Curriculum vitae

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Contact

Sam Gilson · PhD student in computer science · Game2Learn lab, North Carolina State University

Advisor: Dr. Tiffany Barnes

sagilson@ncsu.edu (mailto:sagilson@ncsu.edu) · Website (https://sgilson7.github.io/) · ORCID (https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2394-8649) · GitHub (https://github.com/sgilson7)

Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UIYAyjoAAAAJ&hl=en) · Semantic Scholar (https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/2387936753) · OpenAlex (https://openalex.org/A5125954125)

Education

North Carolina State University — PhD student in Computer Science; entered in 2023.

Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computing — Undergraduate study, 2016–2020; GPA 3.96.

Appointments

North Carolina State University — Graduate Student Research Fellow, Game2Learn lab; began in 2023.

Microsoft — Software Engineer I–II, Azure Linux Image Builder, 2020–2023.

Research

Computer science education, generative AI help-seeking, and AI literacy, with a focus on undergraduate discrete mathematics and proof writing.

Published papers and posters

LLMs' reshaping of people, processes, products, and society in software development: a qualitative exploration with early adopters (/papers/tabarsi2026reshaping/)

Benyamin Tabarsi; Heidi Reichert; Sam Gilson; Ally Limke; Sandeep Kuttal; Tiffany Barnes

Published journal article · Empirical Software Engineering, volume 32, article 21 · Citation year 2027 · First online 2026-08-07

DOI 10.1007/s10664-026-10917-0 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-026-10917-0)

Adversarial Assignment Perturbation: Effects on Help-Seeking Behaviors in Student Generative AI Chatbot Use (/papers/gilson2026perturbation/)

Sam Gilson; Benyamin Tabarsi; Tiffany Barnes

Published conference paper · Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED 2026), LNAI 16585, pp. 440–449 · Citation year 2027 · First online 2026-06-27

DOI 10.1007/978-3-032-29770-9_48 (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-29770-9_48)

Confirming Correct, Missing the Rest: LLM Tutoring Agents Struggle Where Feedback Matters Most (/papers/yasir2026confirming/)

Tahreem Yasir; Wenbo Li; Sam Gilson; Sutapa Tithi; Xiaoyi Tian; Tiffany Barnes

Published workshop paper · Proceedings of the 21st Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications (BEA 2026), pp. 819–840 · Citation year 2026

DOI 10.18653/v1/2026.bea-1.56 (https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.bea-1.56)

Designing AI-Resistant Assignments via Iterative Perturbation to Promote Interactive Learning (/papers/gilson2026designing/)

Sam Gilson

Published poster · Proceedings of the 57th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V.2 (SIGCSE TS 2026), p. 1745 · Citation year 2026

DOI 10.1145/3770761.3777058 (https://doi.org/10.1145/3770761.3777058)

How Do Undergraduates Interested in Computer Science Use Online, On-Demand CS Coursework? (/papers/gilson2025oodcs/)

Sam Gilson; Tiffany Barnes; Mahzabin Tamanna; Saminur Islam

Published conference paper · Proceedings of the Twelfth ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S ’25), pp. 271–275 · Citation year 2025

DOI 10.1145/3698205.3733938 (https://doi.org/10.1145/3698205.3733938)

Preprints and work under review

When Verification Hurts: Asymmetric Effects of Multi-Agent Feedback in Logic Proof Tutoring (/papers/yasir2026verification/)

Tahreem Yasir; Sutapa Dey Tithi; Benyamin Tabarsi; Dmitri Droujkov; Sam Gilson; Yasitha Rajapaksha; Xiaoyi Tian; Arun Ramesh; DongKuan Xu; Tiffany Barnes

arXiv preprint · arXiv:2603.27076 · Citation year 2026 · First online 2026-03-28

DOI 10.48550/arXiv.2603.27076 (https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.27076)

Perturbed Assignments and Subgoal-Labeled AI Literacy Instruction in Undergraduate Discrete Mathematics (/papers/gilson-summer2026/)

Sam Gilson

Preprint; submitted to the SIGCSE TS 2027 Student Research Competition · Preprint · Citation year 2026

Free-tier Large Language Models on the MATH Benchmark: Implications for AI Literacy Instruction (/papers/gilson-math-benchmark/)

Sam Gilson

Manuscript under review; submitted to the AERA 2027 annual meeting · Manuscript under review

Talks

Perturbed Assignments and Subgoal-Labeled AI Literacy Instruction in Undergraduate Discrete Mathematics (/talks/gilson-splice2026/) — SPLICE LLM Working Group, 9 October 2026.

Making research easier to find (/talks/gilson-g2l2026/) — Game2Learn lab, North Carolina State University, 7 October 2026.

Applications of AI Literacy to GenAI-Assisted Game Development (/talks/gilson2026csc484lecture/) — Guest lecture, CSC 484/584 Game AI, North Carolina State University, 17 September 2026.

Teaching

CSC 151, Java Programming — Instructor of record, Central Carolina Community College, Spring and Fall 2026.

CSC 226, Discrete Mathematics — Instructor of record, North Carolina State University, Summer 2025 and Summer 2026.

CSC 216, Software Development Fundamentals — Instructor of record, North Carolina State University, Summer 2024.

CSC 484/584, Game AI — Guest lecturer, North Carolina State University, Fall 2026.

Award

Excellence in Teaching Award for STEM, Central Carolina Community College, 2026; CSC 151, Spring 2026.

Research software

Perturbation Workbench (/projects/perturbation-workbench/) — Browser tool for recording questions, rubrics, and attempts during iterative assignment perturbation. The instructor runs the chatbot queries and grades the responses.

PDF Redactor (/projects/pdf-redactor/) — Browser tool for finding identifiers, reviewing redaction boxes, and exporting a rebuilt PDF.