ATE Project Talks: Generative AI tools for personalized learning, and Flow Cytometry

Welcome to the 2025 InnovATEBIO series of virtual ATE project talks.  This series features leaders in biotechnology workforce education from across the US sharing their work on exciting projects funded by the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program.  The ATE program supports the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy.

Each talk will be 20 minutes, followed by 15 minutes for questions and discussion.

View the whole series of Spring 2025 ATE project talks.

Talk 1:  Generative AI tools for personalized learning

Description: NexLAB, introduced on Feb 7, features Generative AI tools for personalized learning known as PAT (Personalized Academic Tutor) and PILOT (Personalized Instructor and Learning Optimization Toolbox). PAT utilizes Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) with large language models such as ChatGPT and Gemini to extract content from various sources like PDFs, text, and PowerPoint files. This enables educators to develop tailored AI tutors for students to enhance their understanding of curriculum material. Within NexLAB, PILOT allows students to create quizzes and study guides based on the content provided by PAT. Furthermore, tools are being created to monitor students' interactions with PAT and PILOT to provide unobtrusive assessment and feedback on the efficacy of the curriculum material. Examples of initial versions of PAT and PILOT as part of NexLAB will be demonstrated in this session.

Speakers:  Dylan Bulseco, PhD, PI, Sr. VP of R&D, Institute for Future Intelligence, Boston, MA, Aarman Jamiluddin, intern,  Institute for Future Intelligence

Biography: Dylan is Senior Vice President and a principal scientist at IFI. He holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Oregon State University and has over 20 years of experience with fluorescence-based instruments, reagents, and applications working on commercialization of both research-use-only and diagnostic instruments as well as medical devices and therapeutics. As a Native Hawaiian, he has also been involved in projects aiming to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in science education and workforce development in both his residency state Massachusetts and his home state Hawaii.

• ATE Project: Integrating Data Science and Hands-on Experience into the Community College Biotechnology Classroom with Applications to Antibody Engineering

Talk 2:  Cell Therapy and Flow Cytometry

Description: This presentation will focus on the results of our NSF ATE grant-Building a Cell Therapy and Flow Cytometry Workforce. Frederick Community College has created a cost-effective, industry-validated Flow cytometry curriculum. We have successfully trained 44 students in fundamental Flow cytometry skills. Additionally, the curriculum has been disseminated through the Northeast Biomanufacturing Center & Collaborative (NBC2) (Biomanufacturing.org), to facilitate the introduction of hands-on flow cytometry curriculum in other biotech programs nationwide.

Speaker:  Dr. Savita Prabhakar, PI, Frederick Community College, Frederick, MD

Biography: Savita Prabhakar is the Program manager of the biotechnology program and an Assistant professor at Frederick Community College in Maryland. She has a PhD in biotechnology and has worked in the field for more than twenty years both in academic and industry settings. Her passion is to bridge the gap between the industry and educational programs to develop a better trained workforce to meet the demands of the biotech industry.

• ATE Project:  Building the Cell Therapy and Flow Cytometry Workforce
   
• Publications from this work 
  • Student research:  Cytokine Expression in HepG2 Cells and the Effects of Budesonide, DOI:  10.5281/zenodo.13376503
     
  • Flow Cytometry - A Specialized Analytical Skill for the Cell and Gene Therapy Industry,  DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10914560