Dr. Nesra Yannier

Founder & Project Lead

Nesra Yannier is a Senior Systems Scientist/Special Faculty in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and founder/inventor of NoRILLA. Her background spans multiple disciplines, with undergraduate degrees in Physics and Computer Engineering, an M.S. in Computational Sciences & Engineering from Koc University in Turkey, an M.A. in Learning, Design & Technology from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. She has experience working at Disney Research, NASA Ames Research Center and start up companies. She is passionate about creating innovative educational technologies and learning experiences that blend the physical and virtual worlds to improve children’s learning and engagement. Her work has been recognized with numerous honors, including a Mister Rogers Scholarship (Emmy’s College Television Award in New Media for Children), the Reimagine Education Golden Award for Cultivating Curiosity at the University of Pennsylvania, and an Innovation Fellowship from the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship to help translate her Ph.D. research into real-world impact. She has delivered a TEDx talk titled “Earthshaking Learning Fosters Curiosity,” and her work has been featured in outlets such as the Science Magazine Podcast, Forbes, U.S. News, MIT Technology Review, SciTech Daily, Education Week, Futurity, CalTimes, The Hechinger Report, Getting Smart, Big Deal Media, Transforming Education Through Technology, Games and Learning, Remake Learning, and New Scientist.

Prof. Ken Koedinger

Cofounder

Ken Koedinger is the Hillman University Professor of Computer Science with appointments in Human Computer Interaction and Psychology. Ken has an M.S. in Computer Science, a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology, and experience teaching in an urban high school. He has developed data sharing and analytics infrastructures for supporting innovations in learning (http://datashop.org & http://learnsphere.org) and used them to improve learning as illustrated in his 100s of publications. He directs LearnLab (http://learnlab.org) and co-founded Carnegie Learning in 1998, which was the first AI in Education company to bring intelligent tutoring technology into widespread use in schools. His PLUS project (http://tutors.plus) provides hybrid human-AI tutoring to middle school math students in schools around the country. Ken is a fellow of Cognitive Science, the Association of Psychological Science, and the Association of Computing Machinery.

Prof. Scott Hudson

Cofounder

Scott Hudson is a Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University where he served for many years as the founding director of the HCII PhD program. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Colorado in 1986, and has previously held faculty positions at the University of Arizona and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Named an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow, and elected to the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) Academy, he has published extensively on technology-oriented HCI topics. He has received both the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Research and Service Awards, as well as the Allen Newell Award for Research Excellence at CMU.

Henry Chang

Learning & Software Engineer

Henry is a Learning Engineer and Software Engineer specializing in adaptive learning solutions. He is a part of the NoRILLA software team and a member of the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He holds a master’s degree in Education Technology and Applied Learning Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University and bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from University of California, Santa Cruz.

Karen Peterson

Distribution Partner, National Girls Collaborative Project

Karen Peterson is Founder & CEO of the National Girls Collaborative Project, leading a network of 33 Collaboratives across 41 states that connects 42,500 organizations serving 30 million youth in STEM. With over 25 years of experience in education and research, she has served as Principal Investigator on multiple federal grants focused on STEM equity and computing pathways. NGCP’s goal is to leverage collaboration among youth organizations to advance equity in STEM, supported by national-scale dissemination tools and capacity-building strategies developed under Peterson’s leadership.