NSF AI Institute: AI Institute for Adult Learning and Online Education (ALOE) (Grant/Award Number: 2112532), National Science Foundation.

The ALOE institute is led by the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), headquartered at Georgia Tech. The interdisciplinary and cross-institutional effort unites experts in computer science, artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive science, learning science and education from two Non-Profit Organizations (GRA and IMI Global), three industry partners (IBM, Boeing and Wiley) and seven universities (Georgia Tech, Georgia State, Harvard, Arizona State, Drexel, University of North Carolina, and multiple colleges within the Technical College System of Georgia [TCSG]). The multinational company Accenture joins NSF as a funding partner of ALOE.

The 5-year NSF grant is to establish the NSF AI Institute for Adult Learning and Online Education (ALOE) that will develop new AI theories and techniques as well as new models of lifelong learning, and evaluate their effectiveness at Georgia Tech, Georgia State, multiple colleges within the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), as well as with corporate partners IBM, Boeing and Wiley. ALOE aims to integrate AI theories, models, and techniques into online adult learning to create more available, affordable, adaptable, and scalable learning experiences, which creates more effective and efficient teaching and learning.

Artificial Intelligence-Augmented Motivation Indicator (AIMI) System

AIMI is an AI-augmented system that detects learners’ real-time motivation levels. AIMI utilizes neural network algorithms that interpret student facial expressions to indicate students’ current emotions (i.e., anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, and neutral) and motivation levels in real-time.

SMART (Student Mental Model Analyzer for Research and Teaching) System

SMART is a formative assessment and feedback system that analyze students’ academic essays (e.g., summaries of a text) and provide feedback to help learners to build a solid knowledge structure of a complex problem situation or reading materials. SMART analyzes students’ mental models in three dimensions (surface, structure, and semantic).