The long-running ARC and NHMRC-funded ‘Thinking Head’ artificial intelligence research program at Flinders University has inspired much further learning, not least the recently published Cognitive Science and Technology reference book.<\/p>\n
Dr Marissa Bond, who finished her PhD in computer science with College of Science and Engineering supervisor Professor David Powers<\/a> in 2017, has just published her research with Springer, entitled Teaching Skills with Virtual Humans, <\/em>with coauthors Professor Powers and Associate Professor Pammi Raghavendra<\/a>, from the Flinders College of Nursing and Health Sciences.<\/p>\n Why Use Virtual Tutors, Introduction, The Future of Virtual Teachers, Creating Engaging Embodied Conversation Agents,<\/a> Evaluating the Social Tutor, Existing Software Tutors, Designing for Specific Populations, Designing Effective Teachers, Implementing a social Tutor for Autism, The Thinking Head Whiteboard<\/a>\u00a0 and information in the new book’s chapters link Dr Bond’s study on developing and evaluating virtual tutoring software to support children with autism to improve their social skills.<\/p>\n “This is the work that the book is based on and is used as a case study throughout,” she says<\/p>\n Dr Marissa Bond (nee Milne), who worked in STEM outreach and education at Flinders University during her PhD studies, is also a trained primary school teacher. Her PhD was co-supervised by Associate Professor Raghavendra and Dr Richard Leibbrandt<\/a>, who with Professor Powers was part of the Thinking\/Teaching Head project.<\/p>\n She tutored at Flinders for several years before moving into science communication and student recruitment at Flinders for seven years and also spent time as a software engineer at Clevertar<\/a>, an advanced AI software developer based in Adelaide that spun out from Flinders University<\/a> experts including founders Dr Martin Luerssen and Dr Trent Lewis<\/a> (both part of the original Thinking Head project).<\/p>\n