REU Site: Research Experiences in Innovative Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Education

With support from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, this project aims to create dynamic research experiences for undergraduate students in artificial intelligence (AI) with applications in computer science education. Many students from institutions with limited research infrastructure lack access to research opportunities in AI. This REU site will provide hands-on research opportunities in educational technologies and participants will develop AI-based educational resources for computer science education settings. The project will promote high-quality undergraduate research through a structured mentoring program and foster connections between research universities and other institutions. The specific aims of the project are to introduce participants to foundational principles of AI and machine learning, foster hands-on research experiences through collaborative projects, develop AI-based educational resources, and enable participants to lead educational experiences using their creations. The REU site will be structured as a 10-week summer experience where participant pairs will be matched with research mentors in active laboratories at North Carolina State University. Research projects will focus on natural language processing, educational games, multimodal learning analytics, and interactive narrative technologies, with applications in K-12 and higher education settings. As part of these projects, students will participate in a wide range of research activities, including usability testing, user studies, computational modeling, as well as qualitative and quantitative data analysis. Participants will engage in the full research cycle from ideation to evaluation and will present their findings at the university's research symposium, with potential for publication in computer science education conferences. The structured mentoring model includes graduate student near-peer mentors, professional research mentors, and weekly workshops covering research methods, communication, and technical skills. This project is funded by the EDU Core Research: Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER), which supports projects that build investigators' capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research that will enhance the nation's STEM education enterprise. 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.