Research Projects

Proposal Accepted by NSF AI CIRCLS Project Incubator on AI & Literacy

Our proposal for “Embodied AI to teach Social Emotional Intelligence (SEI) for 9-12th Grade Career Academy Students for Social Justice, Inclusion and Equity” was accepted as part of the NSF AI CIRCLS Project Incubator on AI & Literacy. CIRCLS, an NSF-funded research hub focused on projects relating to emerging technologies, will be offering grant-writing support and resources to Project Incubator participants from April to July 2022. Our project aims to improve SEI skills in career academy students through the use of conversational virtual humans in an immersive AR/VR environment. By providing widely-accessible SEI education, we hope to advance social justice, equity, and inclusion for 9-12th grade career academy students by improving their job turnover rates and addressing their income disparity.

This research will contribute to the knowledge of AI-based educational technology, SEI literacy, and technology distribution through a cloud-based 5G system. By using embodied AI to teach social justice values and develop SEI in career academy students, we hope to create a powerful, flexible, and inclusionary educational environment capable of providing immersive SEI education to 9-12th grade career academy students as they prepare to enter the workforce.

The Emotive Virtual Patient

The Emotive Virtual Patient project is funded through a $750,000 National Science Foundation grant for “Exploring Social Learning in Collaborative Augmented Reality (AR) with Virtual Pedagogical Agents as Learning Companions.” This study explores the impact of collaborative AR in social learning environments and aims to help lay the groundwork for future learning paradigms. The Center is collaborating with UT Southwestern Medical Center and Arizona State University on this 3 year-long technology development and research study. Furthermore, the Center has just received an additional $150,000 award from The National Science Foundation’s Smart and Connected Communities initiative to plan the development of a “Community Integration Platform for Health Science Education of Social Emotional Intelligence through Collaborative Mixed Reality.”  The Center will work with the Richardson Independent School District (RISD) and the Methodist Richardson Medical Center (MRMC) to design a platform through collaborative mixed reality that will expand on the clinical technical educational opportunities available to students and healthcare workers with complementary networked virtual experiences designed to fill the social emotional intelligence educational gaps and facilitate collaborative social learning within the community with advanced intelligent technologies.

INSITE

Through a collaboration with Sam Houston State University and Eye T Plus, and several rounds of funding from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the Center developed and implemented the Individual Nystagmus Simulation Training Experience (INSITE).  INSITE is a virtual human simulation program to help train police officers in identifying one of the strongest clues of alcohol impairment in drivers – nystagmus, or involuntary rapid movement of the eyeball.  INSITE employs a virtual human, Brian, to simulate what officers encounter when performing Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) tests in potential impaired driving stops. Brian combines 3D modeling and animation to create a lifelike appearance, and employs a sophisticated series of math-driven Unity scripts that map Brian’s eyes and physical features to physical phenomena associated with impairment. From 2016 to 2019, INSITE has been tested, enhanced and gradually implemented into Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) and Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST) training resources available to Texas law enforcement officers. In 2019, roughly 500 police officers across Texas trained using INSITE, which has potential to educate many more officers from State Police, Parks and Wildlife, Sheriff Departments, City and University enforcement entities and others who attend the national and international ARIDE and SFST training.

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