Projects - Intelligent Systems Application Center

Interactive Multimedia Intelligent Tutoring System (IMITS)

Universal Virtual Laboratory (UVL)

Prostate Interactive Expert System (PIES)

Operations Management Tutoring System

Interactive Virtual Intelligent System for Scientific Inquiry in a Biology Learning Environment (INVISSIBLE)

An Interactive Multimedia Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Control Systems

Students: Joseph Sloss, Charisse Williams, and Tiffany McKissick-Murray

Advisors: Brian P. Butz and Tom Chmielewski

The objective of this senior design project is to design a prototype of an Interactive Multimedia Intelligent Tutoring System (IMITS), which will complement an electrical engineering undergraduate student in an introductory course on classical controls. The IMITS will be set in storyline fashion where the participating student is given a design problem to solve in order to be hired as a junior engineer in a fictional controls company. Their successful completion of the assignment will result in a permanent position within the firm. The tutoring system will be structured in a step-like fashion to guide the student through the basics of classical controls, which will culminate into a solution for the assigned industrial problem.

The interactive component of the system will consist of video recordings, emails, and questions pertaining to specific tasks to be completed by the student, which were initially requested by the tutoring system. Closed feedback loops give the impression of an intelligent system by directing the system to the appropriate branch as a function of student response. An expert system is utilized to account for the student’s progress and will allow for advancement within the system for successful completion of each objective. The infrastructure will implement Authorware software to integrate all aspects of the system into one fully functional IMITS in linking each component to create a virtual educational environment.

The IMITS will augment a student’s ability to learn classical controls by adding an extra dimension of learning through the use of interactive multimedia and an expert system, unlike the out dated versions of programs that are packed with lifeless text and multiple-choice responses.

Virtual Patient Prototype

Training of Medical Students is usually done by using standardized patients (SP). SPs are typically actors who play the role of a patient with a specific illness. The SP's respond to a medical student's questions and undergo a physical examination in the same way as a real patient would. The use of SP's for training of medical students is very labor intensive. This project builds a prototype virtual patient which is a 3D graphical image created with computer software and programmed to talk, move and react as a real patient would.

The Interactive Multimedia Intelligent Tutoring Systems (IMITS) project was funded by the National Science Foundation and is concerned with combining computer interactivity, engaging scenarios and good pedagogy. A unique quality of the tutoring system is that it is concerned with imparting basic principles, reasoning skills, as well as encouraging creativity. It is not concerned with simply training a student for a task but focuses on helping a student learn, understand and apply basic principles. The tutor allows the student to take whatever actions he or she deems appropriate and continuously evaluates what the student knows and does not know about introductory circuits. IMITS was built using off-the-shelf, well-tested and well-supported software. The result is a set of tutoring systems that have the capability of dynamically organizing and modifying a single lesson plan and a series of lesson plans based on the ability of the student being tutored.

The National Science Foundation supported project developed tutoring systems for engineering courses but in the future tutors will be developed for a wide variety of scientific and non-scientific disciplines. A second objective of the project was to develop a framework within IMITS that could be transferred to other projects involving tutoring in other subject matter.

The members of the ISAC have done an extensive evaluation of the IMITS program. Evaluation consisted of testing the software with multiple universities across the United States. You made download the evaluation here(pdf).

To learn more about IMITS, click here! | Back to top | -IMITS User's Manual(pdf)

Another NSF-funded project deals with providing a virtual, highly realistic electronics laboratory for the physically disabled. This project, called the Universal Virtual Laboratory (UVL), allows students who have extremely limited or no mobility of their hands and arms engage in a realistic laboratory environment. The input/output function is performed by voice or by specially designed I/O devices. An intelligent agent acts as the "lab instructor". It watches a student's performance and answers the student's questions based on the student's demonstrated knowledge. This product will be ideal for either Internet application or CD-ROM based use. Additionally it will be ideal for able students as well.

To learn more about the UVL, click here! | Back to top

With funding from the Fox Chase Cancer Center, the National Cancer Institute, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the ISAC has taken a lead role in developing the Prostate Interactive Expert System (PIES). PIES assists men, diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer, learn about treatment alternatives. It develops and evaluates a computer-based intelligent expert system designed to inform patients diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer about the disease, about its treatment modalities, and about potential treatment consequences. PIES will present disease and treatment relevant information that is tailored to his psychological characteristics (i.e., information seeking preference). The development of the program is guided by a cognitive-social approach to information processing, which postulates that expectations and beliefs about the disease and its treatment and cancer related worry and distress influence information processing and decision-making.

To learn more about PIES, click here! | Back to top

Operations Management Tutoring System:

The Laboratory worked with the Fox School of Business and Management to create interactive multimedia modules for its Introduction to Operations Management course. The Laboratory was funded to develop three modules: Forecasting using time series analysis and regression, Queuing Theory, and Scheduling.

Forcasting uses data and has certain graphical visualization issues associated with the its of equations. Queuing theory presents an opportunity to have the students perform "what - if" analysis and cost analysis. The modules include animations of queues and videos of various waiting line situations. Scheduling has combinatorial elements and multiple objectives. Hence the three modules have different pedagogical issues and require different strategies to see how these issues can be resolved.

Click here for a demonstration! | Back to top

The Interactive Virtual Intelligent System for Scientific Inquiry in a Biology Learning Environment (INVISSIBLE) will be an intelligent, interactive, multimedia software environment to help high school students better understand and apply scientific methodologies to biology problems. Using INVISSIBLE, a student interacts in scenarios that reflect authentic experiences of a scientist engaged in using scientific inquiry methods. Two learning modules have been developed over three years in which students must use scientific inquiry skills and reasoning patterns necessary for the reconstruction of past events.

The INVISSIBLE software environment will place the student within a virtual world containing two scenarios. The first scenario presents students with a murder investigation where they are charged with the responsibility of identifying suspects and solving the crime. Identifying suspects is analogous to generating multiple working hypotheses. Students must then decide what evidence to collect. Evidence will consist of DNA, hairs or fibers, blood spatters, etc. Students will be able to consult virtual experts who are knowledgeable about the various types of evidence. With help and guidance of the virtual experts, students must evaluate that evidence and decide whether there is a “smoking gun” or not. The first module will introduce students to the procedures of evidence gathering and analysis used by scientists who study past events, but it will do so in a context that is likely to be familiar to students.

The second scenario allows students to visit three archeological dig sites to gather and analyze fossils determining to which humanoid species the fossils belong.

To learn more about INVISSIBLE, click here! | Back to top