The EngageAI Institute emerged from the confluence of independent lines of investigation that fortuitously intersected in 2019. Principal Investigator (PI) Lester and co-PI Biswas were working on creating artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for education with a focus on interactive narrative and pedagogical agents. Co-PI Hmelo-Silver’s research involved innovating in the learning sciences with a focus on computer-supported collaborative learning. Co-PI Bansal had been advancing statistical natural language processing and machine learning with a focus on multimodal semantics and generalizable deep learning. Recognizing the enormous potential that could be realized by bringing these ideas together and driven by the broad community vision provided by co-PI Roschelle, they created a team spanning their five institutions.
Over the next two years, they considered how powerful story-driven learning experiences might be generated for learners in a broad range of contexts including classrooms and museums. They developed and refined an ambitious research agenda around narrative-centered learning environments featuring embodied conversational agents and multimodal learning analytics, all driven by (and driving) advances in natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning, and all with the goal of creating effective, engaging learning experiences. They added the expertise of their colleagues in the learning sciences, computer vision, and ethics, and they partnered with a host of educational organizations across the country.
In 2021, through the National Science Foundation (NSF) AI Institutes program, the NSF launched the NSF AI Institute for Engaged Learning headquartered at North Carolina State University with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Indiana University, Vanderbilt University, and Digital Promise as lead partners.
Recent Events & Updates
- August 2023: Held second EngageAI Institute Forum in Silicon Valley with 80 educational practitioners, researchers, developers, and funders to discuss how generative AI can empower educators as learning designers.
- August 2023: Held Summer 2023 All-Hands Meeting at the Digital Promise offices in Redwood City, CA
- July 2023: TWIML AI Podcast episode, “Unifying Vision and Language Models with Mohit Bansal | The TWIML AI Podcast” with Co-PI Mohit Bansal
- May 2023: Digital Promise contributes to a new report published by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology – Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations
- April 2023: Co-PI Cindy Hmelo-Silver elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- April 2023: Co-PI Jeremy Roschelle and Pati Ruiz from Digital Promise led a highly interactive session with school superintendents and leaders at the League of Innovative Schools meeting in Birmingham, AL
- April 2023: Indiana University doctoral student Haesol Bae will be joining the Department of Educational Theory and Practice (ETAP) at the University at Albany, State University of New York as an assistant professor in Learning and Teaching with AI in Fall 2023
- March 2023: Managing Director Jonathan Rowe presented a keynote at the LAK 2023 Workshop on Situating Affect in Learning Analytics
- May 2022: World Bank EduTech Podcast episode, “Enabling New Forms of Student Learning through Artificial Intelligence” with PI James Lester and Co-PI Jeremy Roschelle
- April 2022: Open position for a postdoctoral scholar in AI in Education at Indiana University – Bloomington
- Dec 2021: Held virtual retreat of Institute key personnel
- Nov 2021: PI Lester gives plenary address at the National Academy of Education
- Oct 2021: Official launch of the EngageAI Institute!