Keynote Speakers
Prof. BREAZEAL, Cynthia
Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The United States
Speaker Bio
Cynthia Breazeal is a professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, where she founded and directs the Personal Robots group at the Media Lab. She is the MIT dean for digital learning, and in this role, she leverages her experience in emerging digital technologies and business, research, and strategic initiatives to lead Open Learning’s business and research & engagement units. She is also the Director of the MIT-wide Initiative on Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education (raise.mit.edu). MIT RAISE is a research and outreach effort that advances access and inclusivity in AI education to people of all ages and backgrounds with a focus on K12 and the workforce. She co-founded the consumer social robotics company, Jibo, Inc., where she served as Chief Scientist and Chief Experience Officer.
Breazeal is a pioneer of social robotics and human-robot interaction. Her work balances technical innovation in AI, UX design, and understanding the psychology of engagement to design personified AI technologies that promote human flourishing and personal growth. Her recent work focuses on the theme of "living with AI" and understanding the long-term impact of social robots that can build relationships and provide personalized support as helpful companions in daily life. Her research group actively investigates social robots applied to education, pediatrics, health and wellness, and aging. As part of this mission, her group also develops design justice frameworks for human-robot interaction and inclusive AI literacy education for under-served K12 students.
Prof. MITROVIC, Tanja
Professor of Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Speaker Bio
Dr Antonija (Tanja) Mitrovic is a full professor at the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. She is the leader of ICTG (Intelligent Computer Tutoring Group). Dr Mitrovic received her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Nis, Yugoslavia, in 1994. She is an associate editor of the following journals: Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning (RPTEL), International Journal on Artificial Intelligence in Education (IJAIED) and Journal of Universal Computer Science (JUCS). She is a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education (APSCE), Distinguished member of ACM, and senior member of AAAI and IEEE. She was awarded the Distinguished Researcher Award in 2011 by APSCE.
Dr Mitrovic’s primary research interests are in AI in education and student modeling. ICTG has developed a number of constraint-based intelligent tutoring systems in a variety of domains, which have been thoroughly evaluated in real classrooms, and proven to be highly effective. These systems provide adaptive support for acquiring both problem-solving skills and meta-cognitive skills. ICTG has also developed ASPIRE, a full authoring and deployment environment for constraint-based tutors. Her recent research focuses on AI-based support for active learning from videos.
