Code Name: Rumi Agent
Rumi is the codename for an intelligent software agent being conceptualized, researched, and developed at the IUPUI CyberLab in collaboration with CourseNetworking LLC (theCN.com).
For students, Rumi plays the role of a “digital” mentor, personal teaching assistant, carrier advisor, caring classmate, and a digital cool buddy. Rumi dynamically and intelligently recommends learning activities, social connections, carrier information, events, announcements, and more.
Rumi’s interaction with people is perceived as human-like communication with emotions and feeling. His persona reflects an intelligent and trendy male in his mid 30’s. Rumi’s dialogue primarily appears as a post within LMS or ePortfolio pages. Rumi’s robotic face may appear neutral, happy, or sad, depending on the nature of the message. The machine learning part of Rumi improves the usefulness of his messages (posts) and recommendations as he gains more experience interacting with each user.
At the initial development phase, Rumi will be designed to work within the CourseNetworking(the CN) environment. Later, Rumi will be developed as an independent LTI plugin that may run within other LMS systems such as Moodle, Sakai and commercial LMS and ePortfolio systems. It is expected to be released as an open source software or offered as a licensed commercial product through the Indiana University Office of Technology Transfer.
The deliverables of the Rumi project are expected to be theses and dissertations, scholarly papers intellectual properties, and more importantly a commercial and/or open-source product.
Collaborations and Joint Venture Opportunities
Rumi invites scholars and researchers including graduate students and research faculty members throughout the world for both research and entrepreneur collaborations. Corporations with commercial sectors or open source communities are also welcome to participate. Please contact jafari@iu.edu for further information regarding collaboration opportunities.
Background
For the last twenty-plus years, a number of educational software systems known as Learning Management Systems or LMS, have been developed and rolled out as open-source (Sakai, Moodle) or as commercial systems (Blackboard, Desire to Learn, Angel Learning, Canvas, etc.). However, almost all of the LMS products lack the “engagement” outcome and have not yet been able to play an active role as an “enabler” in transforming teaching and learning in today’s social pedagogical paradigm. In fact, nearly all LMS systems are designed as teacher-centric platforms offering a passive set of tools to help instructors in managing courses. The Rumi project was initiated as a new technology to take the current outdated LMS concept and systems into the next generation of the AI-based personal learning system.
Project Team
| Ali Jafari, Professor, CyberLab Director, CN CEO Rumi Principal Investigator (PI), Project Lead |
| Alice Zhao, CyberLab Associate Director of R&D Rumi Instructional Designer |
| Jue Wang, CyberLab Associate Director of Business and Entrepreneurship Rumi Project Manager for Marketing |
| Shokouh Shalil Ahmadi, CyberLab Graduate Assistant (RA) |
| Eashwar, CyberLab Software Integration Intern Rumi AI-based integration programmar |
| Puja, CyberLab Software Integration Intern Rumi AI-based integration programmar |
| Behafarid Mohammadjafari, Former CyberLab Graduate Assistant (RA) Rumi Recommendation Algorithm and Machine Learning Researcher |
| Mahmood Hosseini, Former CyberLab Graduate Assistant (RA) Rumi Framework Design, Announcement Engine |
| Amir Salamat, Former CyberLab Graduate Assistant (RA) Rumi Quote Competition Engine |
| Emad Azad, Former CyberLab Graduate Assistant (RA) Rumi Skills Recommendation Engine and Rumi Tips |
| Joe Hofmeister, Former CN Product Manager and UI Designer Rumi Visual Design |
| Conor Marley, CN Product Designer Rumi UI & UX Design
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| David Zeng, CN Backend Developer Rumi Engineer and Full-stack Developer |
| Alvan Luo, CN Lead Engineer Rumi API and Backend Development |
| Key Xu, CN Frontend Developer Rumi Frontend Development |