About Me

Hi! I'm Elli. I'm an incoming Computer Science & Engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Washington. My research area lies at the intersection of Programming Languages, Software Engineering, and Computing Education. I received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Northwestern University.

I'm advised by Dr. Michael Ernst, Dr. Amy Ko, and Dr. R. Ben Shapiro at UW CSE's PLSE and LCI research groups. My research interests lie at the intersection of Computing Education, Programming Languages and Software Engineering, and more! I'm especially interested in programming systems and software engineering tools for non-computer scientists. Specifically, how do different aspects of programming systems help or hinder non-computer scientists'—scientists, artists, etc.—productivity when writing programs and ability to understand code? What tools can be developed and what existing systems can be redesigned to better support these programmers?

In my free time, I love reading, traveling, hiking, biking, and playing and especially GMing tabletop role-playing games (like D&D). My favorite genres are fantasy, science fiction, and speculative fiction more broadly. Some of my favorite authors include Christopher Ruocchio, Ursula K LeGuin, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Brandon Sanderson, and J.R.R. Tolkien.