HCII Seminar Series - Nesra Yannier
Speaker
Nesra Yannier
Senior Systems Scientist and Special Faculty
When
-
Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305
Video
Panopto
Description
"Bringing AI Tutoring into the Physical World and Scaling to Schools and Museums"
With the rapid advancement of AI and other emerging technologies, there is great potential to improve learning at scale. Yet it remains unclear how these technologies should be designed to maximize both learning and engagement for students while also ensuring safety and preserving core human values. To date, intelligent tutoring systems and most educational tools have relied primarily on flat-screen computer interactions. We have introduced a new genre of Intelligent Science Stations that bring intelligent tutoring into the physical world. These mixed-reality systems bridge the physical and virtual environments to enhance children’s inquiry-based STEM learning. Using specialized AI-driven computer vision, these intelligent stations deliver automated, real-time guidance that provides personalized interactive feedback as children experiment and make discoveries. This responsive support, grounded in careful pedagogical design, fosters curiosity and nurtures essential 21st-century skills, including critical thinking, collaboration, and persistence. Replicated random-assignment experiments show that students learn more from these AI-supported physical interactions than from closely matched screen-based interactions using the same pedagogical algorithms, and more than from traditional hands-on museum exhibits without AI support. This talk will explore how to design adaptive technologies that most effectively support learning and engagement outcomes for children, with a particular focus on active learning—especially when it is both “minds-on” and “hands-on.”
Speaker's Bio
Nesra Yannier is a Senior Systems Scientist and Special Faculty in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Her background spans multiple disciplines, with undergraduate degrees in Physics and Computer Engineering, an M.S. in Computational Sciences & Engineering from Koc University in Turkey, an M.A. in Learning, Design & Technology from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. She is passionate about creating innovative educational technologies and learning experiences that blend the physical and virtual worlds to improve children’s learning and engagement. Her work has been recognized with numerous honors, including a Mister Rogers Scholarship (Emmy’s College Television Award in New Media for Children), the Reimagine Education Golden Award for Cultivating Curiosity at the University of Pennsylvania, and an Innovation Fellowship from the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship to help translate her Ph.D. research into real-world impact. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation as well as foundations such as PNC Grow Up Great, the EQT Foundation, the Grable Foundation, the McElhattan Foundation, and the Sprout Foundation. Her educational technologies and Intelligent Science Stations (norilla.org) -- shown to improve learning by a factor of five compared to other screen-based technologies -- are used widely in museums and science centers, including the Kamin Science Center in Pittsburgh, the Children’s Museum of Atlanta, the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, The Muse in Knoxville, and Ciencia Viva in Lisbon, Portugal, as well as in many schools, Head Start programs, and after-school programs, reaching millions of children and families across the U.S. and Europe. Her patented technology was selected as one of six exhibits worldwide to showcase the benefits of AI for education at the CaixaForum AI Museum in Valencia, Spain. She has delivered a TEDx talk titled “Earthshaking Learning Fosters Curiosity,” and her work has been featured in outlets such as the Science Magazine Podcast, Forbes, U.S. News, MIT Technology Review, SciTech Daily, Education Week, Futurity, CalTimes, The Hechinger Report, Getting Smart, Big Deal Media, Transforming Education Through Technology, Games and Learning, Remake Learning, and New Scientist.
Speaker's Website
https://hcii.cmu.edu/people/nesra-yannier