Dear all,

I am happy to announce a special AI Seminar on August 19'th at 9 AM by Prof. Ashok Goel in Georgia Tech. The details are below. There is going to be a graduate student Q&A session following the talk. Please try to attend if at all possible.

Note: This talk may be of interest to colleagues not only in AI and CS, but also in cognitive science/psychology and learning science/education including distance education and professional education.

Location: KEC 1001
Zoom link: https://oregonstate.zoom.us/j/92974720938?pwd=UkNEdXBpeXNKQUppUjcxMVZxTExYQT09

Thanks,
Prasad

NSF National AI Research Institute on Adult Learning and Online Education  

  

Ashok K. Goel  

School of Interactive Computing  

Georgia Institute of Technology  

  

Abstract: NSF has announced the establishment of a National AI Research Institute on Adult Learning and Online Education (ALOE). The ALOE Institute seeks to address the societal challenge of lifelong learning, workforce development, and reskilling and upskilling of millions of American workers each year. Online education offers an affordable medium for taking education to workers where they live; however, there remain serious questions about the quality of online education. ALOE will develop new AI technologies that enhance cognitive engagement, teacher presence and social interaction in online education, and thereby improve its quality for adult learners in STEM disciplines at least to the level of face-to-face learning. In addition to these use-inspired AI techniques, ALOE will conduct foundational AI research on personalization of learning at scale, interactive machine teaching to enable teachers and learners to develop their own cognitive assistants, mutual theory of mind to enable humans and AI assistants to better understand one another, and participatory design of sociotechnical systems for responsible AI. I will describe ALOE’s vision, goals and plans, using examples from my own research for illustration.   

  

Bio: Ashok Goel is a Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology and the Chief Scientist with Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities. For over 35 years, he has conducted research into cognitive systems at the intersection of AI and cognitive science with a focus on computational design and creativity. Over the last decade much of his research has focused on AI in education and education in AI. Ashok is the Founding Editor of AAAI’s Interactive AI Magazine established in 2020 (InteractiveAIMag.org) and Editor Emeritus of AI Magazine. In 2019, he was a Co-Chair of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. He is a Fellow of AAAI and in 2019 he received AAAI’s Outstanding AI Educator Award.