Beverly Woolf, Ph.D., Ed.D.

Dr. Beverly Park Woolf is a Distinguished Research Professor Emerita in the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a pioneer in the field of Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED), with a career focused on building and studying intelligent tutoring systems—educational software that adapts to the individual needs of students.

Dr. Woolf develops complex digital tutors that use AI to personalize instruction. Unlike standard educational software, these Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) can analyze a student’s responses to determine their knowledge level, misconceptions, and preferred learning style, adjusting the curriculum in real-time. A significant part of her work involves affective computing in education—creating systems that can detect and respond to a student’s emotional state (such as frustration, boredom, or engagement). Her research aims to make digital tutors socially aware, allowing them to offer encouragement or change tactics when a student is struggling emotionally, much like a human teacher would. She has also extensively researched how to effectively combine text, audio, and interactive simulations to improve learning outcomes, particularly in STEM fields.

Dr. Woolf is the author of the seminal book Building Intelligent Interactive Tutors (2009), which is widely regarded as a foundational text for designers and developers of educational technology. She serves as the director of the Advanced Learning Technologies Lab at UMass Amherst. Her contributions have been recognized through numerous awards, including being named a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and a Presidential Innovation Fellow in 2013, where she worked with the National Science Foundation to integrate learning technologies into national policy. Dr. Woolf holds a unique combination of advanced degrees—a Ph.D. in Computer Science and an Ed.D. in Education—allowing her to bridge the gap between advanced technology and pedagogical theory.