Danielle Thomas

I am a Systems Scientist within the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, where I serve as the Research Lead for PLUS—Personalized Learning Squared, a hybrid human-AI tutoring project. PLUS strives to increase math learning among middle school students by combining the strengths of human tutors and AI.

I also serve as the Director of Research to Practice at the National Tutoring Observatory, a collaborative research infrastructure among CMU, MIT, and Cornell. The Observatory aims to enable researchers to unlock the secrets behind effective teaching by analyzing "a million tutor moves" of data.

Collectively, these projects have been supported by the Learning Engineering Virtual Institute, Gates Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Walton Family Foundation, Overdeck Family Foundation, Richard King Mellon Foundation, and Google DeepMind.

My research focuses on improving student learning outcomes through: 1) uncovering new insights into teaching and learning, 2) developing effective hybrid human-AI tutoring systems, and 3) leveraging AI to affordably scale learning interventions and enhance tutor and teacher training. As a former school teacher, principal, and teacher educator, I draw on first-hand experience to improve teaching and learning by focusing on the students who need it the most—the chronic disengagers, the historical strugglers, and the kids that say, "I hate math."