PhD Candidate · Final year
Daniel Ogenrwot
I study how software evolves, and how AI coding agents are changing the way it is built.
Department of Computer Science, University of Nevada, Las Vegas ·
EVOL Lab
Final-year PhD Candidate in Computer Science at UNLV working on Empirical Software Engineering and AI for Software Engineering: patch propagation across forks, AI-generated pull requests, and the health of software ecosystems.
11
Courses taught
6
Committee roles
9
Awards & grants
6
Open artifacts
About
Hello, I'm Daniel.
I am a PhD Candidate and Graduate Assistant in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), working in the Software Evolution (EVOL) Lab under the supervision of Professor John Businge. I hold an MSc in Computer Science from Makerere University, Uganda (advised by Dr. Joyce Nakatumba-Nabende and Prof. Michel R.V. Chaudron) and a BSc in Computer Science from Gulu University, Uganda. My research lies at the intersection of Empirical Software Engineering and Agentic AI, with publications in venues including ASE, EMSE, MSR, SCAM, and AIware. I also serve the research community on the program and artifact evaluation committees of top software engineering venues, including ESEC/FSE, ASE, ISSTA, ICSME, and MSR, and as a reviewer for journals such as ACM TOCE, Scientific Reports, and Data in Brief.
"And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." — John 8:32
Empirical Software EngineeringAI for Software EngineeringAgentic AIMining Software RepositoriesSoftware Analytics
Education
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Aug. 2023 - presentPhD CandidateUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas -
2019 - 2021MSc in Computer ScienceMakerere University, Uganda -
2010 - 2013BSc in Computer ScienceGulu University, Uganda
Experience
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2023 - presentGraduate Research/Teaching AssistantUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) · Department of Computer Science
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2023 - presentPh.D. Research FellowAirQo Project, Makerere University · Google.org funded -
2022 - 2023Assistant LecturerGulu University, Uganda · Department of Computer Science
Research
Research agenda
What I work on
Selected work
All 19 publications
Featured publications
Updates
News
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Oct 2026New preprint: PyReprism: A Shared Lexical Foundation for Polyglot Code Analysis, an open-source library covering 187 languages.
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Sep 2026Joined the MSR 2027 Mining Challenge committee.
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Jul 2026Serving on the Artifact Evaluation Committees of ASE 2026 and ISSTA 2026.
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Jun 2026Journal paper published in Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE): PatchTrack: A Comprehensive Analysis of ChatGPT's Influence on Pull Request Outcomes.
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May 2026Invited to the ICSME 2026 Industry Track program committee.
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Apr 2026Paper accepted at ACM AIware 2026: AgenticFlict: A Large-Scale Dataset of Merge Conflicts in AI Coding Agent Pull Requests on GitHub.
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Jan 2026Invited to the MSR 2026 Junior Program Committee (Technical Papers).
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Jan 2026Paper accepted at MSR 2026 (Mining Challenge): How AI Coding Agents Modify Code: A Large-Scale Study of GitHub Pull Requests.
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Jan 2026Awarded the UNLV College of Engineering Marjorie & Victor Kunkel Engineering Scholarship.
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Jan 2026Invited to the ESEC/FSE 2026 program committee (Ideas, Visions and Reflections).
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Oct 2025Received the Distinguished Artifact Award at SCAM 2025 (co-located with ICSME 2025) for Refactoring-Aware Patch Integration Across Structurally Divergent Java Forks.
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Aug 2025Paper accepted at SEDE 2025: Design and Evaluation of a Scalable Data Pipeline for AI-Driven Air Quality Monitoring in Low-Resource Settings.
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Aug 2025Paper accepted at SEDE 2025: Structural and Connectivity Patterns in the Maven Central Software Dependency Network.
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Oct 2024Poster paper accepted at ASE 2024: PatchTrack: Analyzing ChatGPT's Impact on Software Patch Decision-Making in Pull Requests.
Recognition
Awards & Grants
2026
UNLV College of Engineering Marjorie & Victor Kunkel Engineering Scholarship
2025
Distinguished Artifact Award, IEEE SCAM 2025
2025
UNLV Graduate Professional and Student Association (GPSA) Research Grant ($1,249.61)
2024
UNLV Access Grant ($2,000)
2024
UNLV College of Engineering Roy and Helen Kelsall Scholarship Fund ($1,000)
2024
UNLV Graduate Professional and Student Association (GPSA) Research Grant ($1,456)
2019
MTN MoMo Open API Challenge — 1st Runner-up ($2,000)
2018
Makerere University Mak–Sida Bilateral Program Scholarship (~$15,000)
2013
Gulu University First-Class Honours, BSc Computer Science
Community
All service