My name is Hongxuan Chen, and I am a fourth year PhD student in Computer Science at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). I am passionate about CS education, and my research focuses on how students learn discrete mathematics and algorithm design. I am co-advised by Dr. Geoffrey Herman and Dr. Jeff Erickson.
Here is my cv (last updated: April 2025) and Google Scholar profile.
J Liu, S Poulsen, E Goodwin, H Chen, G Williams, Y Gertner, D Franklin
ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE)
Earlier version presented as a poster at 2024 SIGCSE TS
H Chen, K Braught, GL Herman, J Erickson
2025 ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE TS)
S Poulsen, H Chen, Y Gertner, B Cosman, M West, GL Herman
2025 ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE TS)
H Chen, A Li, G Challen, K Cunningham
2024 ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE TS)
Invited talk at the Computing Education Seminar at UC Davis (Remote, Oct 2024)
S Poulsen, Y Gertner, H Chen, B Cosman, M West, GL Herman
2024 ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE TS)
H Chen, MM Fong, GL Herman, M Silva
2023 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)
H Chen, M West, S Hilgenfeldt, M Silva
2023 ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE TS)
MM Fong, L Butler, H Chen, GL Herman
2022 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)
M Fong, H Chen, L Butler, G Herman
2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
MS Mahmood, H Chen, M Fong, G Herman
2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
H Chen, K Braught, GL Herman, J Erickson
2025 ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE TS)
H Chen, A Li, G Challen, K Cunningham
2024 ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE TS)
Invited talk at the Computing Education Seminar at UC Davis (Remote, Oct 2024)
H Chen, MM Fong, GL Herman, M Silva
2023 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)
H Chen, M West, S Hilgenfeldt, M Silva
2023 ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE TS)
I am passionate about teaching computer science and aspire to become a teaching professor.
I was a co-instructor for CS 233 Computer Architectures at UIUC in Spring 2024 with Morgan Fong, under the supervision of Dr. Geoffrey Herman, long-time instructor of that course. Morgan and I were in charge of every aspect of the course with a cohort size of around 280 students. Student performance was at the same level, if not better, compared with past semesters. More importantly, I got to practice my skills of class and team management, public speaking, communication and connection with students, and so on.
I also had experience working as a graduate teaching assistant for CS 233 and CS 173 (Discrete Mathematics), and undergraduate course assistant for CS 125 (CS1 course for our CS majors, now known as CS 124), CS 233, CS 374 (Algorithms and Models of Computation).
In summer 2020, when I was a junior in CS at UIUC, I worked for Girls Who Code as a teaching assistant. It was quite a fulfilling and inspiring experience, which eventually led me to the route of studying CS education and wanting to becoome a CS professor.