This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The goal of this project is to develop computational models of the nonverbal behavior and interactive strategies observed during face-to-face teaching. These computational models will serve as a foundation for a new generation of embodied teaching agents that approximate the benefits of face-to-face human tutoring. The project will help advance the science of learning and teaching by improving our understanding of the dynamics of nonverbal behavior in teaching at a computational level, across multiple time scales: From low-level micro-expressions in the timescale of tens of milliseconds, to cognitive and affective processes with time scales of seconds, to higher level strategic behaviors operating at longer time scales.
In addition to its scientific and technological value, this project has a significant outreach component. The project would help grow links between a research oriented campus (UCSD) an undergraduate teaching university (SDSU). The robotics aspects of the project will be developed in collaboration with the Preuss School Robotics Club. The Preuss School is a charter school for low-income students in grades 6-12 and is currently ranked as one of the top high schools in the nation.
