Koedinger Wins Lifetime Achievement Award

Carnegie Mellon University faculty member Ken Koedinger received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society (IAIED) for his work in advancing learning sciences and technology.

Koedinger, the Hillman University Professor of Computer Science in the Human Computer-Interaction Institute, was recognized for his long-standing contributions to advancing the use of artificial intelligence in learning sciences and developing groundbreaking online tutoring systems. These advances eventually became Carnegie Learning, a leading provider of K-12 education technology, curriculum and professional learning solutions.

Merging technology and education has been a lifetime passion for Koedinger, who joined CMU in 1986 and built an AI tutor for geometry that was eventually used in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Koedinger said throughout his career he's worked with amazing colleagues and collaborators who have propelled AI and education forward.

"When I started, most researchers working on AI in education were focusing on how to get the technology working," he said. "We went a step further to provide experimental comparisons to both evaluate if and demonstrate that student outcomes actually improved. First, our work has led the way in advancing the vast variety of systems built, such as using AI vision in a mixed-reality system that helps kids learn science by running physical experiments. Second, we have led the way toward increasing rigor and sophistication in evaluation and in using machine-learning based data science techniques."

Koedinger continues the work of researching how to use technology to effectively teach K-12 and college students a wide variety of topics from math and computer science to languages and tutoring skills. One current endeavor is the Personalized Learning Squared (PLUS) project, which combines human and AI tutoring to support middle school students learning math.

For more on Koedinger's work, visit his website.