June 22, 2023
H. Chad Lane (SCI '04) is leading one of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) newest National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes: The NSF AI Institute for Inclusive Intelligent Technologies for Education, or INVITE Institute.
The institute is part of a $140 million investment in which seven new AI research institutes are being funded $20 million each, over five years, to “advance a cohesive approach to AI-related opportunities and risks.” The INVITE Institute is focused on leveraging AI technologies in pursuit of the vision of “Education for All.”
Lane, an associate professor in educational psychology and computer science (CS) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is working with a team of researchers from seven universities across the United States to develop the INVITE Institute with the broad goal of using AI to help increase “access and relevance to educational technologies.”
“This is a brand-new conceptualization by NSF and the Department of Education on how grants can be used to foster meaningful collaborations in research,” said Lane about the project. “We’re the fifth institute since 2020 to be funded to look at different aspects of how AI can be used to promote teaching and learning.”
During early stages of development before the official start date of June 1, 2023, the INVITE Institute team of researchers were “laying the groundwork for the collaborations and for the research plans,” said Lane.
“One of the key features that makes INVITE unique is that historically cognitive aspects of learning—like knowledge and problem solving—are central, and this is definitely justified, but it is time to broaden the perspective of educational technologies to incorporate more subtle aspects of learning that have been overlooked to a large degree,” explained Lane about the project’s upcoming contributions to the field. “We want to build systems that track a lot of the underlying skills relevant to learning, like persistence—kids’ ability to keep trying and to not give up on hard problems—and resilience—how do kids struggle and how can we help bring them back, learn a lesson from that struggle, and try again.”
One of the eventual contributions will be new educational data sets that emphasize more nuanced aspects of learning. The INVITE Institute team will work to develop systems to track and support learning in the classroom, and to develop systems that more directly support teachers. Currently partnered with 24 different organizations including school districts and nonprofits, the INVITE Institute will seek to advance research on AI and education and integrate their technologies into the classroom.
“Taking new technologies that can track and support these important skills, and then linking that into classroom processes and supporting teachers is our primary goal,” said Lane. “Our message to anyone we talk to is, AI is simply a tool to amplify the good things that are already happening in classrooms, and to enable new kinds of interventions and supports for children who have historically been overlooked or underserved in STEM.”
The INVITE Institute is a multidisciplinary project located at the intersection of AI and education, similar to Lane’s professional career and graduate studies.
Lane was a graduate student at Pitt from 1998 to 2004. During this time, he took advantage of both research and teaching opportunities at the University of Pittsburgh. According to Lane, this exposure helped develop his interests in research relating to AI and education: “I was a CS grad student but did all my research in the Learning Research and Development Center, so not only was my research interdisciplinary, I also had friends in education, psychology, math, and more. I ultimately integrated my dissertation work with several introductory CS courses I was teaching. I look very fondly back at my time at Pitt and am grateful for the rigorous, interdisciplinary, and very supportive culture that our department and campus provided.”
For more information about the INVITE Institute, visit their website.
--Emma Bender, SCI writing intern