EducateAI: Integrating Artificial Intelligence and Social Sciences via Immersive Learning Modules to Educate the Next Generation of Technologists

This project aims to serve the national interest by developing an innovative curriculum in which engineering and computer science students use artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance employment opportunities for people who are blind or visually impaired and for older adults. As AI technology plays an increasingly significant role in shaping American society, it is essential that students who graduate from college with the technical knowledge to create AI systems also develop the ability to wrestle with the social questions that these systems entail. This project will challenge students to co-create, along with key stakeholders, AI-powered systems that can realize improved employment outcomes for two historically underemployed populations: blind or visually impaired people and older adults. The new educational resources and experiences will shape the students' disposition to use AI responsibly and to serve society as they complete their degrees and enter the workforce. The project team aims to develop an interdisciplinary curriculum incorporating critical approaches from the social sciences, technical content regarding AI, and project-based learning. This effort has the threefold goal of enabling students to develop (1) technical skills for creating AI-powered technologies, (2) comprehension of how and why to use methods of inquiry from the social sciences to understand historical and contemporary contexts when determining how, and whether, to deploy AI methods in a particular setting, and (3) the ability to integrate critical and technical perspectives in order to create technology that maximizes benefits while minimizing harm. Partnering with local organizations that serve blind and older adult job-seekers, the project will ground students' educational experience in real-world applications of AI technology. To increase the impact of the project, the investigators will hold workshops to support faculty from other colleges and universities in adapting similar approaches and will publish the curriculum and research findings for use by other educators. This work will contribute to the engineering and computer science education research communities and to the scholarly communities interested in technology for accessibility and for aging. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.