IT professionals, public managers and R&D coordinators from various teaching and research institutions met this Monday (8/28), in Brasília, to participate in SIG Nuvem 2023. The RNP (National Education and Research Network) event aims to catalyze crucial discussions about applications of ICTs in education, research and culture. This year, the special interest group brought to light the ability of artificial intelligence to solve pressing challenges in teaching and research institutions in Brazil.

“At SIG Nuvem, we are able to enhance active listening with our institutions about their needs. This year, we focused on a topic of great relevance, which is artificial intelligence. This subject is not new in academia, but it has gained great repercussion from the general public. Recent research shows that, every year, investments in AI and its potential uses will increase by around 80% worldwide. In Brazil, this number is 100% per year. There is, therefore, an excellent opportunity for us to make more appropriate use of AI, mainly applied to education and research, taking into account security and privacy issues”, defended the director of Services and Solutions at RNP, Antonio Carlos F. Nunes.

To explore the applicability of technology to the reality of these institutions and reflect on challenges, opportunities and ethical dilemmas about AI, the guest speakers were able to share information about the initiatives in which they work. To begin with, Tiago Primo, PhD and assistant professor at the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel), presented Lanse, a solution that identifies students at risk of failing and dropping out of school, based on student data, using machine learning algorithms.

“Before building an AI solution for technology, it is very important to observe the needs of those involved in that ecosystem. In this case, the teachers and the students. After observing the steps taken by a teacher, such as preparation and execution of classes and feedback for students, we can think: what if we could think of intelligent mechanisms for this?”, provoked Tiago.

Then, it was Gabriel Alves' turn, PhD in Computer Science who works in the Postgraduate Program in Applied Informatics (PPGIA) at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), to take the stage. He told us a little more about Tutoria, an application that corrects assessment activities, learns from the most common mistakes and produces personalized reports that indicate where each student made mistakes, with the help of artificial intelligence. AI supports students in the learning process and also alleviates the burden on teachers.

The last solution presented was the Integrated Academic Success Support System (Sissa) which, with AI, integrates and standardizes academic data, monitors indicators, predicts student success rates, trains tutors and supports students. The initiative was represented by Adailton Ferreira de Araújo and Marcelo Tete, professors at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG) who work at the institution's Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (CEIA) as project leader and senior researcher, respectively. 

After their presentations, representatives of the three applications – Lanse, Tutoria and Sissa – formed a panel to discuss the intervention of technology in the classroom, the relationship between students and teachers, the processing of personal data and the integration of AI with academic systems. After lunch, SIG participants were able to collaborate more actively, through a dynamic. Divided into groups, those present debated specific topics about AI in education and presented the main ideas and insights discussed. 

Created in 2015, SIG Nuvem uses the exchange of experiences with the community as input to develop or evolve new products and services at RNP. “SIG Nuvem has already resulted in some offers in the RNP catalog, such as Managed Moodle and Offsite Backup”, recalled Antonio Carlos F. Nunes. “Our intention with the event is also to leverage new offers and be able to ‘plug’ these solutions, some coming from RNP’s own Working Groups (GT) and others promoted by the Ministry of Education (MEC)”, he states.

See the event in full: