Showcase 3.0

Sponsored by the Office of Instruction at the University of Georgia.

4 Projects

Click on the images below to learn more about the projects.

First Place: AI Semantic Scaffolding for Learner Comprehension

Rex VanHorn’s AI Semantic Scaffolding for Learner Comprehension guides students from basic to advanced understanding of complex texts, generating materials that build “a learning staircase in which each step adds additional meaning, nuance, and conceptual understanding,” so that students can engage with and incrementally progress through difficult material. To build the tool, VanHorn deployed a sophisticated pipeline that integrates a wide variety of AI models to scaffold the translated text. We appreciate how the system brings text, images, and audio—along with quizzes and vocabulary support—together into a single interface. The documentation is thorough and supported by helpful examples and diagrams. VanHorn tested the tool on Shakespearean and Biblical texts in English, German, and Spanish, but the potential applications are broad. A variety of disciplines that ask students to engage with dense or technical material before they have the background to fully interpret it stands to benefit. In VanHorn’s words, the system functions as “a dynamic, AI-generated analogue of the traditional study Bible,” applicable to different subjects and texts. We were struck not only by the technical ambition but by the projects’ pedagogical grounding. For example, VanHorn utilized the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), an internationally recognized standard, to calibrate the best level of language proficiency. We anticipate that, as the tool continues to develop, it could serve as a meaningful study aid across a range of learning contexts, including eLearning platforms like UGA’s eLC.

AI Semantic Scaffolding for Learner Comprehension

The primary objective of the system is to demonstrate what I call semantic scaffolding—a structured approach towards full comprehension by ascending a learning staircase in which each step adds additional meaning, nuance, and conceptual understanding.

Rex VanHorn
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
Artificial Intelligence
3rd year PhD

Second Place: UGA Nutrition App

The UGA Nutrition App is potentially a very useful tool and illustrates an appropriate use of AI technologies. Designed in consultation with dietitians, it is intended to assist people in making informed decisions on the spot, allowing them to use information which would otherwise be inaccessible or overwhelming. The judges were impressed with the nuanced understanding of the problem the project was trying to solve, the clarity of the goals the designers set for themselves, and the concern shown that the product be both grounded in good science and the reality of student life.

UGA Nutrition App

Every day, over 40,000 UGA students walk into a dining hall. They scan the buffet lines, pile food onto trays, and sit down to
eat. But how many of them know whether that tray of food is moving them closer to their health goals, or further away?

Adil Shaik
University of Georgia
Computer Science
MA student

Third place: DawgPath AI

Michael Crews, a 3rd year Risk Management and Insurance Major, developed DawgPath AI—a functional prototype of an academic planning tool that uses artificial intelligence to help students understand degree requirements and plan their paths through college. The project, which currently focuses on majors within the Terry College of Business, generates a semester-by-semester roadmap based on information the user enters. The creator appears to have used Generative AI primarily as a development tool. The judges were impressed by the potential usefulness of the product but would have appreciated more robust documentation.

DawgPath AI

DawgPath AI is an academic planning tool I built to explore how artificial intelligence could help students and academic advisors better understand degree requirements and plan their path through college.

Michael Crews
Risk Management & Insurance Major
3rd year

Honorable Mention: Orion

This is terrific work, and I encourage the founders to continue to develop the idea. The Innovation District can provide a lot of tools to help firm up the product and the planning, and Orion has plenty of potential to justify the effort. Specific areas of opportunity include strengthening the user interface, building out the value story more strongly, and tightening the pitch. This happened to be a particularly competitive competition, so awarding prizes came down to looking at some pretty advanced details. Orion easily could get to that level.

Orion

An LLM assistant, powered by Claude, and built on top of an explorable, semantic map of all of the classes offered at UGA, where classes that are closer together teach similar content

Cognitive Science Club
Cameron Halaby, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences, Artificial Intelligence, MSAI, 1st Yyar Master’s
Joseph Yoon, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences, Cognitive Science, 3rd year
Michelle Rowe, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences, Cognitive Science, 2nd year
Venugopala Nikhil Kapalavai, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences, Data Science, 1st year
Dang Hoang, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences, Data Science, 1st year
Jeff Carreon, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences, Cognitive Science with minor in Computer Science, 4th year