Dr. Neal Outland has become the new graduate coordinator of the UGA AI program. Dr. Outland is an assistant professor at UGA's Department of Psychology. His research answers questions concerning the necessary qualities of individual team members and the optimal patterns of interaction for teams to follow for superior performance. He has two main research streams: one in which he explores how teams dynamically interact and perform in complex and dynamic environments such as sports; and another where he uses computer-simulated teams as analogies to real human teams in a variety of contexts. Dr. Drew H. Abney is a new affiliated faculty at the AI Institute. Dr. Abney is an assistant professor at the Department of Psychology. His research focuses on how behaviors and social interactions impact developmental trajectories throughout infancy and into toddlerhood. At Developmental Dynamics Lab, Dr. Abney and his students work on how behaviors and social interactions impact developmental trajectories throughout infancy and into toddlerhood. Dr. Juliet N. Sekandi has recently joined the AI institute. Dr. Sekandi is a physician, public health and global health expert in the field of Tuberculosis, HIV, health service research and maternal health. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and works full-time in the Global Health Institute, both in the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia. Dr. Xiaoming Zhai is a new affiliated faculty member at the AI Institute. Dr. Zhai is an assistant professor at the UGA's College of Education, Department of Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies Education. His research focuses on using innovative assessment to examine complex constructs in science learning and teaching as one means of supporting teachers, approaching the topic through a variety of methodologies and technologies such as machine learning. His second research area of interest concerns the application of assessment results in science teaching and learning.
