On July 16, 2025, I had the opportunity to present my research at the Modeling and Simulation Teacher Workshop hosted by Old Dominion University faculty. I was very excited to be invited to participate in a session highlighting student research, as it gave me a chance to step back and reflect on a project that had grown significantly over a relatively short period of time.

The timing of the presentation was excellent for presenting concrete results and a clear picture of project expansion. Just a few weeks prior to the workshop, the first paper developed from this line of research had been accepted to the Winter Simulation Conference 2025. Because of that, I was able to draw directly from the experimental design, results, and insights presented in the paper and share the key outcome of the work: a prompting framework I developed called GPE-A (Goal, Performance, Exclusion–Architecture). Seeing the framework demonstrate significantly improved code generation performance compared to baseline approaches was exciting on its own, but being able to present those findings to an engaged audience was really a timely and rewarding experience.

Preparing the presentation and talk gave me the opportunity to consolidate months of work into a clear narrative and tailor it specifically to the workshop audience. I focused not just on what the framework does, but why the research matters and the broader implications of applying structured prompting approaches. In many ways, when considering the audience, the presentation also felt like a reflection of Old Dominion University’s commitment to supporting undergraduate students who take an active, driving role in research, which is something I’ve personally benefited from in this project.

One of the most memorable aspects of the workshop was the audience itself. The teachers in attendance asked very thoughtful questions, particularly about why the GPE-A framework appears to work as well as it does and how we plan to validate those hypotheses moving forward. Those discussions pushed me to articulate my reasoning more clearly and concisely explain the idea for the next steps for the research.

Overall, the experience was both affirming and motivating. Presenting at the workshop allowed me to reflect on how far the research has come and sharpen how I communicate my work to different types of audiences. It was also an especially timely opportunity to present this research, as many of the sessions throughout the workshop, and the interests of the attending teachers, focused on incorporating AI into the classroom.