SUNY Brockport’s Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence (ACM SIGAI) Student Chapter is currently developing an AI powered tool, EduAlly, to assist teachers by offering personalized feedback for their students based on specific course material.
“In a classroom of 30 students, it’s hard for a teacher to meet 100% of every student’s learning needs and styles,” said Liam Davies, Chairman of the ACM SIGAI student chapter. “Our aim is to develop a product that provides students with instant feedback on their progress and understanding of specific course materials.”
Davies navigating the EduAlly pilot.
In the Fall of 2024, SUNY Brockport became the first University in western New York to establish an AI student chapter through ACM. To gain real-world experience, the student chapter adopted a project that chapter member Laura Fonseca-Llorca was currently working on as independent research with Professor of Computing Sciences Ning Yu.
“At the start, we wanted to figure out the direction we were going to take the chapter, and Laura was already working on a personal project with Dr. Yu using AI tools to assist in education,” Davies said. “We transitioned that into our ACM project and the chapter really revolves around it. We try to get every student involved and let them work on what they are interested in.”
The ACM SIGAI chapter emulates what it is like to work directly in the field of computer science, breaking off into “front-end” and “back-end” teams. The front-end team focuses on software engineering including app development and user interface with assistance from Professor of Computing Sciences Sandeep Mitra. Davies is part of the back-end team, developing the AI model that provides feedback tailored for each individual student. Fonseca-Llorca serves as the Project Leader, overseeing back-end development and acting as a liaison between the front-end and back-end teams.
“A lot of people see AI as something that replaces jobs, but we want to use this project to explore how AI can be a helpful tool in the classroom for both students and professors.”
Liam Davies
“The goal of our project is to create educational software that integrates new and rapidly growing AI technologies in a way that benefits both students and teachers,” Davies said. “A lot of people see AI as something that replaces jobs, but we want to use this project to explore how AI can be a helpful tool in the classroom for both students and professors.”
Professor of Education Jie Zhang offered her coursework and classroom to serve as a “pilot” for EduAlly as a chance for her students to better understand AI and its potential impact on the classroom.
“A lot of my students were not using AI because many professors forbid it,” Zhang said. “My students are future teachers, and I felt it was critical for them to have some experience using AI so they can provide appropriate guidance to their future students.”
Davies and Fonseca led the effort to create a functioning pilot of EduAlly for Zhang’s class to use during the Fall 2024 semester, utilizing Zhang’s coursework to feed their model.
“We’re utilizing AI through LangGraph, which helps us design workflows using natural language processing models,” Fonseca-Llorca said. “In simple terms, LangGraph allows us to analyze student answers, compare them with the answer key, and provide detailed, actionable feedback tailored to their responses.”
“We plan to have another professor pilot EduAlly in the spring and eventually make it available to more professors at Brockport.”
Laura Fonseca
EduAlly received around a 60% positive response through feedback, with another 20% of responses stemming from user error struggling with the interface they created for the demo, which they intend to fix with the final product.
“Our next steps include refining the platform based on pilot feedback, such as improving the user experience and integrating LangGraph further to provide more concise and detailed feedback to students,” Fonseca-Llorca said. “We plan to have another professor pilot EduAlly in the spring and eventually make it available to more professors at Brockport.”
Join the ACM SIGAI Student Chapter
The ACM SIGAI student chapter at SUNY Brockport is the first of its kind in Western New York. The chapter is open to all majors or students interested in AI and machine learning. Students pay an annual entry fee of $19 to gain access to a vast network of AI professionals, workshops and seminars covering the latest trends in AI, and hands-on experiential learning opportunities. To join the student chapter, students can reach out to Professor Ning Yu or student chapter Chairman Liam Davies.