Produced by the Office of Marketing and Communications
The University of Maryland College of Education has launched a new research center dedicated to exploring how data science and artificial intelligence (AI) can be applied to create more equitable and effective learning environments for all students.
The Center for Educational Data Science and Innovation (EDSI), announced at the 2025 Al + Learning Symposium co-hosted by the college and the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM) on May 1, will take on persistent educational challenges such as declining literacy rates, chronic absenteeism and diverse learning styles, and consider the unprecedented technological possibilities that could address them.
It’s part of a broader effort by UMD to leverage its longstanding leadership in AI to advance research centered on the ethical and responsible application of the revolutionary technology
“It was important to establish a center that would both support AI use in improving teaching and learning and prepare students for an AI-infused future,” said Jing Liu, assistant professor and director of EDSI who is affiliated with AIM and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies.
The new center’s projects include MPowering Teachers, an AI tool that provides teachers with more frequent and timely feedback on their teaching practices, and the creation of an open-source, multimodal dataset that integrates anonymized classroom transcripts, audio and video with student demographics, achievement data and surveys to help develop AI tools that offer a more holistic understanding of classroom interactions.
“The fundamental approach we are taking is different from other AI and education institutions or centers. We take a step back in terms of focusing on building the infrastructure to enable AI innovation in a responsible and ethical way; we also prioritize high-quality research in this space rather than rushing to produce another AI tool,” Liu said.
According to LearnPlatform by Instructure's seventh annual EdTech Top 40 report, school districts across the country used an average of 2,739 ed tech tools in 2023-24, up 8% over the previous school year. The number of ed-tech tools students and educators are using is also on the rise, with students using an average of 45 tools and teachers using 49 during the 2022–23 school year.
In addition to conducting research to support AI use in improving teaching and learning and to prepare students for an AI-infused future, EDSI will foster interdisciplinary partnerships to create real-world solutions, bringing together diverse groups from across UMD and beyond. EDSI will also work closely with school districts, education agencies and policymakers to develop and implement data-driven educational strategies that improve student outcomes.
The center has already established partnerships with Air Reading, Guilford County (N.C.) Schools, Research Partnership for Professional Learning, Des Moines Public Schools, and San Francisco Unified School District.
EDSI is further supported by ed tech companies and organizations including Google, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Gates Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, Arnold Ventures, Overdeck Family Foundation and National Science Foundation, along with AIM and UMD's Division of Research and Office of the Provost.
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