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Centering “Ubuntu” to Build Research Confidence and Joyful Collaboration
No full textAs feminist scholar-practitioners who are committed to an abolitionist teaching praxis, we are embracing the concept of Ubuntu, “I am because you are,” to build Black students’ research confidence through joyful collaboration. This critical commentary draws on our autoethnographic accounts to discuss how centering decolonial, critical, and Black feminist frameworks shifted how we support students in co-constructing knowledge through a cohort based undergraduate research program. Our collaborative approach to pedagogy has built students’ research confidence through culturally centered practices that value diverse ways of knowing and student contribution. Love (2019) argues, “abolitionist teaching is not sustainable without joy” (p. 120). As such, we developed a space where students deconstruct the silos of individual research through pedagogical practices that support collaborative work and center the joy of community. Our curriculum moves from creating contemplative research that analyzes and critiques social structures of power, towards research that embraces social transformation and centers appropriate interventions in students’ respective academic disciplines. Through this commentary, we discuss how our pedagogical practice has both impacted our relation to students and our own identity as researchers who see students’ success as part of ours and our communities; further fostering the centering of Ubuntu in our work. As we share our experiences, we hope to move others to consider how incorporating Ubuntu can support sustainable abolitionist teaching in their own praxis
Educational AI Agents in VR
No full textAI powered educational agents are programs that are capable of interpreting their environment and then making decisions based on that (Cordova-Esparza, 2025). Agentic programs like these can be helpful in an educational setting because they can be used to provide personalized feedback to students, assist instructors with grading, and adapt learning materials in real time to match each student’s progress. However, there are a multitude of concerns raised by agentic programs as well, causing experts to consider the ethical implications of integrating them into school curricula. The Cal Poly Graphic Communication Department wanted to study how participants would respond when receiving a lesson on lighting for photography in a VR environment from a simulated AI educational agent. In doing so, they aimed to test the viability of agentic programs for future use in education. Additional considerations included testing participants using two different instructors (one human, one freeform), and informing them that AI was present in the simulation for some of the test runs. How the participant perceived social presence was also measured.
In terms of importance and industry relevance, this project will serve as a good indicator of what the general consensus is about using an AI powered educational agent to provide classroom instruction. When used correctly, AI can be a great tool for helping students learn, such as large language models being able to break down problems for students and explain them so the student can understand the content better. This project takes that a step further by putting the AI in a leadership (instructor) role versus more of an assistant role. If it is found that participants do not mind receiving instruction from AI, this may allude to a broader acceptance of educational agents used in the classroom.
For the production plan and schedule, Week 4 was dedicated to meeting with the project advisor (HY) and learning more about the project, Week 5 was dedicated to the first in-person team meeting, Week 6 was dedicated to launching the project in Unity and learning more about the software, as well as combing through other project materials in OneDrive, Week 7 is dedicated to testing out the simulation for the first time and creating duplicate avatars to create the illusion of other classmates in the classroom during the simulation, Weeks 8-9 are dedicated to testing, and Week 10 is dedicated to analysis, reporting findings, and preparing presentation materials
Impact of Lab Design & Prior Engineering Exposure on EPIC Outcomes
No full textProve that the Engineering Possibilities in College Camp has positively influenced student interest in engineering with the goal of encouraging more students to pursue careers in the field
Leveraging Smartphones for Balance Assessment
No full textAssessment of human balance provides valuable metrics to track the health, development, and fall risk of individuals. The prominent method for objective balance assessments has used force plates to track the center of pressure (COP) position as a participant attempts to balance during varying tasks. However, the use of force plates is limited by the cost of equipment and expertise required, leading to recent interest in using embedded inertial measurement units (IMUs) in mobile devices instead. Many researchers have explored placing mobile devices close to the subject’s center of mass (COM) to approximate the subject’s COM acceleration and using the COM acceleration as an alternative to COP measurements for balance assessment. Recently, as part of Cal Poly’s Mobile Balance Lab (MBL) Master’s project, we have developed a methodology to use cameras to aid in tracking both COM acceleration and COP position with a smartphone placed anywhere on a participant. The proposed project aims to build off the current methodology and code to improve the accuracy and accessibility of the model for use as a mobile balance lab. The goals include (1) removing the need for the camera system by using anatomical measurements and dynamics to track relative positions and (2) using the double inverted pendulum model to improve the COP position estimate using smartphones. One SURP student (from ME, AERO, BMED, or other related disciplines) will work on familiarizing themselves with the developed method and MATLAB code, explore the literature on the statistical variance of anatomical measurements, develop equations of motion to approximate human balance as a double inverted pendulum, modify the existing MATLAB code to implement subroutines for goals (1) and (2). Students should indicate in their application if they are interested in continuing work on the project during the academic year for independent study course credit
