Funding Details

Papert Lab is fortunate to have received funding by Emergent Ventures ($20,000) and Foundry10 ($500). This funding is primarily used to fund living, compute, travel, and research expenditures. Since we are a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all donations are tax-deductible and directly support our research mission. I believe that organizations have a duty to be fully transparent, and hence, I outline our expenses below:

Funding, September – January

Cost Breakdown

I currently live in Blacksburg, VA with two roommates and roughly spend $2,500 per month on living expenses. Rent in Blacksburg is $650/month over the summer (May–August), but will increase to roughly $1,000/month when the school year starts, meaning that my expenses will increase to $3,000 per month. I have $11,000 remaining from the Emergent Ventures grant, meaning that I can currently afford to live in Blacksburg and continue doing research through October, 2026.

My initial plan was to stay in Blacksburg through September, but given the traction that my research has gained both internally and among peers, I will continue my research on specification design through the end of the Fall semester at Virginia Tech. This is advantageous for the following reasons:

1. I will pilot our pedagogical tools with thousands of students across courses at Virginia Tech and other collaborating universities. I currently have agreed with one professor to pilot my tool in his 600-person CS course, and am currently in conversation with three additional professors.
2. Publishing results requires approval by an IRB, which is most accessible through a university.
3. I am receiving incredible mentorship from my PI and other grad students. Blacksburg is also a pretty boring and cheap town, making it an ideal place to avoid distractions.

Pending paper acceptances, I also require $3,000 in conference travel to Finland in November and Sacramento (sadly) in February. Papert Lab conservatively spends $1,000/month on research expenses (participant stipends, Claude Code, etc.), which must also be covered. In total, we require an additional $20,000 in funding to fund our research from October–January (leaving ~$5,000 in reserves).

Expected Deliverables

• Introducing specification design as a framework and pedagogy.
  • Under review, SIGCSE TS, Sacramento CA.
• Outlining implications of AI-assisted programming on non-CS majors; analyzing change in quality of undergraduate specifications based on scenarios.
  • To be submitted, Koli Calling, Finland.
• 20 participant interviews characterizing the challenges and help-seeking behaviors that novices exhibit while engaging with scenarios for specification design; to inform future pedagogy.
  • To be submitted, CHI, Pittsburgh PA.
• Dataset of 5,000+ student interactions with specification design pedagogy.
  • Results submitted to TOCE and ICER 2027.
• Understanding how novices use notional machines and simulated scenarios to solve problems.
  • To be investigated, IJLS, IJAIED, AIED, C&I, or Journal of Cognitive Science.
• RCT investigating the effectiveness of our specification design pedagogy.
  • To be investigated, TOCHI, journal submission.