Thursday, October 15, 2026

Old Dominion University Researchers Develop AI Tutor to Strengthen Engineering Education - Sherry DiBari, ODU

A simulated stretchable surface could give engineering students a way to see what an equation means — not just how to solve it. At Old Dominion University, researchers are developing an artificial intelligence (AI) tutoring system that combines interactive simulations and guided questions to help students understand difficult engineering concepts — not simply memorize formulas. The system, called MAESTRA (Metaphor-based AI-powered Engineering Socratic Tutoring for Reasoning and Advanced Synthesis), is being developed by Gon Namkoong, Ph.D., and Jiang Li, Ph.D., professors in the department of electrical and computer engineering. The project is supported by a $400,000 National Science Foundation grant. “In simple terms, MAESTRA is like having an engineering tutor, an interactive laboratory and a visualization tool working together,” said Dr. Namkoong, lead investigator on the project.

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