I am Sam! 👋 I'm an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute at UC San Diego. I am broadly interested in advancing authentic and responsible data science pedagogy at scale. My research in human-computer interaction (HCI) is centered on instructor-centered system design: by understanding challenges that programming and data science instructors face, we can design new systems that support instructors as they create and revise lessons, especially in response to emerging generative artificial intelligence tools.

I received my PhD from the UCSD Cognitive Science department in 2023, advised by Philip Guo. I received an MS in Computer Science in 2018 from UC Berkeley, advised by Josh Hug. I received a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 2017 from UC Berkeley.

Teach data science or programming? Check out:

UCSD Undergraduate or Masters student? My lab normally recruits research assistants every Fall Quarter, but we will not be recruiting during the 2026-27 academic year.

Publications

  1. Barriers that Programming Instructors Face While Performing Emergency Pedagogical Design to Shape Student-AI Interactions with Generative AI Tools

    Sam Lau, Kianoosh Boroojeni, Harry Keeling, Jenn Marroquin

    CHI

    Honorable Mention Award

    full paper

    Through interviews with 13 computing instructors and a survey of 169 instructors, we identify five key barriers that instructors face when performing "emergency pedagogical design" to reactively reshape their courses around student GenAI use: fragmented buy-in, conflicting policies, implementation challenges, assessment misfit, and lack of resources.

    [PDF] [O'Reilly Radar Article]

  2. Designing and Implementing Skill Tests at Scale: Frequent, Computer-Based, Proctored Assessments with Minimal Infrastructure Requirements

    Anastasiya Markova, Anish Kasam, Bryce Hackel, Marina Langlois, Sam Lau

    SIGCSE

    full paper

    Replacing a midterm with weekly 10-minute proctored programming quizzes ("Skill Tests") run by course staff in ordinary campus rooms reduced student anxiety without compromising final exam performance, offering a practical blueprint for frequent assessment that doesn't require dedicated institutional testing infrastructure.

    [PDF]

  7. Beyond the Hype: A Comprehensive Review of Current Trends in Generative AI Research, Teaching Practices, and Tools

    James Prather, Juho Leinonen, Natalie Kiesler, Jamie Gorson Benario, Sam Lau, Stephen MacNeil, Narges Norouzi, Simone Opel, Vee Pettit, Leo Porter, Brent N Reeves, Jaromir Savelka, David H Smith IV, Sven Strickroth, Daniel Zingaro

    ITiCSE

    full paper

    A systematic literature review, survey, and interviews with computer science instructors highlight salient trends in GenAI usage and perceptions.

    [PDF]