“Math is an incredibly creative thing”: Northeastern’s new math bot “Ada” supports calculus students

Previously, students who had difficulty with their math homework had to rely on class notes, scour the Internet for solutions, or wait until the next office hour. However, with the advent of “Ada,” this longstanding confusion may be a thing of the past at Northeastern.

Artificial intelligence bots developed by Northeastern’s math department are being introduced into math classrooms. Through the College of Engineering, researchers and professors are developing and refining Ada, an AI bot that supports students in their computational work.

Ada, named after the famous mathematician Ada Lovelace, is in the pilot phase of teaching mathematics. According to Abby Williams, a professor in the mathematics department, Ada is designed specifically for Calculus 1 for science and technology. Williams said Ada’s creators uploaded the coursebook to Ada so that the AI ​​would be able to identify problems in certain sections.

“The idea was that we just wanted to automate workflows and (do) things that a (teaching assistant) does,” said Dev Shah, a computer science graduate student and researcher in Northeastern’s multidisciplinary graduate engineering program who has experience developing AI -Chatbots for research has work and classrooms. “(Teaching assistants) are not always available, so we want to provide a more integrated AI experience so students can seek support at any time.”

Ada’s skills have impressed the students so far.

“I think that’s really cool.” Ashley DeGeorge, a third-year math student, said of the bot. “Then maybe they can do targeted things for our courses, and we can also reach out to the people who created it (the AI ​​bot) if we have suggestions or questions or want to learn more about the robot’s capabilities. Maybe we would “Don’t think of trying it.”

The use of AI is still there widely discussed in educational institutions. However, as these bots are increasingly used for teaching assistant (TA) work, the university is looking for other avenues to expand AI in the northeast.

“I would say they are smarter than TAs,” Shah said. “And they are good mentors, but what they can’t do is grade assignments and give very specific, conscious feedback about the student’s work.”

Northeastern’s leadership has shown overall positive attitude towards AI compared to other colleges and universities. “I think the university as a whole really wants to be a leader in AI, and the best way to do that is to encourage faculty and students to adopt and use it,” Williams said.

As the presence of AI in education increases, students are beginning to decide how and when to use it. AI offers many possibilities for students to cheat on exams and assignments, DeGeorge said. She said learning to use AI “ethically” is a new skill they need to learn.

“When you do midterm or final exams, you write down this evidence and think, ‘Oh, that makes a lot of sense,'” DeGeorge said. “But sometimes it takes an outside source to say, ‘Oh, I’m not necessarily following this part’ or ‘You’re missing a step here.’ You’ll never be able to do that with a real person because it would just take too much time.”

Professors and researchers in the College of Engineering have high hopes for the new bots.

“If I’m really happy with (Ada), I’ll probably continue to use it, especially for “Calculus classes and mathematical reasoning — those kinds of classes that have so many people taking them, so many people with questions and homework, and not everyone can go to the TA,” Williams said.

Williams conducted a survey for her two courses, Calculus 1 for Science and Engineering, and said overall student feedback was positive. On a scale of one to five — with one being the lowest rating — one of her classes rated Ada an average of 4.1 and the other rated Ada an average of a 4, Williams said in an email statement to The News.

Now researchers in the College of Engineering are working on software for a bot called Newton for students in physics classes.

“The bot is interactive,” said Srinivas Sridhar, professor of physics, bioengineering and chemical engineering. “(Students) will be able to ask questions, most importantly: it will be possible to talk to the student at the level they are at. We are working on letting the bot guide the student through the concepts.”

Shah said that in addition to Newton, bots are also in development at the College of Engineering. The first bot Shah worked on was for the Khoury College of Computer Sciences Cooperative, designed to help students refine their resumes. Shah said another bot to help students with research is in development.

Ultimately, Willaims said that AI cannot replace the creativity of mathematicians.

“Math is an incredibly creative thing,” Williams said. “Research in mathematics, groundbreaking mathematics; This is a creative art… maybe one day AI will get to the point where it can do this. But I think there still needs to be humans… AI can just do the math work, but you still need that human spark, that idea, a little bit of creativity to say, “Okay, this is the problem.” That is the method we need to solve the problem.’”