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Drexel Researchers Will Develop Artificial Intelligence Technologies for Adult Learning and Online Education as Part of $220 Million NSF Initiative

Researchers in Drexel University’s College of Computing & Informatics, who are studying artificial intelligence as a tool for teaching, have been selected to join a $220 million National Science Foundation initiative to expand the use of AI technology in areas ranging from agriculture and food supply chains to adult and online learning. Drexel’s team will join AI researchers from around the country in an effort to use the technology to make education more accessible for Americans who are adapting to rapidly changing workplaces. The NSF’s Adult Learning & Online Education (ALOE) Institute will be supported by $20 million over five years.  

“The goal of ALOE is to develop new artificial intelligence theories and techniques to make online education for adults at least as effective as in-person education in STEM fields,” said Ashok Goel, a professor of computer science and human-centered computing and the chief scientist with the Center for 21^st Century Universities at Georgia Institute of Technology, who will be executive director of the ALOE Institute. “ALOE will develop new types of trainable virtual assistants, novel AI techniques to personalize learning at an unprecedented scale, and AI systems to support both learners and teachers.”

ALOE is one of 11 new AI research institutes recently announced by the NSF as an expansion of its NSF AI Institutes initiative that started in 2020. The education-focused ALOE Institute entails 12 partner institutions, including Georgia Research Alliance, Georgia Tech, Drexel, Georgia State University, Arizona State University, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Harvard University, Technical College System of Georgia, Wiley, Boeing, IBM and IMS Global.

Over the next five years, the ALOE Institute will advance AI research in four foundational areas: Personalization at Scale, Mutual Theory of Mind, Machine Teaching, and Responsible AI.

See the full story here: https://drexel.edu/now/archive/2021/July/NSF-AI-online-adult-learning/