Finding the human side of technology

Professor Preeti Raman is a self-described wearer of two hats, as a computer scientist and a learning scientist. She’s also the kind of professor who drives down over a weekend with her students to cheer them on as they present at a computer science conference. 

Hired in 2023 as part of the pedagogy cluster in the Faculty of Science, along with professors across the faculty’s four departments, Raman arrived at TMU by way of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she did her postdoctoral research. She now runs TMU’s CIRCLE Lab (Computational Innovations and Research for Care-centered Learning and Education), which broadly investigates how technology and computers support learning. 

“A lot of my work is centered around caring pedagogy,” explains Raman. “The tools and technologies that we build fall into this broad space of ‘building with intention’, to keep students at the centre and to give agency to the teacher and the student in the classroom.” Typical research questions focus on how to build generative AI tools with less bias, or how to create teaching tools that allow both tech-savvy instructors and their less tech-enthusiastic colleagues to make the most of their teaching talents. 

With a lab that includes about 14 students from doctoral to master’s to undergraduates, Raman oversees a myriad of projects. They include examining how applications of machine learning and AI affect empathy, and how to create apps that increase community participation in the classroom. Another project, the Shaunk Robotic Dhol (external link) , aims to create more pathways into computer science by developing a robotic drum for middle-school students to bring coding into the music room, thereby breaking stereotypes about where computer science learning belongs.

These projects share a common goal to put “care” at the heart of technology development. “The goal of any technology is to make humans live a better life. So, any work has to start with caring for the user,” says Raman. She’s adamant that computer and learning science experts can play an important role in shaping tech development, noting that there are massive benefits to seeking community feedback early on as well as thinking ahead to the long-term effects that technology can have on the user. “I think it's important for educators and researchers to have a voice, not just policy makers and big technology companies. We as a community have so much vast experience that it's important to bring this community into this process.”

Raman received a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant in 2024 for "Computational Innovations and Research for Care-centered Learning (CIRCLE).