PhD Position in Human-Centered AI Programming Environments

Join Us!

Join us to rethink what programming environments can be! In this PhD, you will design and implement AI-powered IDE tools while working closely with users through participatory and inclusive research. We are looking for technically strong candidates who are excited to learn qualitative methods, who value accessibility and neurodiversity, and who want their work to contribute to more just and inclusive computing futures.

Introduction

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) are a core infrastructure in computing education and professional software development. Simultaneously, generative AI tools such as large language models are increasingly embedded in programming workflows, shaping how code is written, debugged, and learned. While these tools have the potential to support programmers meaningfully, they also risk reinforcing exclusion if accessibility, cognition, and power relations are treated as secondary concerns.

This PhD project focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of human‑centred, AI‑powered programming environments. It investigates how IDEs and generative AI tools can be technically redesigned to better support diverse cognitive styles and learning practices, with a particular focus on (self‑identified) neurodiverse women in computing. The project is grounded in Human‑Computer Interaction (HCI), software engineering, and applied AI, combining building systems with participatory and qualitative research methods.

The PhD is embedded in the Digital Interactions Lab at the Informatics Institute, University of Amsterdam (UvA), and will be supervised by Dr Siân Brooke.

As a PhD candidate, you will conduct technically intensive research at the intersection of software engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and Human‑Computer Interaction. You will be responsible for designing, implementing, and evaluating working IDE extensions and AI‑assisted programming tools, for example, as plugins for environments such as VS Code.

A core expectation of the project is that you take technical ownership of the software artefacts developed during the PhD. This includes architectural design, implementation, iteration, and evaluation of programming tools that integrate generative AI functionality.

Prior experience with participatory and qualitative research methods is not required. However, the successful candidate must be genuinely open to participatory, qualitative, and user‑centred research and be strongly motivated to learn and apply these approaches as a central part of the project. Close supervision and support will be provided to help the candidate develop these skills as needed. The research broadly unfolds in three phases:

You will build on your existing technical background by combining hands‑on software development with qualitative and mixed‑methods research, including focus groups, interviews, co‑design workshops, and A/B testing. By the end of the PhD, you will have deep expertise in evaluating human‑centred AI systems for programming environments, alongside strong qualitative and mixed‑methods research capabilities.

The research may involve activities such as:

• Designing and implementing IDE plugins or extensions, for example, using the VS Code Extension API.
• Developing modular, configurable software components for programming environments.
• Integrating large language models and other AI techniques into developer tools.
• Running usability studies, focus groups, and co‑design workshops with programmers.
• Conducting mixed‑methods evaluations of programming tools, including task‑based studies and A/B testing.
• Managing and maintaining research codebases and open‑source repositories.
• Publishing and presenting results at international venues such as ACM CHI, ICER, or ICSE.