Pioneering center reimagines the role of AI in education
Meet CoBi, a new kind of artificial intelligence platform that seeks to bring young people together and help them learn.
Imagine a small group of students huddled around their desks in a classroom. As they talk, a digital tree flashes on a nearby computer screen. If the students are collaborating and respecting their peers, blue or orange flowers may begin to bud from the tree.
CoBi, which is short for “Community Builder,” is one of several innovations emerging from the National Science Foundation AI Institute for Student-AI Teaming (iSAT) led by ñ. This $20 million initiative includes researchers at nine universities who are exploring the role that AI might play in the K-12 classrooms of tomorrow.
It’s a totally different way of thinking about AI, said Sidney D’Mello, director of iSAT and a professor in ñ’s Department of Computer Science and Institute for Cognitive Science (ICS).
“CoBi is people collaborating, interacting, not one person alone on their computer.”
Principal investigator
Sidney D’Mello
Funding
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Collaboration + support
ñ College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering and Applied Science, Institute of Cognitive Science, and School of Education; Arizona State University; Brandeis University; Colorado State University; University of California, Santa Cruz; University of California, Berkeley; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Wisconsin-Madison; Worcester Polytechnic Institute