Nia Nixon-Dowell

Nia Nixon (née Dowell) Bio: Dr. Nia Nixon (née Dowell), Assistant Professor in Education UC-Irvine, is Vice President of the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) and the Director of The Language and Learning Analytics Laboratory (LaLA-Lab). The LaLA Lab includes researchers with backgrounds in cognitive science, information, psychology, and statistics. The LaLA-Lab takes a multi-disciplinary approach that builds on theories and methods in the cognitive sciences, human-computer interaction, and computational social sciences. Dr. Dowell and her team conduct research on socio-cognitive and affective processes across a range of educational technology interaction contexts and develop computational models of these processes and their relationship to learner outcomes. Their research uses a range of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques such as computational linguistics and machine learning. Current projects focus on i) understanding differences in students’ socio-cognitive engagement patterns across gender and racial lines, ii) identifying interpersonal dynamics that characterize varying levels of creativity/innovation and sense of belonging during collaborative interactions, and ii) developing AI based interventions to promote inclusivity in digitally mediated team problem-solving environments.