Co-Founder of NemoGB Software

I co-founded “Nemo Gradebook,” an instructor-facing web application for computing final course grades. NemoGB is an R package that maintains the structure and complexity of a course grade while guaranteeing accuracy through comprehensive unit-testing. The challenges of consistency and precision in grading systems are addressed by applying the practices of data analysis and the principles of software development. The rigorous unit-testing in the package minimizes computational error and reduces the manual inputs, significantly lowering the risks of typographic and logical errors in scripts. Because of this, course grades can be computed accurately and quickly. The accuracy allows course instructors to have reliable grade computations, and the speed allows them to compute grades throughout the semester in order to monitor student progress.

I developed the backend R software that used basic meta-programming. This product has been used to calculate the course grades for thousands of students in large data science and statistics classes. By summer 2024, we were funded by UC Berkeley’s Instructional Technology and Innovation Micro Grant Program. I am also the first co-author of the software paper that we submitted to the Journal of Open Source Education. Over 2.5 years of development, I learned open-source software, version control, the process of peer-reviewed publications, and academic collaboration. Overall, my work on “Nemo Gradebook” showed me the power of utilizing technology and software to inform data-driven decisions, especially in education.

Fun fact: The name “Nemo” comes from combining the first names of the two founding members of this product: myself, Nikita, and Monika.