{"id":239022,"date":"2025-12-16T07:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T12:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=239022"},"modified":"2025-12-17T08:14:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:14:33","slug":"uconn-leverages-ai-to-personalize-learning-for-student-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/12\/uconn-leverages-ai-to-personalize-learning-for-student-success\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Leverages AI to Personalize Learning for Student Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article\u00a0is\u00a0not written by an artificial intelligence (AI) program. As AI technology\u00a0and capabilities evolve daily, it\u00a0certainly could have been \u2013\u00a0but\u00a0writing and research only\u00a0scrape the surface of the AI iceberg, according to a team of UConn\u00a0faculty and researchers doing a deep dive into AI learning at the University.\u00a0This team\u00a0has just received a five-year\u00a0National Science Foundation\u00a0(NSF)<\/a>\u00a0Revolutionizing Engineering Departments\u00a0(RED)<\/a>\u00a0grant to continue\u00a0their\u00a0work\u00a0on cultivating neuroadaptive learning ecosystems through AI-powered learning.<\/p>\n

The NSF RED project titled, \u201cCultivating Neuroadaptive Learning Ecosystems through AI-Powered Personalized Learning,<\/em>\u201d is a collaborative effort between the UConn College of Engineering and the College of Engineering at the University of Missouri. It is the first NSF RED award structured as a collaborative project across two institutions. The project is led by the two engineering deans, with Marisa Chrysochoou serving as PI for the University of Missouri award and JC Zhao as PI for the UConn award. Together, the teams are advancing AI-enabled personalized learning and institutional transformation in engineering education.<\/p>\n

At UConn, day-to-day project activities are led by Professor Arash Zaghi of civil and environmental engineering. Zaghi and the interdisciplinary team have been studying AI\u2019s potential to revolutionize personalized learning. Initial work, funded in part by previous NSF grants, focused on using AI to help neurodiverse learners in engineering disciplines with challenges such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia. Used in this context, AI, he explains, can help contextualize material, provide timely student support, and create virtual coaching systems to improve retention and academic performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur research examined the challenges of trying to impose a one-size-fits-all model in teaching, and the\u00a0capacity\u00a0of AI to customize course material for diverse learners,\u201d Zaghi explains.\u00a0\u201cWe soon\u00a0realized that AI could benefit all students, regardless of\u00a0their learning difficulties, and we saw the value of trying to shift people\u2019s thinking from seeing\u00a0neurodiversity\u00a0as\u00a0only a disruptive\u00a0medical condition to viewing it as\u00a0an untapped\u00a0asset.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Three
The NSF RED grant team. (Christopher LaRosa\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fabiana Cardetti, professor in the Department of Mathematics, and professor-in-residence Sarira Motaref, also associate director of innovation and student success, serve as co-principal investigators. The fourth team member is Connie Syharat, research assistant, program manager and a Ph.D. candidate in engineering education at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.<\/p>\n

Motaref specializes in neurodiversity and course redesign. She says that an inclusive, instructional approach to AI equips UConn students for a high-quality, future-ready education.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy integrating AI into coursework, we help students use it\u202fpurposefully and ethically: as a personalized learning aid, a bridge between class content and their disciplinary interests, and a\u00a0tool whose outputs must be\u202fverified through professional judgment. Students also learn where\u202fhuman\u00a0expertise\u00a0is essential\u202fand why copying AI output blindly undermines learning and jeopardizes careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor UConn,\u201d\u00a0she adds, \u201cthis work aligns teaching with the realities of the modern workplace, strengthens employer partnerships, and positions the university as a\u202fleader in responsible innovation. For higher education broadly, it offers a\u202fscalable model for\u00a0equitable, ethical AI literacy that enhances learning while reducing misuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardetti\u00a0is leading the integration of AI in math classes at UConn.\u00a0She stresses that their\u00a0work is important to both the educational and research missions of the university.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work is important for UConn students because it helps them overcome real barriers that research has shown they face,\u201d says\u00a0Cardetti.\u00a0\u201cBy building on that research, we can focus on easing challenges in their learning experiences, so they can make\u00a0timely\u00a0progress and succeed in reaching their educational goals. At the same time, the work is structured to give\u00a0us, the project team, a chance to learn more about which teaching and learning practices truly help \u2013 or sometimes hold back \u2013 our students\u2019 journeys at UConn, and to incorporate this learning as the project progresses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, our focus on integrating AI into education positions UConn at the forefront of a rapidly developing field,\u201d Cardetti adds. \u201cThe interdisciplinary team\u2019s contributions are expected to build research-to-practice bridges that\u00a0benefit\u00a0UConn students while also shaping educational research and practice more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n

A parallel project which grew out of\u00a0the AI\u00a0research is already being implemented across UConn.\u00a0When students arrive at school, Zaghi\u00a0adds,\u00a0everyone has learning challenges or faces barriers to assimilation and adjusting to university life. As an outgrowth of their research, UConn has already launched a new course called AI4ALL<\/a>. Close to 500 students enrolled in Fall 2025, with the goal of offering it to all incoming\u00a0UConn\u00a0freshmen\u00a0by 2028.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith AI, we realized we had tools to help students with daily challenges like how to plan out their day, scheduling, homework, coaching and mentoring access, integrating more easily with classmates and other students, communication and cultural changes, and interactive assists to help them deal with anxiety and mental health issues,” Zaghi says. “There are many other anticipated\u00a0benefits, as well, which we are exploring.\u201d<\/p>\n

In summing up her colleagues\u2019 assessments as to the overall value of their research and goals, Syharat says the project is both timely and relevant as they navigate dramatic changes in engineering fields.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy providing students with more meaningful support and contextualized learning experiences, we hope to capitalize on students\u2019 assets to enhance their engagement and build key engineering skills during their time at UConn,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe are also building on\u00a0our prior work in which we found that shifting our mindset about neurodiversity allows us to create more inclusive learning environments for a wide range of learners. Now, we are considering how AI can really help create experiences that\u00a0consider\u00a0the individual strengths and challenges of all students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zaghi\u00a0sees endless benefits to their research, but also cautions that\u00a0as the project progresses, the world around us \u2013 and technology \u2013 is changing at\u00a0lightning\u00a0speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started this project, AI was evolving so quickly that we had\u00a0to scrap the first models we had created; I can\u2019t even imagine what things will look like\u00a0in five years,\u00a0by\u00a0the time we finish this grant,\u201d he reflects.\u00a0\u201cOur goal is to remain agile and update our work as we go, continuously focused on mental health, general\u00a0wellbeing, and improved\u00a0ways of learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project is timely as the potential and capabilities of AI are growing exponentially,\u201d says Dean Zhao. \u201cPersonalized learning powered by AI will unlock the full potential of our students, especially those whose learning styles differ from the majority.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An AI-powered approach to help neurodiverse students succeed in learning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":239024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866,2226,2460,2459,2648,2076,1875,2235,2306],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2315],"class_list":["post-239022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr","category-clas","category-faculty","category-graduate-students","category-blue-research","category-research","category-grad-school","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-voices"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-11 03:39:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239022"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239387,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239022\/revisions\/239387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/239024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239022"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=239022"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=239022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}