Get to know more about Sima Caspari-Sadeghi and her field of research in this interview:
– My name is Sima Caspari-Sadeghi. I’m German-Iranian and came a year ago (2023) to Østfold University college to start my job as an Associate Professor in ICT & Learning.
What inspired you to pursue a career in research, and how did you become interested in your specific field?
– I spent my entire career in academia without interruption. This led me to appreciate the depth and complexity of science. I also liked the joy of encountering with ideas that challenged my previous beliefs and understanding.
Could you describe your current research focus and the specific areas within AI that you are working on?
– My area of expertise is Artificial Intelligence in Education, especially Mathematics learning. I work on integrating AI with Psychometrics to explore questions about human mind and learning.
What motivated you to choose this particular research topic?
– I was always interested in how brain works (decision-making, learning, forgetting, etc). Artificial intelligence offers me advanced tools and methods to collect novel and diverse types of data, e.g. temporal-dimensional-spatial, which are challenging to obtain via traditional psychometrics.
How long have you been working on this research, and what are some of the major milestones you have achieved so far?
– It was 16 years ago, during my PhD (2008-2012), that I started with Psychometrics: the study and measurement of human cognition. My five years of experience as a faculty member in Educational Psychology, along with the intensive training in research methodologies I received at various universities (the Netherlands- 2011, Denmark- 2012, and Finland-2013), have shown me that many aspects of human thinking remain unexplained or cannot be properly measured by traditional methods.
However, it was during my postdoctoral fellowship (2014, Alexander von Humboldt, Germany) that I became more deeply involved with Artificial Intelligence, specifically with Knowledge Engineering methods used to develop Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Thus, I began my work in Artificial Intelligence with Expert Systems 10 years ago.
During the COVID-19 pandemic and the sudden shift to online education, I began my Habilitation (qualification for professorship in German-speaking countries) focused on AI-based technologies for measuring learning in online environments.
During the same period (2019-2023), I served as the Head of Evaluation for a large-scale project, SKILL.de, on digitalization in higher education, funded by the German Aerospace Center and the Ministry of Science.
My role involved supporting professors and instructors across more than 15 disciplines in evaluating the impact of digital tools on learning, both in formal and informal settings. This experience highlighted the need for more automated, data-driven approaches to collecting and analyzing data in online environments.
Why do you believe your research is important for society?
– I work in AI in Education for Life-long learning, covering not just schools or universities but also work-force and corporate training. Every society is largely a by-product of the quality of its educational system. However, education, like many other areas, has not caught up with the unprecedented advancements in AI.
We need substantial revisions in the objectives, processes, and outcomes of our educational systems to prepare citizens who can competently and critically use AI in their personal, professional, and social lives.
From economic point of view, AI-based training and educational programs have a huge market: alone in the U.S, the corporate training is worth over 46 billion dollars and is expected to grow globally.
Can you explain how your work can potentially impact or benefit everyday life?
– I hope by gaining deeper understanding about Human learning, we can become better and more effective life-long learners in formal and informal situations: failing to learn from experience and the past can be sometimes fatal.
What are some of the challenges you face in your research, and how do you overcome them?
– Data access: In education, we have Big Data, thanks to massive digitalization, so data availability is not a problem. The major issue is data access. I’m fully aware of the concerns regarding data security, privacy, and ownership. However, the risk of not using data is much higher than the risk of using it. It’s impossible to harness the potential of AI in education without access to diverse learners’ data across different settings.
Overhyping vs. blind ignorance: The field of AI in education is currently caught between two unrealistic perspectives. On one hand, there is an overhyped narrative and over-promising that AI can solve all the problems in education.
On the other hand, there is a complete disregard for the disruptive revolution AI brings, with some pretending that nothing has changed, and that education should continue as it was before. I try to avoid both extreme views and instead focus on how to leverage AI to serve human needs and values.
What are your future research plans, and what do you hope to achieve in the next few years?
– Well, I’m new to Norway. I’m looking forward to getting to know the professional community here and learning from their experience.
How do you stay motivated and inspired in your research journey?
– I look at the experts in this field and remind myself that it will take time, patience, and hard work to become a good researcher.
Do you have any advice for young researchers or students who are interested in pursuing a career in AI and research?
– AI in Education is an exciting area with great potentials. At the same time, it’s a very fast-changing area, so staying adaptive and resilient is essential. Success in research comes from staying committed and pushing forward, even when progress is slow or immediate success and recognition are not forthcoming.