Articles

As the global population ages, there’s an increasing demand for innovative solutions to support seniors living independently at home. In her TEDxOshkosh talk, Mai Lee Chang, a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, discussed how artificial intelligence (AI) can play an important role in addressing this need.
Elizabeth Mynatt, dean of the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University and AI-CARING Co-PI has been elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences for interdisciplinary careers focused on the human within science.
AI-CARING is featured in the latest AI Magazine Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aaai.12162

Authors:
Sonia Chernova, Elizabeth Mynatt, Agata Rozga, Reid Simmons, and Holly Yanco

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researchers have launched an educational tool, Neuron Sandbox, with the aim of equipping middle school students with an understanding of a foundational element in contemporary artificial intelligence. Neural network technology serves as the foundation for a wide range of AI applications, including convolutional networks used in computer vision and transformer networks seen in large language models like ChatGPT.

As an interactive tool, Neuron Sandbox guides students to understand a common type of simulated neuron called a linear threshold unit. It helps student visualize both the neuron and the truth table that describes its inputs and outputs. It presents a series of problems of increasing difficulty which students can solve by adjusting the weights on the neuron's input connections and/or its firing threshold.

Neuron Sandbox is available now and runs on any web browser at: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/NeuronSandbox!

Neuron Sandbox is designed to be used by middle school students, but it contains advanced features that make it useful for high school and undergraduate students as well. In addition, the tool includes an interactive editor that allows teachers to create their own custom problems for their students to solve.

Neuron Sandbox was created by CMU students Angela Chen and Neel Pawar, along with their advisor, Professor David Touretzky. Touretzky is also the principal investigator on an NSF ITEST project aimed at developing a 9-week artificial intelligence elective for middle school students in Georgia and a member of the AI-CARING team. "We're excited to test Neuron Sandbox with our middle school teachers and observe how their students respond to it," Touretzky stated. "We're continually adding new features to the tool, such as the ability to switch between a threshold display and a bias connection display, to enhance its usefulness for more advanced students as well."
This new NSF AI Institute is an example of how UMass Lowell researchers are partnering with other leading universities and major companies to enhance quality of life through better understanding of human interactions with technology.
Today, we are delighted to share that NSF has selected the AI Institute for Collaborative Assistance and Responsive Interaction for Networked Groups (AI-CARING) led by Georgia Tech, along with Carnegie Mellon University, Oregon State University, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell to receive the $20M AI Institute for HAIC grant. AI-CARING will improve collaboration and communication in elderly caregiving environments by developing AI systems that adjust to the evolving personal needs and behaviors of those requiring care.
A team of researchers including Oregon State University’s Kagan Tumer, director of the Collaborative Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute, has received a five-year, $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation to build intelligent systems that help people as they grow old.
Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science will contribute fundamental and cutting-edge research to a government-led push to bring about life-changing advances through artificial intelligence.
A team of researchers led by Sonia Chernova, associate professor of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, has won a five-year, $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to build intelligent systems that support aging.
The U.S. National Science Foundation announced the establishment of 11 new NSF National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes, building on the first round of seven institutes funded in 2020. The combined investment of $220 million expands the reach of these institutes to include a total of 37 states.