PADS Involved in Two New Projects Combining Process Mining, AI, and Learning Analytics: AIStudyBuddy and BridgingAI

The PADS group was successful with both an individual and a collaborative application in the federal-state initiative to promote artificial intelligence in higher education (total 5.8 million euro). The projects combine Process Mining, AI, and Learning Analytics. The two projects are “BridgingAI” and “AIStudyBuddy”. Both are coordinated by the RWTH Center for Artificial Intelligence (AI Center).

The AIStudyBuddy project (3.9 million euros) combines Learning Analytics and Process Mining. Besides RWTH, the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) and Bergische Universität Wuppertal (BUW) are working together toward using modern AI technologies to support the planning and reflection of individual courses of study. The focus is on two target groups: For students, the "StudyBuddy” provides informed and evidence-based planning of their studies over several semesters into the future. StudyBuddy enables advanced visualizations of study progress and provides action-oriented feedback. AI technologies are, for example, used to determine courses of studies that have led to successful completion of a degree in the past. The second target group is the group of curriculum designers. With "BuddyAnalytics”, they receive a tool that provides interactive visualizations and information for decision making. The goal is to help them improve competence-oriented curriculum development as well as advising students using data driven analytics. The project combines the AI paradigms of data-based (Process Mining) and rule-based AI (Answer Set Programming). Process mining discovers and analyzes actual study behavior using data from the Campus system, study management, and examination systems. It compares real courses of study with the intended ones.

The BridgingAI project (1.9 million euros) aims to make AI-related courses available to a larger audience. Educational offers related to AI are in high demand, while at the same time the numbers of students attending lectures are limited due to capacity problems. Hence, scalable solutions are required. This is where BridgingAI comes into place: Building on the existing AI expertise at RWTH University, a micro-bachelor will be developed that is conceived for students from various disciplines. This micro-bachelor aims to build a bridge curriculum at the transition from bachelor to master. The PADS group will develop two new Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): one MOOC on process mining and one MOOC on data science.

See www.ai.rwth-aachen.de for more details. Candidates interested in the process-mining-related positions are invited to apply via applications@pads.rwth-aachen.de using the keyword “BridgingAI” or “AIStudyBuddy”. When you apply, please include relevant information and motivate why you can contribute to our research and the project. Generic applications will be discarded.