Boilermaker Educator

Message from the Interim Dean

Greetings! I’m very pleased to share with you the latest issue of our e-magazine: Boilermaker Educator. In this issue, I would like to highlight our recent efforts in Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Data Science here in the College. AI has been widely promoted as a core element in the President’s ‘Purdue Computes’ initiative. Last year, I convened an AI Working Group to consider what our contribution to this initiative might be. Under the leadership of Bill Watson, the group meets regularly to discuss how the College can leverage its comparative advantage in P-12 education in these areas. 

We’re doing a lot more than folks know about! We offer courses, graduate certificates, and degree programs for students; professional development and training to our school-based colleagues; and numerous funded grant projects using AI to transform learning and teaching, inform policy and make a difference in the lives of diverse students.

Our wonderful new web developer, Kerri Richardson, has created a ‘one-stop-shopping’ webpage housing all of our AI/Data Science efforts.

Read news stories/webpages documenting our efforts in AI/Data Science:

• College of Ed contributes to Purdue AI & data science via initiative, miniseries
• Futurist Peter Leyden to speak at Purdue about AI
• LDT/EON “Immersive AI” Platform

Watch videos we produced about AI in education:

• Craft Data Science Insights #1: Sequence Mining
• Craft Data Science Insights #2: Psychometrics
• Craft Data Science Insights #3: NAEP Math Achievement Gap
• Craft Data Science Insights #4: Predicting Student STEM Learning
• Craft Data Science Insights #5: Mixed-Mode Surveys
• Power Friday: Emerging Educational Technologies
• AI-Ed Fusion: Symposium on STEM Education in the Era of AI

Janet Alsup (EDCI Head for eight+ years) and Ala Samarapungavan (Interim EDST Head for two years) are both returning to the faculty from their leadership positions, effective July 1. We are very grateful for their service! S. Selcen Guzey will take over as EDCI Head and Christine Kiracofe as EDST Head—we thank both for stepping up to provide this important leadership for the College!

The College received over 400 gifts—a 70% increase over last year—totaling over $170K during the Purdue Day of Giving campaign on April 24. This earned us a bonus for the 3rd largest increase campus-wide!  Our amazing faculty & staff helped by appearing in this video which won an extra $250 from Purdue for ‘User-Generated Content’!

Mark your calendars for the upcoming College of Education conference, Purdue AI in P-12 Education, at Purdue University on Nov. 11,  2024. 

Learn more about the College’s efforts in this exciting new area—and the others represented here—as these are all great examples of what makes us ‘quinoa’ in a field of wheat!

Phillip J. VanFossen
Interim Dean, College of Education