HPI student receives Best Paper Award at SACLA 2025

Herman Kandjimi, a member of HPI Research School since 2023, received the Best Paper Award at SACLA 2025, the 54th Annual Conference of the Southern African Computer Lecturers’ Association, that was hosted by the Department of Computer Science & Informatics of the University of the Free State. 

The paper entitled “Leveraging Abstract Syntax Trees To Generate Instructive Hints In Programming” was co-authored by Mark Levin and Aslam Safla.

Herman's PhD research topic is “Modelling Students' Source Code Evolutions To Provide Personalised Guidance In Introductory Programming Courses” and has been inspired by common challenges faced in programming education by both educators and students due to the increased enrolment in the computer science field, heightened by the abstract nature of most programming concepts. His research aims to leverage machine learning algorithms to provide personalised learning environments to students.

He offers the following advice to his fellow students: "Stick with it, and although chaos and uncertainty may arise, something interesting will surely be attained in the end. Just as Denzel Washington has been famously quoted as saying, 'If you hang around the barbershop long enough, sooner or later you're gonna get a haircut'."

The HPI Research School is financially supported by the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering.