Derek Haoyang Li, Founder of Squirrel AI Learning by Yixue Group, was invited to the ASU+GSV International Education Summit, pointed out his vision of Future AI + Education

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May 09, 2019, 06:41 ET

SAN DIEGO, May 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The 10^th ASU+GSV Global Education Technology Summit kicked off in San Diego, CA, USA in the morning of April 8. With the strength of the leading position in "AI + Education" field, Derek Haoyang Li, founder, was invited to the summit, accompanied by more than 5,000 educational technological elites, including Michael Yu, founder of New Oriental, Priscilla Chan, founder of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), and Salman Khan, founder of khan Academy, to discuss the future of "AI+ Education".

Founder of Squirrel AI Learning Derek Haoyang Li is giving a speech

Richard Tong, the principal architect of Squirrel AI Learning, is giving a speech

The ASU-GSV Summit has been successfully held for 10 years. It was co-initiated by GSV, a well-known investment company in Silicon Valley, and Arizona State University, the No.1 innovator in the USA. It is one of the most influential educational innovation summits in the world, attracting thousands of experts in education, technology and investment sector, including hundreds of well-known international and domestic education companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Kaplan, Pearson, New Oriental, TAL and Squirrel AI Learning to attend. This summit has been, with honors, put on the list of "must-attend conferences" by New York Times.

At the summit, Michael Yu, founder of New Oriental, began his presentation with the definition of education. He shared his story about his education background from primary school to university, his experience of teaching at Peking University and how he founded New Oriental. It showed him how different stages of education, including family education and school education, made him who he is today and how he realized the true objective and significance of education. In his view, a good educational standard is sharable throughout the world.

Jessie Woolley-Wilson, CEO and President of DreamBox, included the following in her speech, "Our mission is based on a core belief: In order to enhance future workforce capability, we must first utilize every child's learning potential, regardless of race, gender or postcode." Priscilla Chan, co-founder of CZI, wife of Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook), brought up the importance of children's education with her experience as a tutorial teacher.

Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister, Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix, Ansar Khan, founder of Khan Academy, and Andre Agassi, famous tennis player, shared their view on artificial intelligence, cognitive neuroscience, STEAM and innovation in education.

This year in ASU+GSV International Education Summit, Derek Li expressed, "For the various inequities and defects brought by traditional school education and instructional guidance, AI adaptive education may lead to an 'educational equality evolution' providing a customized AI super teacher to every child."

"Squirrel AI Learning has built a nanoscale knowledge map and set up an MCM system that can fast detect learners' learning capacity and quality, thus being able to accurately draw a portrait for learners to predict their learning path and time, so as to finally recommend different learning contents to different learners "in accordance with their aptitude."

"From a deeper perspective, Squirrel AI Learning aims to help students master a learning method and further develop their learning capacity," he added. Squirrel AI Learning has put forward a standard, known as "definable, measurable and teachable", to define every learning thought. Squirrel AI Learning's MCM system can detect students' model of thinking, learning capacity and learning method. After assessments and detections, the MCM system can detect the different learning capacities, learning speeds, blind spots and weak points for different students with the same overall score. Thus, allowing to accurately draw a portrait for every learner.

Taking junior high school mathematics as an example, Squirrel AI Learning breaks it down into more than ten learning thoughts, including "functional thought, thought of modeling, modeling of equation, modeling of classified discussion, thought of combination of number and shape, thought of reduction and transformation, whole thought, specific-to-general thought of, and thought of finite and infinite". Then the system further breaks the above thoughts down into dozens of sub-thoughts, including "application of quadratic function profit-related maximum and minimum problem solving, construction of Nike function, equation model, inequality model, function model, statistics and probability model, geometrical model, use of the functional thought for the calculation of adjacent supplementary angles, establishment of an equation to solve geometry proof problems, solving of problems about intersecting point coordinates, classified discussion on function types, classified discussion on equation types, classified discussion on inequalities and equations with absolute value, classified discussion on fragment functions in seeking maximum or minimum value, graphic changes caused by moving points, functional relation establishment for the overlapping area of two graphs, classified discussion on similar triangles, classified discussion on isosceles triangles, classified discussion on tangent circles, classified discussion on intersecting circles, classified discussion on the Pythagorean theorem, discussion on the monotonicity of quadratic functions with alphabetic parameters, classification discussion on the randomness of sets, calculation of the value range of letters in inequality sets, inequality solving based on the thought of combination of number and shape, transformation of algebraic expressions (equations) into geometric plane shapes, the use of the thought of combination of number and shape for calculate the number of equation roots, the use of graphs to solve inequalities with absolute value, the use of graphs to prove problems about constantly true inequalities, thought of descending power, thought of elimination, shortest path, transformation of a problem about constantly true inequalities into a maximum and minimum problem, transformation of an irregular graph into a regular graph, transformation of particular value problems related to geometric figures into function knowledge, transformation of function maximum and minimum into the functional thought, discussion on the transformation of a fractional value range into real roots of an equation, whole substitution for evaluation, the application of the whole thought to factorization, change of variables for equation solving, solving of the n^th item based on the specific-to-general thought, and mathematical induction".

Based on the above, Squirrel AI Learning can make the educational process transparent and digitalized. Which specific knowledge points does a child fail to master? What is taught in class, and how it was being taught? How much ability enhancement did the child achieved in the learning process, and what is the speed of solving the same problem compared to other students? All is incomparably clear. Derek Li laughed, "We have made metaphysics into a science."

At the summit, Richard Tong, the Chief Architect of Squirrel AI Learning, and Dan Bindman, the Chief Data Scientist of Squirrel AI Learning, gave technical presentations together with Bob Sottilare, Chairman of the IEEE International Workshop, on Combined Organization Technology and IEEE International Workshop in Intelligent Adaptive Teaching System.

At the IEEE Adaptive Teaching System (2247.x) Conference, Richard Tong made a discussion on the standardized application of AI in education with Bob Sottilare, President of the IEEE International Workshop on Intelligent Adaptive Teaching System, and Robby Robson, a member of the IEEE Board of Directors and former President of the IEEE International Workshop on Intelligent Adaptive Teaching System.

Richard Tong presented and discussed the IEEE 2247-related adaptive command system design, standardization and best practices, and invited ASU-GSV participants to help explore components required for standardization and opportunities for the process to be applied in the AI learning system, including the adaptive learning technology, AI-based recommendation engine and a system that uses machining learning to simulate students' interaction with the AI learning system and preferences to improve learning outcomes.

At the Workshop "Understanding the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Knowledge Structure-based Adaptive Learning System", Dan Bindman first gave a presentation of the advantages and disadvantages of the adaptive learning model, then talked about the knowledge structure, knowledge state, their difference and the logical links in the knowledge structure. The PKS model can accurately judge students' real-time individual and collective learning situation to provide them with personalized learning content. Many weaknesses of such a system can be addressed with all its strengths retained.

Squirrel AI Learning is one of the only companies that were invited to give speeches at the summit and being invited to two technical workshops which lasted over one hour. Squirrel AI Learning has introduced a large number of AI researchers to develop high-tech products with independent intellectual property rights. Richard Tong was the Asia-Pacific CTO of Knewton, a member of the International Technical Committee of SIF Association and a recognized expert and leader in the US K12 education field. As the only Chinese member of the IEEE Adaptive Instruction System (AIS) Standard Group, he participated in the formulation of global adaptive learning standards on behalf of Squirrel AI Learning. Dan Bindman is a co-founder of ALEKS, one of the world's three major adaptive education providers. He directed the development of ALEKS' flagship math product, which now has more than 4 million users, and the planning/implementation of ALEKS' integrated knowledge point and related knowledge map (a million-level map data connection parameter system). Also, he is the co-inventor of the multi-track knowledge capacity assessment algorithm. Notably, in 2018, Squirrel AI Learning signed Professor Tom Mitchell, the global luminary on machine learning and the dean of School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), the No.1 AI developer in the world, as the Chief AI Scientist of the company. Previously, Squirrel AI Learning had set up a laboratory with the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and established R&D cooperation with CMU. Squirrel AI Learning's academic papers and workshops have been included by international top academic conferences such as AIED, CSEDU, IJCAI, AERA, NCME, ranking top in the global education field, filling in the gap of AI adaptive education technology at home. Squirrel AI Learning's participation at the ASU+GSV Summit means that its technical strength and innovation are gaining worldwide recognition and going to play an important role in promoting the reform of the global education industry.

During recent editions of the ASU+GSV Global Education Technology Summit, "AI + Education" has been a focus of concern for participants. According to CNNIC's forecast, by 2020, "AI + Education" will have formed a huge market of 300 billion yuan and become the next red-hot attraction among giants and capital holders. Technology giants, venture funds and industry amnesties have also turned their attention to "AI + education". Mark Zuckerberg has set up a fund, investing in a number of AI education providers in India and the USA; the CZI, co-founded by him and his wife Priscilla Chan, has 250 employees and 2 offices. The project aims to "improve human potential and promote equality among all the next generation of children". In the next three years, the CZI will invest USD300 million to develop technology-driven personalized learning. Bill Gates has also invested over USD 300 million for R&D of AI education; technology giant Google has made an investment in 8 AI education providers, including Duolingo, Renaissance Learning, Cambly, English Central and LostMyName. Not only that, but Google, as a search browser giant, has also set up a special-purpose AI fund, known as Gradient Ventures, which has provided A-round funds of USD7 million for Elsa (a start-up committed to running application programs for English learners) and is turning its attention to Asia.