Obinna Ojemni (SLIS PhD student) and Dr. Laura Phillips (SLIS Lecture in Museum Studies) visited nearby First Americans Museum recently to meet with Dr. Kelli Mosteller, the new director. We wrote about our visit for MUSE Magazine, published by the Canadian Museums Association. It was really exciting to see decolonizing and Indigenizing work in action!
The Data Institute for Societal Challenges (DISC) at the University of Oklahoma has awarded $10,000 in seed funding for the project "Explainable AI for Predictive Analytics in Nursing Practice." This interdisciplinary research effort, led by Dr. Yasser Youssef (School of Library and Information Studies) and co-led by Dr. April Nelson and Dr. Teresa Serratt (Biobehavioral Health Science, OUHSC), aims to bridge the gap between artificial intelligence (AI) and clinical nursing practice.
This project addresses the critical need for transparent and user-friendly AI tools in acute care settings. The team’s focus is on developing an explainable AI platform that empowers nurses to make informed decisions based on predictive analytics while maintaining trust and personalization in patient care.
Dr. Yasser Youssef recently published “Enhancing Trust in Machine Learning-Based Intrusion Detection Systems with Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)”. The study was presented at the 2024 International Symposium on Networks, Computers, and Communications (ISNCC) and is now available on IEEE Xplore. This research addresses a key challenge in cybersecurity, the "black-box" nature of many machine learning models used in Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS). By integrating Explainable AI techniques, the study improves the interpretability and trustworthiness of IDS models. The research evaluated multiple machine learning models, including LinearSVC, Decision Tree, Random Forest, and XGBoost, on the CICIDS2017 dataset. XGBoost demonstrated superior performance, achieving an accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score of 0.99. These findings contribute to the development of more transparent and trustworthy machine learning applications in cybersecurity, particularly for environments where understanding the decision-making process is critical. The research bridges technical innovation with practical applications, advancing the broader goal of increasing trust in AI systems used in critical infrastructures.
Dr. Yong Ju Jung, Dr. Jiqun Liu, and two doctoral students (Harun Karahan and Mahdieh Nazari) presented a poster about their research entitled "Tech treasure hunt: Promoting children’s learning on how algorithm works at a public library" at the 2024 ASIS&T Annual Meeting. This presentation included some preliminary findings from a project from a library's summer program for children and families for hands-on, exploratory learning about algorithms.
Dr. Yong Ju Jung, Moses Munyao (doctoral student), and Dr. June Abbas presented a poster entitled "Investigating strategies for inclusive public library makerspace for youth with disabilities: A case study" at the 2024 ASIS&T Annual Meeting. This presentation demonstrated the team's analysis of an exemplary case of library makerspaces and maker programs for youth with disabilities.
Drs. Yong Ju Jung and Jiqun Liu's project entitled "Enhancing AI Literacy Through Maker-Based Learning with Generative AI" received the 2024 SIG USE Elfreda A. Chatman Research Award at the 2024 ASIS&T Annual Meeting. This project aims to investigate how generative AI, such as ChatGPT, can promote children's and families' maker-based learning, especially for hands-on STEM learning. As part of this project, their team ran pilot library programs about creative circuit making and ChatGPT by collaborating with the Library Lab (Pioneer Library System) and Belle Isle Public Library (Metropolitan Library System). The team will continue working on this project, and findings are expected to be shared in the next ASIS&T Annual Meeting.
At ALISE 2024, which was held in Portland, OR, October 14-17, 2024, Dr. Yong Ju Jung made a number of presentations.
Dr. Yong Ju Jung and the Happy Teacher Project Team Presented Posters at 2024 Oklahoma Early Childhood Research Symposium
Dr. Yong Ju Jung presented two posters on September 23, 2024, at the 2024 Oklahoma Early Childhood Research Symposium, Oklahoma City, OK, organized by the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness. As part of the Happy Teacher project (https://www.ou.edu/education/happyteacherproject), she and her colleagues presented studies about (a) early childhood educators' experiences with an intervention for holistic wellness (physical, psychological, and professional) and (b) the impact of dedicated room for respite in schools.
Pictured: Anna Keltner (left), professional wellness coach in the Happy Teacher team Junghyun Min (right), doctoral student, Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education
Ph.D. Student Ben Wang Presents at ACM SIGIR Doctoral Consortium
Ph.D. student Ben Wang presented a doctoral consortium paper about a human-AI collaboration framework for supporting long-term task planning based on Large Language Model (LLM) agents at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval (SIGIR) Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval. The study proposes to enhance LLMs’ ability to assist in significant life decisions through goal orientation and long-term planning. By shifting the focus from short-term tasks to the broader spectrum of long-term life goals, this research underscores the transformative potential of LLMs in enhancing human decision-making processes and task management, marking a significant step forward in the evolution of human-AI collaboration. He will continue this project as his dissertation work. His travel was funded by the NSF student travel award and OU Robberson Travel Grant.
Health Disparity Publication
Drs. Yong-Mi Kim and Chie Noyori-Corbett published "Ethnic Density as a Key Factor to Narrow Health Disparities: A Case of American Indians and Alaska Natives, Health & Social Work" This research investigates the impact of ethnic density on physical health outcomes, specifically blood pressure, BMI, and diabetes. The findings challenge the prevailing literature, which frequently underscores a strong correlation between socioeconomic status and these physical health conditions. Contrary to these established studies, our research reveals that, despite lower socioeconomic status, social interactions within ethnic groups have a positive effect on health outcomes.
Dr. Abbas Received Two OU Internal Grants to Investigate Misinformation About Immigrants on Social Media Platform, NextDoor
Dr. June Abbas (Co-PI), along with Qiong Wang (PI-Price College of Business), Heyjie Jung (Co-PI), Political Science; Jeong-Nam Kim (Co-PI), Public Relations; Ted Matherly (Co-PI), Marketing; Sunha Yeo (Co-PI), DaLI Lab recently were awarded two internal OU grants to investigate the critical social issue of misinformation and negative sentiment about immigrants to the United States. The awards are from OU's Institute for Community and Society Transformation (ICAST) and Data Institute for Societal Challenges. The research projects are using a combination of social media scraping techniques, qualitative interviews, social network and sentiment analysis, among other methods to explore the relationship between anti-immigration stigma and immigrants’ economic integration within host communities.
Dr. Abbas Recognized as a Top Leader in Oklahoma
Dr. June Abbas was named among the top women leaders of Oklahoma, according to Women We Admire.
The outlet released its list of The Top 50 Women Leaders of Oklahoma for 2024, recognizing inspiring Oklahomans for outstanding leadership in their respective fields. Awardees included leaders in business, higher education, health care and more.
