Digital Commons Network^™

A Prototype Of A Conversational Virtual University Support Agent Powered By A Large Language Model That Addresses Inquiries About Policies In The Student Handbook, Joseph Benjamin R. Ilagan, Jose Ramon Ilagan

Quantitative Methods and Information Technology Faculty Publications

Universities gain a competitive advantage by deliberately improving overall service, student, faculty, and staff experience, leading to attractiveness, retention, and improved outcomes. Quality services are achieved partly by addressing employee satisfaction, specifically in the work environment. This paper presents a prototype study of a virtual university support agent, a system grounded in a Large Language Model (LLM) engineered to address inquiries from university students, faculty and staff related to the student handbook. The study investigates the integration of generative artificial intelligence and natural conversation properties inherent in LLMs to overcome customer service shortcomings identified in previous chatbot applications. The LLMs' …

Machine Learning Algorithms To Study Multi-Modal Data For Computational Biology, Khandakar Tanvir Ahmed

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Advancements in high-throughput technologies have led to an exponential increase in the generation of multi-modal data in computational biology. These datasets, comprising diverse biological measurements such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and imaging data, offer a comprehensive view of biological systems at various levels of complexity. However, integrating and analyzing such heterogeneous data present significant challenges due to differences in data modalities, scales, and noise levels. Another challenge for multi-modal analysis is the complex interaction network that the modalities share. Understanding the intricate interplay between different biological modalities is essential for unraveling the underlying mechanisms of complex biological processes, including …

32. Using Generative Ai In The Music History Classroom, Reba Wissner

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

Generative Al affords students and college teaching both challenges and opportunities, though faculty mainly focus on the challenges, as most discussion centers on assignment modification to prevent plagiarism and concentrate on text-generating Al. However, there is an entire world of Al tools that are not text limited that can be used to create non-text-based outputs and can be used for information recall and transferability of student knowledge; these tools are well-suited to the arts. One discipline in which these tools can be used is music; specifically, music history. Al generation tools not specifically created for music, such as chatbots, can …

31. Collaborative Writing And Ai: A Research Assignment For An Undergraduate Professional Communication Course, Beth Buyserie

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

This chapter contextualizes and describes a collaborative Al research assignment for an in-person 2000-level Professional Communication general education course. This "Collaborative Writing and Al" assignment asks teams of students to 1) conduct their own secondary research on a specific topic connected to Al, 2) conduct primary research using Al itself, and 3) make recommendations to their peers and future colleagues in the profession or community on how to navigate and respond to a range of interdisciplinary conversations and perspectives on the technology. Within this chapter, the author provides a rationale for the assignment, includes suggestions for background readings included in …

30. Revising Llm Text To (Re)Discover Rhetoric In A Graduate Seminar, Clancy Ratliff

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

In this essay, I share an assignment that asks students to engage in rhetorical revision of LLM text using a changelog table as a tool to document the revision. To demonstrate to the students what I was asking them to do, I did the assignment myself, and my example is included in this chapter as well. I argue that the style of generated text from LLMs calls for increased resistance to the norms and conventions of school writing and an embrace of writing that's more rhetorical: a bit more personal, risky, rule-breaking, creative, and experimental, intentionally centering purpose and audience. …

29. An Ai Workshop For The Overwhelmed And Uninterested, Ritamarie Hensley

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

The impact of ChatGPT and other Generative Al technologies on the role of an Instructional Designer prompted a quest to understand the pros and cons of Al for course development. Despite initial enthusiasm from some educators, many instructors resisted Al, expressing concerns about assignments, academic integrity, and Al-induced hallucinations. The workshop is designed for faculty members who may feel overwhelmed by the myriad uses of Al in education or simply lack interest in Al tools. It offers nuanced approaches to assignments, emphasizes fostering digital literacy for academic integrity, and explores turning Al-induced hallucinations into teaching tools. The workshop also underscores …

25. Using The Ai Explainpaper To Help Students Better Understand Journal Articles, Erin Jensen, Daniel Hutchinson

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

We have students use the Al Explainpaper to be able to read and understand journal articles as this is a common assignment in many core classes. In our experiences, students often struggle to understand the content of journal articles and then struggle to use the journal article as a source in their writing. The Al Explainpaper provides an opportunity for students to use the bot to better understand the journal article and have an opportunity to ask the program additional questions about the article. We have found Explainpaper to provide help to students in being able to read and understand …

24. Revisioning A Bibliography Assignment To Center Discovery And Critical Source Engagement, Lillian Campbell, Jenna Green, Nicole Bungert

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

This chapter shares context, assignment details, and impact of revisions of a research journal assignment in our first-year writing program at a mid-sized private university in the Midwest. With the rise of access to large language processing models like ChatGPT in Spring 2023, we reviewed our curriculum to consider what assignments might be most vulnerable to Al-generated writing. Our bibliography assignment was an obvious contender, since it focused on summary of individual sources. Thus, we worked with our research librarian liaison to reimagine this assignment, guided by a conversation about learning goals. After reviewing relevant scholarship on source use and …

21. My Summer With Chatgpt, Mary Lourdes Silva

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

Out of necessity, I first used ChatGPT to process mentally and emotionally two major injuries. Trapped at home for the entire summer, I learned to write with ChatGPT to complete a large-scale research project. The anthropomorphizing experience left me feeling less alone. For nearly a year, news about Al-generated writing software sparked nationwide concern about the future of traditional essays. As an early adopter of most digital technologies and the type of person who welcomes chaos, I chose to learn everything | could about ChatGPT, which meant I needed to learn how to "cheat" with ChatGPT. Inspired by similar assignments …

20. Fit To Resist In Post-Product Space: Underserved Student Populations And Generative Ai's Writing Norms, John Paul Tassoni

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

This essay describes ways the specter of Al altered interactions with students in a first-year composition course and how the response speaks to the broader impact of generative Al on underserved populations-especially in the sense that large language models and writing instruction can both affirm center/dominant discourses, values, and practices. The essay argues that the emergence of Al should shift writing instruction for "at-risk" and other marginalized student populations into post-product space. In such space, course work emphasizes students' negotiations with the expectations of higher education's hidden curriculum alongside the finished products that Al can now always already provide.

18. Cheating As Symptom, Not Disease, Adena Rivera-Dundas

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

Students may turn to generative AI to cheat—not because they don't want to learn, but because academia has been structured to prioritize perfectionism over process. Considering the white supremacist context of academia's unspoken "hidden curriculum" enables educators to re-evaluate norms such as grading policies in order to create classrooms where generative AI can co-exist with essay writing.

12. Cultural Reproduction: Ais Interrupting The Cultural Healing Work Of Teachers, Belinda 'Ofakihevahanoa Fotu

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

The following is a narrative where a student who unwisely trusted AI to write his term paper, based off of a prompt and a historically culturally problematic text, The Lord of the Flies, realizes that the AI wrote a racist essay for him. Because this took place in a culturally and critically conscious classroom, the student was accountable for the deeply flawed ideas written by the AI.

9. Uses, Benefits, And Limitations Of Ai Chatbots: Implementing Chatgpt In The First-Year Writing Classroom, Walker Smith, Cora Alward, Jacob Morris, Lydia Peach, Veronica Pulley, Parker Routt, Kolby Sanders, Josh Vogeler

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

This essay shares the findings of a Spring 2023 honors composition course in which students conducted their own primary research project to investigate the uses and limitations of ChatGPT for first-year writers. By experimenting with integrating ChatGPT into various stages of their writing and revision processes, the students identified the strengths and weaknesses of the writing tool. Then, they observed and interviewed faculty as they graded different versions of essay drafts with varying levels of ChatGPT assistance. Ultimately, they found that ChatGPT was incredibly useful for certain small-scale tasks, but posed significant risks, especially for students with less experience in …

8. Ai And Writing Classrooms: A Study Of Purposeful Use And Student Responses To The Technology, Laura Dumin

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

Given that Al is here for the foreseeable future, I revamped my spring 2023 English courses to include using Al in purposeful ways. I submitted an IRB to test different approaches to integrating Al into my classrooms. The study asked students in three different English courses to complete pre- and post-reflections about their understanding of Al and its uses.

This chapter will discuss how my students responded to the use of Al in the writing classroom, how student attitudes toward Al shifted over the course of the semester, ideas for how to use Al in writing classrooms, and the main …

5. Navigating Benefits And Concerns When Discussing Genai Tools With Faculty And Staff, Reed Hepler

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

The author works as a Digital Initiatives Librarian and is earning a second Master's Degree in Instructional Design and Technology. He viewed ChatGPT immediately as yet another potentially useful technology. When educators at his institution promoted differing viewpoints regarding ChatGPT and other Al tools, he set out to demonstrate a method of Al integration similar to that of other technological tools. Using the Technology Consumer or Producer model and his own experience, he presented, discussed, and wrote about ChatGPT, its ethical issues, and its uses and impact on education. Reed shares his insights regarding creating instruction and training for educators. …

2. Some Ethical Considerations For Teaching And Generative Ai In Higher Education, Lydia Wilkes

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

The chapter discusses some ethical considerations for teaching and generative Al in higher education with a focus on large language models like ChatGPT. These considerations include generative Al's effects on the environment and labor, its reliance on data and tendency to violate privacy, the biases encoded in it, and the digital divide. As more sophisticated generative Al is integrated into word processors, these ethical concerns will become more difficult to perceive and the ethics of using Al more difficult to parse. This chapter concludes with a note on power and justice.

13. Rude Reflections: Current Ai Acts As A Mirror Of Our Flawed Society, Belinda 'Ofakihevahanoa Fotu

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

In face-to-face classrooms, culturally and critically conscious teachers fight to mediate skills, content, and students' backgrounds all within the bounds of a systematically flawed educational institution. For now, AIs that aid in writing bypass that kind of meaningful work as AIs reflect the corpus of published literature that overwhelmingly reflects historically problematic hierarchical biases.

Impossibility Of Artificial Inventors, Matt Blaszczyk

Fellow, Adjunct, Lecturer, and Research Scholar Works

Recently, the United Kingdom Supreme Court decided that only natural persons can be considered inventors. A year before, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a similar decision. In fact, so have many the courts all over the world. This Article analyses these decisions, argues that the courts got it right, and finds that artificial inventorship is at odds with patent law doctrine, theory, and philosophy. The Article challenges the intellectual property (IP) post-humanists, exposing the analytical and normative perils of their argumentation, and recommends against getting rid of the nominally central place of humans in …

Cyclistai: A Smartphone Solution For Cyclist Stress Assessment Using Deep Learning, Aairish Singh

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Cycling presents a compelling solution for promoting personal health and environmental well-being, particularly for short-distance travel. Despite its numerous advantages, cycling uptake in the United States remains disproportionately low, primarily due to safety concerns. Traditional frameworks for assessing cyclist stress are hindered by their impracticality and inability to provide real-time evaluations. Self-report surveys and physiological measurements offer alternative approaches but suffer from limitations such as retrospective reporting biases and accessibility challenges, respectively. This thesis introduces CyclistAI, a novel smartphone-based cyclist stress assessment model that leverages context sensing. By combining Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) techniques, CyclistAI …

When Brain Meets Artificial Intelligence, Lu Zhang

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

When we review the history of development of artificial intelligence (AI), we will find that brain science plays a pivotal role in fostering breakthroughs in AI, such as artificial neural networks (ANNs). Today, AI has made remarkable strides, particularly with the emergence of large language models (LLMs), surpassing expectations and achieving human-level performance in certain tasks. Nonetheless, an insurmountable gap remains between AI and human intelligence. It is urgent to establish a bridge between brain science and AI, promoting their mutual enhancement and collaborations. This involve establishing connections from brain science to AI (brain-inspired AI), and reversely, from AI to …

Development Of A Collaborative Research Platform For Efficient Data Management And Visualization Of Qubit Control, Devanshu Brahmbhatt

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

This thesis introduces QubiCSV, a pioneering open-source platform for quantum computing field. With an emphasis on collaborative research, QubiCSV addresses the critical need for specialized data management and visualization tools in qubit control. The platform is crafted to overcome the challenges posed by the high costs and complexities associated with quantum experimental setups. It emphasizes efficient utilization of resources through shared ideas, data, and implementation strategies. One of the primary obstacles in quantum computing research has been the ineffective management of extensive calibration data and the inability to visualize complex quantum experiment outcomes effectively. QubiCSV fills this gap by offering …

Content Moderation On Social Media: Social And Computational Standards And Implications, Mohit Singhal

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Social media has become a powerful tool that reflects human communication's best and worst aspects. They allow individuals to freely express opinions, communicate with others, and learn about new stories. On the other hand, they have become fertile grounds for several forms of abuse, harassment, and the dissemination of misinformation. Social media platforms have established and employed content moderation to counteract the spread of abuse and misinformation.

Some critical challenges hinder the understanding of the social media content moderation ecosystem. This dissertation investigates various aspects of content moderation, including their coverage, fairness, and effectiveness. Firstly, it investigates how, in practice, …

Natural Language Generation From Large-Scale Open-Domain Knowledge Graphs, Xiao Shi

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation delves into the realm of natural language generation (NLG) from expansive open-domain knowledge graphs, aiming to bridge the gap between existing methods primarily tested on limited datasets and the demands of real-world large-scale, diverse graph structures. Prior works in NLG often relied on small-scale or restricted datasets, neglecting the complexities of broader knowledge graphs. To address this, we introduce a new dataset called GraphNarrative, designed to encompass a wide range of graph structures and enhance the realism of NLG tasks.

The core contribution of this research lies in devising a novel approach to mitigating information hallucination, a common …

Claim Sensing: A Study Linking Factual Claims To Human Behaviors On Social Media, Zeyu Zhang

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The ubiquity of social media has transformed it into a rich source for reflecting people's opinions, behaviors, and interactions. Users frequently encounter factual claims in news, stories, and political statements, which can be either true or false. These claims significantly shape people's minds and behaviors, influencing not only individual perspectives but also broader public discourse. This study explores individuals' behaviors and perceptions toward factual claims by leveraging the concept of "check-worthiness" to analyze the relationship between such claims and user behaviors across datasets containing tens of millions of social media posts, particularly tweets from the platform X (formerly Twitter). It …

A Speech And Facial Information Based Emotion Recognition System Of Collaborative Robot For Empathic Human-Robot Collaboration, Jianna Loor, Jordan Murphy, Rui Li

School of Computing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

A robot's ability to effectively recognize human emotions is critical in human-robot collaboration. However, most of the current collaborative robots were designed to improve productivity. Few of these robots consider human emotions. This situation would cause humans to be unwilling to work with robots for a long time. Motivated by this gap, this research developed a human emotion recognition system for enhancing the interaction abilities of collaborative robots. In this project, both speech and facial information were analyzed for robust human emotion recognition in complex working environments like manufacturing assembly environments. In the experiment, the developed system has been tested …

Using Generative Large Language Models For Hierarchical Relationship Prediction In Medical Ontologies, Hao Liu, Shuxin Zhou, Zhehuan Chen, Yehoshua Perl, Jiayin Wang

School of Computing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study extends the exploration of ontology enrichment by evaluating the performance of various open-sourced Large Language Models (LLMs) on the task of predicting hierarchical relationships (IS-A) in medical ontologies including SNOMED CT Clinical Finding and Procedure hierarchies and the human Disease Ontology. With the previous finetuned BERT models for hierarchical relationship prediction as the baseline, we assessed eight open-source generative LLMs for the same task. We observed only three models, without finetuning, demonstrated comparable or superior performance compared to the baseline BERT -based models. The best performance model OpenChat achieved a macro average F1 score of 0.96 (0.95) on …

Escape The Planet: Revolutionizing Game Design With Novel Oop Techniques, Qusai Kamal Fannoun

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Mobile devices are continuously evolving and greater computing power and graphics capabilities are being introduced every year. As a result, there is an increasing demand for challenging and engaging mobile games that leverage these advanced features. This project explores best design practices using the development of Escape the Planet, which is an intricate maze game for mobile devices in which players navigate using a spaceship that is trapped in a hostile planet’s maze while avoiding obstacles and enemy attacks. The goal is to safely guide the spaceship out of the maze without colliding into walls or taking bullets from defensive …

Embracing Ai In English Composition: Insights And Innovations In Hybrid Pedagogical Practices, James Hutson, Daniel Plate, Kadence Berry

Faculty Scholarship

In the rapidly evolving landscape of English composition education, the integration of AI writing tools like ChatGPT and Claude 2.0 has marked a significant shift in pedagogical practices. A mixed-method study conducted in Fall 2023 across three sections, including one English Composition I and two English Composition II courses, provides insightful revelations. The study, comprising 28 student respondents, delved into the impact of AI tools through surveys, analysis of writing artifacts, and a best practices guide developed by an honors student. Initially, the study observed a notable anxiety and mistrust among students regarding the use of AI in writing. However, …

Mitigating Safety Issues In Pre-Trained Language Models: A Model-Centric Approach Leveraging Interpretation Methods, Weicheng Ma

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Pre-trained language models (PLMs), like GPT-4, which powers ChatGPT, face various safety issues, including biased responses and a lack of alignment with users' backgrounds and expectations. These problems threaten their sociability and public application. Present strategies for addressing these safety concerns primarily involve data-driven approaches, requiring extensive human effort in data annotation and substantial training resources. Research indicates that the nature of these safety issues evolves over time, necessitating continual updates to data and model re-training—an approach that is both resource-intensive and time-consuming. This thesis introduces a novel, model-centric strategy for understanding and mitigating the safety issues of PLMs by …

On Vulnerabilities Of Building Automation Systems, Michael Cash

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Building automation systems (BAS) have become more commonplace in personal and commercial environments in recent years. They provide many functions for comfort and ease of use, from automating room temperature and shading, to monitoring equipment data and status. Even though their convenience is beneficial, their security has become an increased concerned in recent years. This research shows an extensive study on building automation systems and identifies vulnerabilities in some of the most common building communication protocols, BACnet and KNX. First, we explore the BACnet protocol, exploring its Standard BACnet objects and properties. An automation tool is designed and implemented to …