PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
X. Christine Wang, PhD
University at buffalo
Dr. Wang is a Professor of Early Education and Learning Sciences at the University at Buffalo (UB), where she also serves as the Senior Associate Dean for Research at the Graduate School of Education and as Director of the Fisher-Price Endowed Early Childhood Research Center. A core faculty member at UB’s Institute for Learning Sciences, her research primarily focuses on technology and young children’s learning and development, computational thinking and literacy, and early childhood education in international contexts.
Biography
Dr. Wang’s research has been supported by NSF, IES, Spencer Foundation, AERA, and International Reading Association. Her ongoing projects include the IES funded national “Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI (CELaRAI),” the NSF/IES-funded “National AI Institute for Exceptional Education,” and NSF-funded “Exploring AI Literacies Framework for Young Children.” She recently launched “PlayfulAI Learning and Design Lab,” which focuses on promoting responsible, effective, and equitable AI learning and tool design for children (ages 4-8 age). At UB, Dr. Wang is spearheading an AI + Education Learning Community Series to explore responsible AI in education with K-12 educators, AI experts, and educational researchers.
A recipient of the AERA 2007 “Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies,” Dr. Wang has authored over 100 academic publications, including articles in top-tiered research journals such as Early Childhood Research Quarterly, AERA Open, Early Education and Development, Journal of Research on Technology in Education, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, and Reading Psychology. She has delivered more than 40 invited or keynote presentations and over 100 conference presentations nationally and internationally. Dr. Wang is actively involved in professional organizations such as AERA, ISLS, NAEYC, and ACEI. She served as the Associate Editor of Early Childhood Research Quarterly (2016-2023) and the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Research on Childhood Education (2017-2019). Recently she co-chaired the 2024 annual meeting of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS).
EARLY LITERACY THRUST
Tanya Christ, PhD
Early Literacy Lead
eastern Carolina university
Biography
Dr. Christ is the Spangler Distinguished Professor of Early Child Literacy at East Carolina University. She has published 76 academic articles, including in top-tiered research journals (e.g., AERA Open, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, and Journal of Literacy Research) and presented at 100 conferences nationally and internationally. Her research expertise includes early childhood literacy, conversational interactions during book discussions, vocabulary, and comprehension; digital literacies, and culturally sustaining pedagogy. Dr. Christ works with multiple research teams across nine universities, four countries, and five disciplinary areas. Her work has been funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, Spencer Foundation, International Literacy Association, and American Educational Research Association. She has served and continues to serve in several positions in the Literacy Research Association and International Literacy Association organizations. Dr. Christ’s career began as a preschool teacher, and then an early elementary teacher in NYC Public Schools.
John Strong, PhD
Co-PI
University at buffalo
Biography
Dr. Strong is Assistant Professor of Literacy Education in the Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo. He is also Associate Director of Research in the Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction and Co-PI in the Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI. His research focuses on developing and testing reading and writing interventions to support students’ foundational reading skills and comprehension of complex texts, with an emphasis on the role of text structure knowledge in reading and writing. His research emphasizes equitable literacy instruction and improving literacy achievement for diverse populations of students who are traditionally underserved by public schools. Dr. Strong has published in leading journals (e.g., Reading Research Quarterly and Scientific Studies of Reading) and has received external funding from the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF), the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), and the International Literacy Association (ILA). He received the Timothy and Cynthia Shanahan Outstanding Dissertation Award and was named a Reading Hall of Fame Emerging Scholars Fellow. He has served as associate editor of The Reading Teacher and serves on the editorial review boards of top-tier literacy research and practice journals.
Laura Tortorelli, PhD
Co-PI
Michigan state university
Biography
Dr. Tortorelli is an Associate Professor of Elementary Literacy in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. Dr. Tortorelli’s scholarship integrates quantitative, mixed methods, and research-practice partnership approaches to investigate how texts, technologies, and teacher knowledge shape reading and writing instruction, with an emphasis on foundational skills and implications for policy and practice. She has been named an Emerging Scholar by the Reading Hall of Fame and a Jeanne Chall Visiting Researcher by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research has been funded by the International Literacy Association, the Spencer Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund, and the Institute of Education Sciences. She leads teacher preparation in literacy for Michigan State’s top-ranked Elementary Education Program. She was an associate editor of The Reading Teacher from 2020-2024 and co-leads the Word Study Study Group of the Literacy Research Association.
AI THRUST
Jinjun Xiong, PhD
AI Lead
University at buffalo
Biography
Dr. Xiong is a world-renowned AI expert. His research focuses on use-inspired end-to-end AI systems research and productive AI tooling. His research has resulted in nine best-paper awards and ten nominations for best-paper awards in top-tier conferences. Many of his research results have been integrated into IBM’s commercial products with significant industrial impacts. He is an IEEE Fellow, and an experienced leader of multidisciplinary research teams. Xiong currently serves as the Scientific Director of the NSF/IES-funded National AI Institute for Exceptional Education, where he champions developing AI for education innovations. He is also the Director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (IAD) at the University at Buffalo. He is also one of the key contributors to the recently announced $400M investment from the state of New York to build a state-of-the-art AI infrastructure, called Empire AI, to encourage open AI research. The infrastructure will be housed at UB, and our proposed CELaRAI center can greatly benefit from having access to such an infrastructure.
Abeer Alwan, PhD
Co-PI
University of California
los angeles
Biography
Dr. Alwan is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCLA, where she established the Speech Processing and Auditory Perception Laboratory in 1992. Her research is multidisciplinary, and she has been collaborating with linguists, psychologists, physicians, education specialists, other engineers and computer scientists throughout her career. Her research has focused on modeling human speech production and speech perception mechanisms and applications of these models in science and technology. She is a pioneer in using imaging techniques to study speech production (MRI and high speed imaging), and in developing noise-robust technology that incorporates models of human speech perception. The unifying theme of her research is that hybrid science-based and Machine Learning approaches are needed to solve challenging problems. This is especially true in low-resource environments such as children’s automatic speech recognition (ASR) and dialect detection. She has been working on children’s speech (analysis, ASR and NLP) for more than 15 years, and led several NSF-supported multi-university teams to study child speech. Her work has been supported by the NSF, NIH, DARPA, and industry. She has supervised more than 30 PhD, 32 MS, and 40 undergraduate students and with her students, published more than 245 peer-reviewed papers in top-tier venues (72 journal papers and more than 175 conference papers), 2 edited books, and 8 book chapters. Prof. Alwan is a Fellow of the IEEE, Acoustical Society of America, and Int. Speech Communication Association, and was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University and at Trinity College, Dublin. She is a recipient of the NSF and NIH Career Awards, TRW Teaching Award, Engineering Council Distinguished Educator Award, and the Okawa Award in Telecommunications.
Dilek Hakkani Tür, PhD
Co-PI
university of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign
Biography
Dr. Tür is a Professor of Computer Science at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, specializing in natural language processing and conversational agents, and with experience on industrial-scale virtual personal assistants (including Microsoft Cortana, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa) as a lead researcher, as well as government-funded projects (such as DARPA GALE and CALO and IARPA SCIL) related to conversational AI. She has over 100 patents that were granted and co-authored more than 300 papers in natural language and speech processing. She received several best paper awards for publications she co-authored on conversational systems, including her earlier work on active learning for dialogue systems, from IEEE Signal Processing Society, International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) and EURASIP. She served as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing, area editor for speech and language processing for Elsevier’s Digital Signal Processing Journal and IEEE Signal Processing Letters, and served on the ISCA Advisory Council. She also served as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing (2019-2021), and an IEEE Distinguished Industry Speaker. Currently, she is the SigDial President, co-Editor-in-Chief of Transactions of ACL and NAACL board member. She is a fellow of the IEEE (2014) and ISCA (2014).
AI ETHICS THRUST
Sanmi Koyejo, PhD
AI Ethics Lead
Stanford University
Biography
Dr. Koyejo is a CS professor at Stanford and leads Stanford Trustworthy AI Research (STAIR), which develops the principles and practice of trustworthy machine learning, including fairness and robustness. Koyejo has been the recipient of several awards, best paper awards at premier machine learning venues, a Skip Ellis Early Career Award, and a Sloan Fellowship. Koyejo serves on the Neural Information Processing Systems Foundation Board and as president of the Black in AI organization, which works to increase the representation of Black individuals in AI.
X. Christine Wang, PhD
PI
University at Buffalo
Biography
Dr. Wang is a Professor of Early Education and Learning Sciences at the University at Buffalo (UB), where she also serves as the Senior Associate Dean for Research at the Graduate School of Education and as Director of the Fisher-Price Endowed Early Childhood Research Center. A core faculty member at UB’s Institute for Learning Sciences, her research primarily focuses on technology and young children’s learning and development, computational thinking and literacy, and early childhood education in international contexts. Dr. Wang’s research has been supported by NSF, IES, Spencer Foundation, AERA, and International Reading Association. Her ongoing projects include the IES funded national “Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI (CELaRAI),” the NSF/IES-funded “National AI Institute for Exceptional Education,” and NSF-funded “Exploring AI Literacies Framework for Young Children.” She recently launched “PlayfulAI Learning and Design Lab,” which focuses on promoting responsible, effective, and equitable AI learning and tool design for children (ages 4-8 age). At UB, Dr. Wang is spearheading an AI + Education Learning Community Series to explore responsible AI in education with K-12 educators, AI experts, and educational researchers.
A recipient of the AERA 2007 “Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies,” Dr. Wang has authored over 100 academic publications, including articles in top-tiered research journals such as Early Childhood Research Quarterly, AERA Open, Early Education and Development, Journal of Research on Technology in Education, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, and Reading Psychology. She has delivered more than 40 invited or keynote presentations and over 100 conference presentations nationally and internationally. Dr. Wang is actively involved in professional organizations such as AERA, ISLS, NAEYC, and ACEI. She served as the Associate Editor of Early Childhood Research Quarterly (2016-2023) and the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Research on Childhood Education (2017-2019). Recently she co-chaired the 2024 annual meeting of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS).
LEARNING SCIENCES THRUST
Chris Hoadley, PhD
Learning Sciences Lead
University at buffalo
Biography
Dr. Hoadley is a professor and director of the Institute for Learning Sciences at the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York. He has over 45 years experience designing and building educational technology, and has researched connections between technology, learning, and collaboration for over 35 years. His research focuses on collaborative technologies, computer support for cooperative learning (CSCL), and design-based research methods, a term he coined in the late 1990s. Hoadley founded the dolcelab, the Laboratory for Design Of Learning, Collaboration & Experience. He is a fellow of the International Society for the Learning Sciences (ISLS) and was an affiliate scholar for the National Academy of Engineering’s Center for the Advancement of Scholarship in Engineering Education (CASEE). Hoadley was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in the South Asia Regional Research program to study educational technologies for sustainability and empowerment in rural Himalayan villages in 2008-2009. From 2011-2013, he was program director of the Educational Technology programs at NYU and founding program director of the Games for Learning program, and on the founding faculty presidium of MAGNET, the NYU Media And Games Network. From 2013-2016, he was on loan to the National Science Foundation as the program director in charge of the Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies program in the Directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering and the Directorate of Education and Human Resources Division of Research on Learning.
Jaekyung Lee, PhD
Co-PI
University at buffalo
Biography
Dr. Lee is a professor of educational data science at the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education, and he specializes in educational assessment, policy research, and program evaluation, with a focus on the issues of school effectiveness, accountability and equity. Lee is a Fellow of the American Education Research Association (AERA) and a Fulbright Global Scholar. His work has been supported by AERA, National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, IES, and NSF grants, and it is dedicated to closing educational inequalities and achievement gaps among diverse racial and socioeconomic groups of students. Being an expert on large-scale educational data analysis, Lee has authored several books on this topic, including The Testing Gap (Information Age Publishing, 1997), The Anatomy of Achievement Gaps (Oxford University Press, 2016), and Centering Whole-Child Development in Global Education Reform (Routledge, 2022).
PROJECT MANAGER
Kristen Smigielski, PhD
Project Manager
University at buffalo
Biography
Dr. Kristen Smigielski earned her PhD in Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning at the University at Buffalo, where she specializes in teacher preparation and inclusive education, along with a Certificate of Advanced Study in Qualitative Methodology. She holds a Master of Science in Education in Childhood Education from Buffalo State University, a Master of Music from the University at Buffalo, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Buffalo State University. Kristen is a New York State Professionally Certified teacher in Early Childhood, Childhood, and Music, with over five years of elementary school teaching experience. She has served as an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate School of Education and a Clinical Experience Coach for teacher residents at the University at Buffalo. Kristen’s research is driven by a commitment to social justice and disability rights, focusing on how in-service general educators’ social and emotional learning, emotional intelligence, and soft skills influence their ability to create inclusive classrooms for students with disabilities. Her studies delve into educators’ perceptions of their own biases and identities, their teaching practices, and the perceived gaps in their preparation programs, with the goal of advocating for systemic changes that promote equity and inclusion. Her work has been published in Teaching Music to Students with Differences and Disabilities (2nd ed.) (Hammel & Yee, 2024, Oxford University Press), American Journal of Education Forum, and Kappa Delta Pi’s Teacher Advocate. Kristen has presented at national conferences, including the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) Winter Conference, State University of New York AI Symposium, State University of New York Graduate Research and Creative Activities Conference, University of South Florida’s Interdisciplinary Symposium on Qualitative Methodologies, and University at Buffalo’s Graduate School of Education Student Research Symposium. She serves on the AERA Qualitative Research Special Interest Group Mentoring Committee and Graduate Student Committee, and is a Student Board Member of the American Journal of Education. Her work combines rigorous research with practical application to bridge the gap between theory and practice in teacher education, and reflects her commitment to advancing disability rights and social justice in education.
ADVISORY BOARD
DEVIN M. KEARNS, PHD
Early Literacy Thrust
North Carolina State university
Biography
Dr. Kearns is Goodnight Distinguished Professor in Early Literacy at North Carolina State University at Raleigh. He is also a research scientist for the Haskins Global Literacy Hub affiliated with Yale University and the University of Connecticut. Devin studies how students learn to read and designs instructional programs to improve reading achievement. He conducts research to understand the cognitive and neurobiological basis of reading and to help schools better implement multi-tiered systems of support to increase the literacy success of all students. Devin publishes articles for researchers and educators on reading difficulty and helps schools and districts implement high-quality reading instruction.
KATIE DAVIS, PHD
AI Thrust
University of Washington
Biography
Dr. Davis is Associate Professor at the University of Washington (UW) Information School, Adjunct Associate Professor in the UW College of Education, and a founding member and Co-Director of the UW Digital Youth Lab. Dr. Davis investigates the impact of digital technologies on young people’s learning, development, and well-being, and co-designs positive technology experiences for youth and their families. Her work bridges the fields of human development, human-computer interaction, and the learning sciences. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Washington, Dr. Davis was a research scientist at Harvard Project Zero. From 2018-2022, she was a visiting research scientist in the Human Computer Interaction Lab at Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany. Dr. Davis holds two master’s degrees and a doctorate in Human Development and Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
MARY HOWARD
AI Ethics Thrust
Veronica E. Connor Middle School
Biography
Ms. Howard earned her BA from Michigan State University and her MSEd in Elementary Education from Niagara University. She currently teaches 6th grade science and ELA in Grand Island. Mrs. Howard uses digital tools to encourage engagement, critical thinking, collaboration, and create a life-long passion for learning. Whether the digital experience is related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics or promotes literacy, she believes passionately in the potential that technology has for reaching and engaging ALL learners. For the past ten years, Mrs. Howard has presented at technology conferences across NYS and has become a globally recognized speaker on the topics of augmented reality, artificial intelligence and engaging pedagogical strategies. She shares her strategies through her blog, yoursmarticles.com. She was named 2018 International Society for Technology in Education’s Virtual Pioneer of the Year, Silver Presidential Volunteer Service awardee, and NYS Teacher of the Year finalist for 2018 and 2020 and recently published a book titled, Artificial Intelligence to Streamline Your Teacher Life.
ASHELIN CURRIE, PHD
Early Literacy Thrust
Oakland Schools
Biography
Dr. Currie is an Oakland Schools literacy consultant and founder of We Love Lit! She is a dedicated literacy advocate, consultant, and leader committed to fostering a love for reading and writing in children, especially in marginalized communities. She works closely with school districts to develop systems that build educators’ capacity to deliver effective, culturally responsive literacy instruction, aligned with national, state, and local standards. Her innovative practices leverage African American children’s literature as an aesthetic and intellectual tool for enhancing students’ academic performance and engagement. Her efforts have been recognized with the 2021 Esteemed Women of Michigan Award and the 2023 Pontiac Regional Chamber Ambassador of the Year. Above all, Dr. Currie remains passionately committed to improving the academic lives of children and families, striving to make the world a better place through literacy.
JULIANNA R. SCIOLINO
AI Thrust
BUFFALO PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Biography
Ms. Sciolino is the Chief Technology Officer for Buffalo Public Schools in Buffalo, New York and has been working as an education technology innovation architect since 1994. Through her positions as Director of Technology and Assistant Superintendent she has focused on cultivating a vision of innovative instruction for students. In addition to k-12, she has served on and consulted for higher education, television programming services advisory boards and cultural and non-profit organizations, as well as speaking at conferences surrounding the power of transformative solutions. Her primary work revolves around re-building organizations to prioritize innovation within a cyber-safe environment as well as re-engineering processes and teams to create highly efficient technology operations.
JAEHWA CHOI, PHD
Learning Sciences Thrust
George Washington University
Biography
Dr. Choi is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Assessment, Testing, and Measurement Program in the Department of Educational Leadership at the George Washington University. He earned his Ph.D. in Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation from the University of Maryland in 2006. Since 2012, Dr. Choi has been the principal investigator of the Collective AI on the Foundation AI (CAFA) project. He invented the CAFA framework, which synergistically integrates rule-based and Large Language Model (LLM)-based generative AI using an Ontology Model-centered Generation (OMG) approach. Complementing the theoretical framework, Dr. Choi also invented the CAFA platform (accessible at https://ai.cafalab.com/), which focuses on developing and managing Generative AI applications using symbolic AI and LLMs like the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT). For more insights into his contributions to the CAFA project—including sample codes, articles, and live demonstrations—please visit http://www.cafalab.com/jaehwa-choi.
YOUNG-SUK GRACE KIM, PHD
Early Literacy Thrust
University of California, Irvine
Biography
Dr. Kim is a professor at the School of Education, University of California at Irvine. Her scholarship focuses on understanding language and literacy development and effective instruction for children from diverse backgrounds. Her areas of research include reading comprehension, reading fluency, listening comprehension and oral language, dyslexia, higher-order cognitive skills, written composition, and reading-writing relations. She has worked extensively with monolingual children and multilingual children from various linguistic backgrounds (e.g., English, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Kiswahili). Her research has been supported by over $60 million in grants from the Institute of Education Sciences, the U. S. Department of Education, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Science Foundation. Her work was recognized by several awards, including the 2012 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by President Barack Obama, and Developing Scholar Award and Robert M. Gagne Research Award. She is an AERA (American Educational Research Association) Fellow, and serves as the Editor-In-Chief for the journal Scientific Studies of Reading and the Chair of the California Reading Difficulties Risk Screener Selection Panel (RDRSSP) appointed by the California State Board of Education.
SEPEHR VAKIL, PHD
AI Ethics Thrust
Northwestern university
Biography
Dr. Vakil is associate professor of learning sciences at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy and the faculty director of the Technology, Race, Ethics, and Equity in Education (TREE) Lab. He previously served as assistant professor of STEM education and associate director of equity and inclusion at University of Texas at Austin’s Center for STEM Education. He received his PhD in the Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology program at the University of California Berkeley, and his bachelor’s and master’s in electrical engineering from the University of California Los Angeles.
RESEARCH STAFF
RESEARCH SCIENTISTS
JESSICA CHAN, PHD EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
Biography
Dr. Chan: Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, Jessica’s research covers a broad yet integrated range of topics – from AI in education, future-oriented learning for STEM, innovative pedagogy, to medical training, religious education and student agency. Her more recent work has also extended to non-formal education in out-of-school contexts. Her methodological repertoire includes both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Jessica’s previous projects were predominantly supported by European funders such as the European Commission (EU-Horizon Scheme), the Economic and Social Research Council UK and the Norwegian Research Council. Jessica received her Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Oxford (UK).
RACHELLE SAVITZ, PHD EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
Biography
Dr. Rachelle Savitz is an Associate Professor of Literacy at East Carolina University. Her research expertise explores the interconnectedness of trauma-sensitive, culturally sustaining, critical, and disciplinary literacy practices. With over two decades of experience in education, Dr. Savitz has served as a teacher, literacy coach, consultant, and academic leader. She is the author of multiple books, including Trauma-Sensitive Literacy Instruction: Building Student Resilience in English Language Arts Classrooms, and her research has been widely published in top-tiered research journals.
Coming soon!
Biography
Coming soon!
POST DOCS
XINTIAN TU, PHD
UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Dr. Tu is a postdoctoral associate at Institute for Learning Sciences at University at Buffalo. She holds a PhD in Learning Sciences with a minor in inquiry methodology from Indiana University. Dr. Tu’s expertise includes designing advanced technology for learning, embodied learning, assessing young children’s learning within an interactive learning environment. She aims to design technology enhanced learning environments for diverse learners. Dr. Tu has previously worked on multiple NSF funded projects: GEM-STEP, PLAE.
ZHAOHUI LI, PHD
UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Dr. Li is a post-doctoral research fellow at the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education and CELaRAI Center at University at Buffalo . He earned his Ph.D. in May 2024 from the Natural Language Processing Lab at Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on developing large language models and conversational agents to create educational tools that deliver personalized instruction, interactive assessments, and targeted feedback. Dr. Li has published ten peer-reviewed papers and served as a reviewer for top NLP and Education conferences and journals, including EMNLP, AAAI, and AIED. His research goal is to bridge the gap between cutting-edge AI research and practical classroom applications, ultimately shaping the future of AI-driven education.
QINGXIAO ZHENG, PHD UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Dr. Zheng is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institution of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo. She is currently funded by both the NSF National AI Institute for Exceptional Education and the IES Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI. Her research focuses on designing human-centered AI systems and conducting User Experience (UX) research to support services, education, and social connectivity. Her work adopts an interdisciplinary approach, integrating methods, theories, and techniques from human-computer interaction, social cognition, and large language models. She employs mixed methods, such as research through design, interviews, controlled experiments, and field deployments. Her work has been published at top-tier HCI venues such as ACM CHI, CSCW, and Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans. Dr. Zheng received her Ph.D. in Information Sciences from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She worked for several years in the industry as the director of the data science department, specializing in AI/ML applications for B2B product services in both the private and public sectors, shaping her research in human-centered AI to bridge the gap between advanced technologies and real-world challenges.
ANGELINA WANG, PHD
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Biography
Dr. Wang is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. Her research is in the area of machine learning fairness and algorithmic bias. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from Princeton University and BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley. She is an incoming Assistant Professor at Cornell Tech and in the Department of Information Science at Cornell University.
AMELIA HARDY, PHD STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Biography
Coming soon!
ARI HOCK, PHD UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Dr. Ari Hock is a postdoc in the Institute for Learning Sciences. He recently earned his PhD in Learning Sciences and Human Development from the University of Washington. Ari studies learning “in the wild” – in public spaces, neighborhoods, and cities. He is interested in how communities coalesce and align their work through collaboration, conflict, and storytelling to address large, societal challenges.
STUDENT ASSISTANTS
ZHUOYUN (JOY) CAI UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Zhuoyun (Joy) Cai is a third-year PhD student in the CISL program at the University at Buffalo, with a master’s in early childhood education from East China Normal University. Her research focuses on the role of AI in early childhood education, computational thinking, and early STEAM education. As a research assistant, she has worked for the NSF-funded project “AI Literacies Framework for Young Children: A Delphi Study” and assists with a project on STEAM education in out-of-school spaces. Joy is actively engaged in research exploring how AI integration influences young children’s perceptions of AI agents.
YUYA YAMAMOTO UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Yuya Yamamoto is a Fulbright Scholar and PhD student in the Language Education and Multilingualism doctoral program at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He holds an MA in TEFL from the University of Birmingham. Over a span of six years in Japan, he taught English as a foreign language in a private junior and senior high school. His research interests include language teacher education, second and foreign language pedagogy, qualitative research, and design-based research.
TUKHBITA NAWMI UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Tukhbita Afroz Nawmi is pursuing her second master’s degree in Educational Psychology and Quantitative Methods at the University at Buffalo (UB). A lifelong learner, her experience as an educator at The Aga Khan Academy Dhaka sparked a deep curiosity about the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and education. Her research interest focuses on the impact of AI usage on critical thinking skills in middle school students, particularly in mathematics, with an emphasis on inclusivity, equity, and responsible AI applications. Tukhbita has a professional and educational background in accounting, finance, and human resources management, combining analytical expertise with a dedication to cognitive and social-emotional development. She is also a member of the Committee for Social Justice and Inclusion under the Graduate School of Education at UB, further reflecting her commitment to the development of an equitable learning environment. In Bangladesh, she led numerous didactic and social initiatives through non-profit organizations, training teachers and parents to address learning challenges and integrate technology effectively into classrooms. Her work with children with special needs and disabilities deepened her awareness of the importance of creating inclusive knowledge-acquiring platforms. Guided by her passion for edification and innovation and leading from the heart, Tukhbita is committed to creating meaningful societal impact by promoting equal access to holistic quality education through technology-driven solutions.
JUNYE GUO UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Junye Guo is a doctoral student in the Multilingualism and Language Education PhD program at the University at Buffalo, specializing in language teacher preparation as well as the integration of AI in language education. She holds a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics and a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Language Education. She worked at Zhengzhou Normal University in China for over 13 years of experience in K-12 language teacher education and two years of leadership in operating the National Professional Development Program for K-6 language teachers. Additionally, she spent three years as a program coordinator and instructor for Mandarin as a Foreign Language at Elwood Franklin School in Buffalo. Her research focuses on language teacher education and the application of AI in language learning and teaching.
CHENHUI XU UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Chenhui Xu is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, advised by Prof. Jinjun Xiong. Before that, he got his bachelor’s degree in statistics from University at Science and Technology of China. Chenhui specializes in deep learning architectures, out-of-distribution detection, and the theoretical and empirical aspects of novel AI algorithms. With several publications in prestigious conferences like NeurIPS and ICML, Chenhui’s work has earned accolades such as a Best Paper Nomination at ASP-DAC 2024. Chenhui is actively contributing to advancing machine learning research and applications. He has research experience spanning institutions like George Mason University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the University of Science and Technology of China, working on cutting-edge projects including quadratic neural networks, large language models, and physics-informed neural networks.
ANTHONIA OJEH UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Anthonia Ojeh is a doctoral student in the Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning (CISL) PhD program in the Department of Learning and Instruction at the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education. She holds a master’s in education from the University of the People and a bachelor’s degree in microbiology technology from the University of Jos, Nigeria. Anthonia has taught various subjects and grade levels in K-5 classrooms for over eight years. Her research interests include early childhood and childhood classroom literacy practices, ELA curriculum evaluation/development, and literacy/reading teacher preparation. As a graduate assistant, she is currently working on the Read Stop Write project, where she collects and codes assessment data.
DANIELLE ALEXANDER OAKLAND UNIVERSITY
Biography
Danielle Alexander is a second-year doctoral student in the Literacy, Culture, and Language program at Oakland University. She holds an MA in Educational Technology and a BA in Secondary English and Journalism from Michigan State University. Her research focuses on teaching and assessing secondary student writing. Prior to pursuing her PhD, Danielle taught high school English and journalism as well as college-level composition courses, and she contributed to a number of Detroit-area newspapers and magazines.
LISA CORTEZ HENDRICKS MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Biography
Lisa Cortez Hendricks is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education program at Michigan State University. She holds an MA in Teaching and Curriculum from MSU. Her research focuses on small group reading instruction in grades K-3, and how teachers use formative assessment to form and inform their small group reading instruction. Prior to working on her PhD, Lisa taught for 17 years, in both Hawaii and Michigan. She was also an early literacy coach.
AMBER LAWSON MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Biography
Amber Lawson is a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education specializing in Language and Literacy and Urban Education at Michigan State University. Her research interest is in making foundational literacy culturally responsive for children of Color in K-2 by incorporating children’s identities, home languages, and lived experiences as assets throughout their learning. With two years of teaching kindergarten and four years of teaching first grade in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, Lawson’s experiences as an early elementary teacher play a vital role in her research and teaching. Her scholarship has been presented at numerous conferences, including the American Educational Research Association, Literacy Research Association, National Council of Teachers of English, National Council of Teachers of English Assembly for Research, and the Michigan Reading Association. You can find snapshots of her scholarship in Reading Research Quarterly, The Reading Teacher, Literacy Today, and the Michigan Reading Journal.
SANG TRUONG STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Biography
Sang Truong is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Stanford University with Professors Sanmi Koyejo and Nick Haber at the Stanford AI Lab and the Graduate School of Education. His research focuses on probabilistic machine learning, with an emphasis on questions related to measurement, preference modeling, and decision-making. He develops generative models and adaptive algorithms to create efficient and reliable intelligence systems that can operate in real-world environments. His work has applications in machine learning systems and education, bridging foundational research with impactful applications.
MOHAN SHI UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
Biography
Mohan Shi is a PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at
the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He previously earned
a master’s degree from the University of Science and Technology of
China (USTC). His research interests include various aspects of speech
processing, such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Speech-centric
Large Language Models (Speech-LLM), Discrete Speech Tokens, Child ASR,
and Multi-talker ASR. He has published several papers in top speech
conferences, including Interspeech, SLT, and ASRU.
NATARAJAN BALAJI SHANKAR UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
Biography
Natarajan Balaji Shankar is a second year doctoral student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at UCLA, conducting research in the Speech Processing and Auditory Perception Laboratory. His research focuses on the intersection of machine learning and speech processing, with an emphasis on developing robust automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems for low-resource domains, including children’s speech.
Natarajan has developed techniques for automatic scoring of child reading assessments, automatic dialect density estimation, and non-autoregressive transformer-based ASR systems. His work also includes enhancing ASR models for limited-data scenarios, exploring adaptation strategies for untranscribed speech, and addressing biases in large language models (LLMs) for educational applications. He is particularly committed to creating equitable, end-to-end question-answering models tailored to children’s speech.
TRACEE MOORE EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
Biography
Tracee Moore is a graduate student in the East Carolina University MAEd Reading and Literacy program, specializing in culturally responsive instructional practices and early literacy development, particularly for multilingual and African American students. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Studies with a concentration in Birth to Kindergarten from UNC Greensboro. She brings over 15 years of experience as a PreK and Kindergarten teacher in Title 1 schools. Additionally, Tracee has extensive experience in early intervention and family support services, coordinating resources for children with developmental delays. Her current research focuses on supporting foundational literacy skills and bridging gaps between home and school literacy practices. Tracee is passionate about equity in education, fostering collaboration between families and schools, and leveraging AI to enhance early literacy instruction.
HEATHER DESORBO EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
Biography
Heather DeSorbo is a second-grade teacher who is getting her master’s degree at East Carolina University in Reading and Literacy. She is an ambassador for the Reading and Literacy program and a student research assistant for the Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI.
MICHELLE MAHER EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
Biography
Michelle Maher is a second-year graduate student in the MAEd Reading and Literacy program at East Carolina University. She is a third generation Pirate (ECU) and lives in Waxhaw, NC with her husband of 30 years. She works in the Central Office of Charlotte Mecklenburg School District where she is currently a Core Behavior Specialist that helps support 26 of their elementary, middle, and high schools within the district. Before that she was a Master Teacher in Union County Public Schools mentoring and coaching the teachers in Title One schools. She has 26 years of experience in the classroom teaching K-6th grade in Indiana, Arizona, and in NC. She enjoys sharing her knowledge and experience with not only her students, but administrators, seasoned teachers, and beginning teachers. Mentoring our future teachers has become a passion of hers over the years. It is a privilege to be able to support and serve as an ambassador as she continue her path in education.
SUMUK SHASHIDHAR UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Biography
Sumuk Shashidhar is a final-year undergraduate student and an incoming Computer Science PhD candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where he will be advised by Professor Dilek Hakkani-Tur. His research primarily focuses on advancing machine intelligence, with a particular emphasis on reasoning and evaluation. He has developed techniques to personalize AI systems for individuals with minimal human intervention and to create robust evaluation protocols for large language models (LLMs). Additionally, he is working on methods to enhance and assess machine creativity. Sumuk is currently interning at Hugging Face and has previously interned at Rivian and Yahoo Research, where he contributed to the development of intelligent assistants.
SAGNIK MUKHERJEE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Biography
Sagnik Mukherjee is a first year PhD student at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, and a part of the ConvAI lab led by Dr. Dilek Hakkani-Tur and Dr. Gokhan Tur. His primary research theme is reasoning with Large Language Models. He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in EE from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and was an Applied Scientist at Microsoft before joining UIUC.
XIAOCHENG YANG UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Biography
Xiaocheng Yang is a Master’s student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and a research assistant at the UIUC ConvAI Lab under the supervision of Professor Gokhan Tur and Professor Dilek Hakkani-Tür. His research interests include conversational AI, AI agents, and machine reasoning. He has a BS in computer science from New York University Shanghai (NYU Shanghai). Prior to joining UIUC ConvAI Lab, he was a research assistant at NYU Shanghai, supervised by Professor Yik-Cheung (Wilson) Tam.
ISHIKA AGARWAL UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Biography
Ishika Agarwal is a PhD student in the ConvAI@UIUC lab, advised by Dr. Dilek Hakkani-Tur and Dr. Gokhan Tur. Her work focuses on data efficiency in NLP: how can we maximize learning with the fewest data possible? She is also interested in improving reasoning in language models.
ZEYU TANG STANFORD UNIVERSIY
Biography
Zeyu Tang is a Graduate Visiting Researcher PhD student at Stanford University, working with Dr. Koyejo at the Stanford Trustworthy AI Research (STAIR) Lab. He conducts research on causal learning and reasoning, and machine learning fairness / computational justice. He seeks to foster a symbiotic dance between artificial and natural intelligence, where they inspire, collaborate, and enhance each other to drive scientific discovery and societal progress. Tang is supported by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Graduate Research Fellowship, and the K&L Gates Presidential Fellowship in Ethics and Computational Technologies.
MAUREEN BENDER UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Maureen Bender is a doctoral student in the Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning (CISL) PhD program in the Department of Learning and Instruction at the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education. She holds a master’s in English Education from the University at Buffalo and a bachelor’s in English Education from the State University of New York at Oswego. Prior to pursuing her PhD, Maureen was a kindergarten teacher and worked as a middle school reading specialist. Her research interests include literacy intervention practices as well as motivation and contexts for developing reading engagement in elementary and secondary grades.
GRACE (YUKUN) XU UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Grace (Yukun) Xu is a doctoral student in Curriculum, Instruction, and Science of Learning program. Before this, she obtained her B.S in Elementary Education and Child Development at Vanderbilt University and a M.S in Learning, Design, and Technology at Stanford University. Her research interest is in early childhood/elementary education in grades K-2 and AI integration in classrooms.
ZILAI WANG UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Zilai Wang is a first-year Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCLA. He earned his Master of Science in ECE from UCLA and previously studied at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University . Zilai conducts research in UCLA’s Speech Processing and Auditory Perception Laboratory, where his work focuses on developing robust machine learning–based automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems for low-resource settings, with a particular emphasis on children’s speech. He has contributed to multiple preprints and conference papers that explore techniques in model merging and speech error correction for child ASR
CELINE KRZAN UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Celine Krzan is a doctoral student in the Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning (CISL) PhD program in the Department of Learning and Instruction at the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education. She is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship in the School of Management, where she develops and teaches courses such as Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Entrepreneurship Lab (eLab), and Technological Entrepreneurship. With an MBA from UB and dual undergraduate degrees (BFA and BA) from Niagara University, she brings expertise in experiential learning, program design, and entrepreneurial education. Her professional background includes roles in marketing, public relations, product management, and change management at organizations such as M&T Bank, Shea’s Performing Arts Center, and Launch NY. Beyond campus, she is an active mentor, coach, and community leader, serving on several boards and initiatives that support entrepreneurship, the arts, and education in Western New York.
DANGCHENG LIU UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Dancheng Liu is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, advised by Prof. Jinjun Xiong. He is also a member of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. He earned both his M.S. and B.S. degrees from the University of California, San Diego. Dancheng’s work centers on speech recognition for children. He also researches in foundational deep learning models for speech and text, as well as the optimization of those models for resource-constrained edge platforms.
JILLIAN JOHNSON UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Jillian Johnson is a doctoral student in the Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning (CISL) PhD program in the Department of Learning and Instruction at the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education. She serves as a Graduate Assistant under the advisement of Dr. John Z. Strong. Jillian holds a master’s degree in Literacy Education from the University at Buffalo and a bachelor’s degree in Childhood and Special Education (grades 1–6) from the State University of New York at Geneseo. Her research interests include literacy practices in early childhood and elementary classrooms, as well as special education practices to support inclusive learning.
MUHAMMAD AHMAD WASEEM UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Biography
Muhammad Ahmad Waseem is a PhD student at the University at Buffalo, passionate about research in Machine Learning, with a special focus on Model Optimization for Computer Vision and NLP tasks. My work revolves around making ML models faster and more efficient, especially on diverse hardware platforms—improving latency and runtime is my jam! For more details please see my Github profile.