CV

Education

• PhD in Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, ???
  • Advisor: Mariana Silva
  • Research Interest: Computer Science Education
• M.S. in Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2025 (expected)
  • Advisor: Mariana Silva
  • Research Interest: Computer Science Education
• B.S. in Mathematics & Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2023

Work experience

• Aug 2024 - Dec 2024: PrairieLearn, Inc.
  • Software developer
  • Implement LLM-based grading interface in PrairieLearn core, including access control and billing
  • Implement LLM grading accuracy statistics in PrairieLearn core, including access control

Skills

• Programming
  • Python, Javascript/Typescript, PostgreSQL/mySQL, Docker, Github, C/C++

Publications

Language Models are Few-Shot Graders

Zhao, C., Silva, M., Poulsen, S. (2025). Language Models are Few-Shot Graders. In: Cristea, A.I., Walker, E., Lu, Y., Santos, O.C., Isotani, S. (eds) Artificial Intelligence in Education. AIED 2025. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15880. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-98459-4_1

Autograding Mathematical Induction Proofs with Natural Language Processing

Zhao, C., Silva, M. & Poulsen, S. Autograding Mathematical Induction Proofs with Natural Language Processing. Int J Artif Intell Educ (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-025-00498-2

Implementing a Tool for Structured Roles in Hybrid Collaborative Learning Environments

A Comprehensive Redesign of CS1 for Engineering Students

A Case for Bayesian Grading

Craig Zilles, Chenyan Zhao, Yuxuan Chen, Evan Michael Matthews, and Matthew West. 2024. A Case for Bayesian Grading. In Proceedings of the 2024 on ACM Virtual Global Computing Education Conference V. 1 (SIGCSE Virtual 2024). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 275–278. https://doi.org/10.1145/3649165.3703624

A User Experience Study of MeetingMayhem: A Web-Based Game to Teach Adversarial Thinking

Shan Huang, JiWoo Lee, Chenyan Zhao, Geoffrey Herman, Marc Olano, Linda Oliva, Alan Sherman, "A User Experience Study of MeetingMayhem: A Web-Based Game to Teach Adversarial Thinking." In the proceedings of Proceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1, 2024.

How Much Deadline Flexibility on Formative Assessments Should We Be Giving to Our Students?

Zhao, C., & West, M., & Silva, M. (2023, June), How Much Deadline Flexibility on Formative Assessments Should We Be Giving to Our Students? Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43372

Projects

Automatic Short Answer Grading (ASAG) at scale using Large Language Models

Designing a new CS1 course for Engineering students

A built-in web calculator for PrairieLearn

Teaching

Graduate Teaching Assistant - Numerical Methods

Lab Assistant

Undergraduate Course Assistant - Scientific Visualization

Undergraduate Course Assistant - Numerical Methods