing
• Communication—software development and process
• Undergraduate education—incorporating the flipped classroom model and POGIL-based learning into the Team Software Project course to be a more authentic simulation of industry
• Diversity in computing—new approaches to the recruitment and retention of women in computing
• HCI and senior citizens—understanding user adoption and usability challenges faced by senior citizens learning and using technology
• Exploratory testing—teaching using the problem frames approach to describe methodology for exploratory testing

Publications

Kumar, Shreya, and Megan Levis. "Reengineering ethics education for deeper student engagement through the creation of roleplaying and decision-making games." 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. 2023.

Kumar, Shreya, and Charles Wallace. "The Case for Kairos: The Importance of Moment and Manner in Software Engineering Communication." In Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences(HICSS). 2019, pp. 7543-7552

Kumar, Shreya, Charles Wallace and Michael Young, "Mentoring trajectories in an evolving agile workplace," in Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering, 2016, pp. 142-151, ACM

Kumar, Shreya and Charles Wallace. "Among the agilists: participant observation in a rapidly evolving workplace." In Proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE 2016). ACM, USA, pp. 52-55.

Kumar, Shreya and Charles Wallace, “A tale of two projects: A pattern based comparison of communication strategies in student software development,” in 2013 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, 2013, pp. 1844–1850.

Kumar, Shreya and Charles Wallace, “Instruction in software project communication through guided inquiry and reflection,” in Frontiers in Education Conference, IEEE, 2014.

Kumar, Shreya, Leo C. Ureel II and Charles Wallace “Agile Communicators: Cognitive Apprenticeship to Prepare Students for Communication-Intensive Software Development,” in proceedings of Agile 2015, Washington DC, August (In Press)

Wallace, Charles and Shreya Kumar, "Engaging Software Engineering Students in Communication Design through a Pattern Language" at the International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, Minneapolis, MN, June 2014.

Kumar, Shreya and Charles Wallace, “Communication Strategies for Mentoring in Software Development Projects,” in Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, USA, 2014, pp. 111–114.

Wallace, Charles and Shreya Kumar, “Communication Patterns: A Tool for Analyzing Communication in Emerging Computer Science Educational Practices (Abstract Only),” in Proceeding of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2013, pp. 729–729.

Kumar, Shreya and Linda Ott, "Encouraging Talented High School Girls toward a Career in Computing through a Broader Understanding of the Field", 121st ASEE Annual Conference, June 2014.

Kumar, Shreya and Charles Wallace, “Patterns of Inquiry in Computer Literacy Help Sessions for the Elderly,” in Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments, New York, NY, USA, 2013, pp. 54:1–54:2.

Kumar, Shreya, Leo C. Ureel II, Harriet King, and Charles Wallace, “Lessons from our elders: identifying obstacles to digital literacy through direct engagement,” PETRA'13, May 29-31, 2013, Island of Rhodes, Greece, pp. 1–8.

Kumar, Shreya and Charles Wallace, “Guidance for exploratory testing through problem frames,” in 2013 IEEE 26th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE T), 2013, pp. 284–288.

Kumar, Shreya, Jason Sterkenburg, Jed Diekfuss, and Myounghoon Jeon, “Color effects on students’ emotions and task performance in a web-based learning management system,” in The 1st International Conference on Multimedia and Human Computer Interaction (MHCI ’13), Toronto, Canada, 2013, pp. 1-3.

Dissertation

Kumar, Shreya, "Communication Patterns and Strategies in Software Development Communities of Practice", Open Access Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2016.