Elijah Rivera

Welcome! A single website can never fully reflect a person's ever-changing web of thought, but I've tried to hit the highlights below.

Other pages of this website are still works in progress. Check back soon! If you would like to connect in the meantime, feel free to email me: firstnamelastname (at) brandeis (dot) edu

Teaching

I am currently an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Brandeis University, where I teach across the CS curriculum, both intro-level courses  and advanced electives. Most recently I developed a course on Automation in Software Development, which attempts to situate recent advances in LLM-based technologies within a much richer history of automation techniques and frameworks. You can read more about this course here: [Coming Soon!]

Research

My interests extend more broadly to the intersection of programming languages (PL) and CSEd research, including both how we can apply PL techniques (e.g., synthesis, formal methods, property-based testing) to educational problems, and how we can develop pedagogy and classroom tooling for PL classes. This paper is one example that touches on both!

I also have an active interest in the intersection of CS and theology/philosophy (esp. Christian). I believe that every decision we make about the systems that we use, design, or allow to use us, has potential ramifications at both personal and societal levels. I don't believe that CS alone as a discipline is equipped to wrestle with these questions, and so I'm invested in supporting cross-disciplinary communication. I am working to enable both computer scientists and theologians, philosophers, ethicists, policy makers, etc., to develop a shared vocabulary and facilitate conversations that leverage the depth of knowledge of each discipline.  We're doing some writing and course-building in this space already, stay tuned!

In the meantime, I've got plenty of other projects I've worked on. Read more about all of my research publications here.

Faith

My faith in God guides everything I do. Outside of school I volunteer in a local church, where I help develop curriculum for Bible studies and help lead musical worship. I've also been involved in organizations that advocate for a Biblical worldview on ethics, politics, and practical social good for the local community.