Guest talk: Mohammed Saqr "Explainable Precision Artificial Intelligence: Mapping the person where the learning process takes place"

Explainable Precision Artificial Intelligence: Mapping the person where the learning process takes place

Mohammed Saqr
University of Eastern Finland

Abstract: The emphasis on the “self” or the “person” has been a central concept in several learning theories, methodologies, and approaches for decades and the literature is awash with notions of personalized, adaptive, and student-centered education. Nonetheless, research is commonly conducted using variable-centered methods where data is collected from a “group of others'' to devise the average learner’s behavior. Yet, the average is barely representative of the breadth of human diversity. On the contrary, person-specific (or idiographic) methods aim to accurately and precisely model the individual person, create person-specific models, and devise unique parameters for each individual. Modeling the person —where the learning process takes place— paves the way for personalized, accurate, and precise education. The recent advancement in such methods, the expanding repertoire of tools and data collection methods could help answer the pressing question of what works for whom, and when?. 

This presentation introduces the TOPIELA project, an Academy of Finland Research Council funded project that aims to develop person-specific precise Artificial Intelligence solutions at the resolution of individual students. In doing so, I will show  shortcomings of current methods, show where and when they fall short, and introduce idiographic methods with recent literature.

Bio: Mohammed Saqr is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the School of Computing, University of Eastern Finland and leads UEF’s Learning Analytics Unit. Saqr has a PhD in Learning Analytics from Stockholm University, Sweden, followed by a postdoctoral position at Université Paris Cité, France. Later, he earned the title of Docent in Learning Analytics from the University of Oulu, Finland. His scholarly work is diverse and interdisciplinary and has received several recognitions (e.g., best papers at LAK, ICCE, SITE, TEEM) and was selected as Europe Emerging Scholar in Learning analytics. Mohammed also received the most competitive funding from theSwedish Research Council and Finnish Research Council and serves on the editorial board of several academic journals (e.g., BJET, IEEE TLT, and Plos One). His current work is focused –among others– on advancing solutions for precision artificial intelligence. You can read more about his work here https://saqr.me

This guest talk is hosted by Professor Lauri Malmi, Department of Computer Science.