arXiv subjects

Tyler Menezes

Publications and source records attributed to Tyler Menezes.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

"AI Slop is DDoSing Open Source": Understanding the Impact of AI-Generated Contributions on Open Source Sustainability

Open source software (OSS) communities are facing increasing pressure from Generative AI (GenAI) tools. We call it AI-DDoS: a denial-of-service effect in which plausible but low-quality AI-generated contributions overwhelm OSS community capacity. Using a phenomenon-based mixed-methods approach, we first analyze practitioner accounts from Reddit, OSS mentor mailing lists, and blogs to identify six recurring themes and derive hypotheses. We then evaluate these hypotheses using Bayesian Structural Time Series analysis across 294 repositories with over 2 million pull requests and issues. Our results show that while PR volume increased in 2025, merge rates declined, with one-time contributors experiencing an 18.18% drop in PR merge rates relative to the counterfactual. Finally, we identify 11 remediation strategies through practitioners' interviews and validate them with a survey of 229 OSS practitioners, grouping them into preservative, adaptive, and transformative orientations. Our findings show that AI-DDoS is not only a contribution-volume problem but a sustainability trap: communities often default to low-effort defensive strategies that protect short-term review capacity while making openness difficult to sustain.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2026

Writing Blog Posts Helps Students Connect Experiential Learning to the Workplace

Undergraduates in work-based learning experiences often produce meaningful contributions as viewed by their supervisors, yet report a negative perception of their contributions because they struggled during the process or produced only a few lines of code change. As a result, many omit these contributions from their resumes and job interviews, losing a meaningful signal of technical ability. This study examines how guided blog posts help CS students in work based learning experiences reflect on what they learned and contextualize their experiences. It also evaluates the depth of reflection produced. The study included twenty-five juniors and seniors studying CS at CTCs and other affordable local colleges. All participated in one cohort during Fall 2024. Each student was assigned a simple open source issue to solve from a popular open source project over the course of several weeks with the help of an industry mentor. While working on the project, students drafted a LinkedIn blog post using a five-section outline covering project mission, assigned issue, technical architecture, challenges faced, and submitted solution. We conducted a thematic analysis of the published posts and measured reflection depth using Mejia and Turns's Knowledge Gain instrument. Four themes emerged from the posts: identifying problem solving techniques, growth mindset, the challenges and benefits of collaborative development, and the impacts of their contribution on users. Additionally, students demonstrated deep reflection across all four Knowledge Gain constructs. Structured blog posts offer a low-cost addition to experiential CS learning such as capstones, micro-internships, internships, and apprenticeships. This study is descriptive; future work should compare outcomes against a control group.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2025

Assessing the Effectiveness of Selective Marketing to Broaden Participation in CS Education

Many studies have aimed to broaden participation in computing (BPC) through extracurricular educational initiatives. When these initiatives are structured as open-enrollment extracurricular programs, their success often depends on their marketing approach. However, there is little in the computing education research literature about how to conduct effective marketing for these initiatives. We describe the changes made to the marketing strategy of one such program, an educational hackathon for middle school and high school students in the Pacific Northwest. These included reducing promotion to affluent families, using targeted school-based communication, and emphasizing cost supports during initial promotion. We then compare attendance and self-reported demographics before and after the intervention. Results indicate a higher proportion of students from marginalized and low-income communities and no reduction in overall attendance.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2025

The Open Source Resume: How Open Source Contributions Help Students Demonstrate Alignment with Employer Needs

Computer science educators are increasingly integrating open source contributions into classes to prepare students for higher expectations due to GenAI, and to improve employment outcomes in an increasingly competitive job market. However, little is known about how employers view student open source contributions. This paper addresses two research questions qualitatively: what traits do employers desire for entry-level hires in 2025, and how can they be demonstrated through open source contributions? It also tests quantitatively the hypothesis that student knowledge of employers' expectations will improve their motivation to work on open source projects. To answer our qualitative questions, we conducted interviews with US hiring managers. We collaborated with each interviewee to create a "hiring manager agreement," which listed desirable traits and specific ways to demonstrate them through open source, along with a promise to interview some students meeting the criteria. To evaluate our quantitative hypothesis, we surveyed 650 undergraduates attending public universities in the US using an instrument based on expectancy-value theory. Hiring managers wanted many non-technical traits that are difficult to teach in traditional CS classes, such as initiative. There were many commonalities in how employers wanted to see these traits demonstrated in open source contributions. Viewing hiring manager agreements improved student motivation to contribute to open source projects. Our findings suggest that open source contributions may help CS undergraduates get hired, but this requires sustained engagement in multiple areas. Educators can motivate students by sharing employer expectations, but further work is required to determine if this changes their behavior.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2025

The Fast and Spurious: Developer Productivity with GenAI

Generative AI (GenAI) tools are increasingly being adopted in software development as productivity aids, since there is evidence that GenAI tools can improve individual aspects of productivity. However, productivity is multidimensional; accelerating one aspect of work may simply shift effort to another. In this paper, we investigate how GenAI adoption affects different dimensions of developer productivity. We surveyed 415 software practitioners to understand how they perceive productivity changes associated with AI adoption, using the SPACE framework (Satisfaction and well-being, Performance, Activity, Communication and collaboration, and Efficiency and flow). Our results reveal systematic redistribution of effort across SPACE dimensions. While frequent GenAI users reported faster task completion and higher output volume, these gains were offset by increased code review burden, persistent cognitive load from output verification, and unchanged collaboration patterns. We further provide an empirical mapping between the challenges perceived by developers and potential strategies to mitigate them. Overall, our findings suggest that, at the current stage of GenAI adoption, perceived productivity gains may be spurious -- surface-level acceleration, often accompanied by redistributed effort and hidden costs.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

Charting Uncertain Waters: A Socio-Technical Roadmap for Sustaining Open Source Communities in the Age of GenAI

Open Source Software (OSS) communities face a wave of uncertainty as Generative AI (GenAI) rapidly transforms how software is created, maintained, and governed. Without clear frameworks, communities risk being overwhelmed by the complexity and ambiguity introduced by GenAI, threatening the collaborative ethos that underpins OSS. To address this gap, we present a Socio-Technical System (STS)-guided conceptual framework that applies McLuhan's Tetrad as an analytic lens to articulate how GenAI reshapes the socio-technical dynamics of OSS development. Through a scenario-based exploration across four components of the STS-guided framework, software practices, documentation, community engagement, and governance, we identify plausible socio-technical impacts and outline a corresponding Roadmap for sustaining OSS communities in the Age of GenAI. This Roadmap will enable OSS researchers and practitioners to interpret emerging transformations, anticipate challenges, and design interventions that foster long-term community resilience. By adopting this framework, OSS leaders and researchers can proactively shape the future of their ecosystems, rather than simply reacting to technological upheaval.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2025

The Multifaceted Nature of Mentoring in OSS: Strategies, Qualities, and Ideal Outcomes

Mentorship in open source software (OSS) is a vital, multifaceted process that includes onboarding newcomers, fostering skill development, and enhancing community building. This study examines task-focused mentoring strategies that help mentees complete their tasks and the ideal personal qualities and outcomes of good mentorship in OSS communities. We conducted two surveys to gather contributor perceptions: the first survey, with 70 mentors, mapped 17 mentoring challenges to 21 strategies that help support mentees. The second survey, with 85 contributors, assessed the importance of personal qualities and ideal mentorship outcomes. Our findings not only provide actionable strategies to help mentees overcome challenges and become successful contributors but also guide current and future mentors and OSS communities in understanding the personal qualities that are the cornerstone of good mentorship and the outcomes that mentor-mentee pairs should aspire to achieve.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2021

Open-Source Internships With Industry Mentors

Internships help students connect what they have learned in the classroom to the real world, and students with access to internships are more likely to graduate and secure employment. However, many students are unable to find an internship by the time they graduate. This experience report describes a program where volunteer software engineers mentor students as they work on open-source projects in the summer, offered as an alternative to a traditional internship experience. We catalog the considerations involved in providing an experience similar to a traditional internship, describe our program's design, and provide two years' worth of participant evaluations and career outcomes as a measure of efficacy. The program served mostly undergraduates from non-R1 schools who are underrepresented in technology, and achieved similar educational outcomes to a traditional internship program. Most promisingly, mentors were willing to serve as a professional reference for 80% of students and the number of graduating seniors who secured full-time employment in technology was 7 points higher than average (despite occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic).

cs.CY↗