• Center for Technology in Learning
• Research Areas
• People
• Projects
• Publications
• Contact
• Search CTL
• Policy Home

Mingyu Feng

Reseach Scientist

Mingyu Feng is a research scientist at SRI's Center for Technology in Learning. Mingyu research goal is to create educational technologies that dramatically increase student achievement. Towards this goal, currently her primary interests lie in the areas of assessment in learning systems, user modeling and educational data mining. She has also worked in the area of cognitive modeling, and psychometrics as well. Before joining SRI, she got a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where her dissertation work focused on assessing students’ fine-grained knowledge in an intelligent tutoring system.

Education 

• Ph.D., Computer Science, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 2009
• M.S., Computer Science, Tianjin University, 2002
• B.S., Computer Science, Tianjin University, 1999

Professional Experience 

• Research Scientist, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (2009-present)
• Research Assistant, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA (2004-2009)
• Research Summer Intern, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ (2008)
• Software Engineer, Si-tech Inc. Beijing, China (2002-2003)
• Research Assistant, Tianjin Univeristy, Tianjin, China. (1999-2002)

Research Areas at CTL

Assessment
Learning Environments

Current Projects at CTL

• Principled Science Assessment Design for Students with Disabilities (Staff)

Publications

• Feng, M, Heffernan, N., Heffernan, C. & Mani, M. (2009). Using mixed-effects modeling to analyze different grain-sized skill models in an Intelligent Tutoring System. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 79-92, Apr.-June 2009, doi:10.1109/TLT.2009.17.(Featured article of the Aprial-June issue)
  Read more
  
  
• Feng, M., Beck, J. (2009). Back to the future: a non-automated method of constructing transfer models. In Barnes & Desmarais (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Educational Data Mining. pp. 240-249. Cordoba, Spain: Copisterias Don Folio, S.L.
  Read more
  
  
• Feng, M., Beck, J., Heffernan, N.T. (2009). Using Learning Decomposition and Bootstrapping with Randomization to Compare the Impact of Different Educational Interventions on Learning. In Barnes, Desmarais, Romero, & Ventura (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Educational Data Mining. pp. 51-60. Cordoba, Spain: Copisterias Don Folio, S.L.
  Read more
  
  
• Feng, M., Hansen, E. & Zapata, D. (2009). Using Evidence Centered Design for Learning (ECDL) to examine ASSISTment. Paper presented at the annual meeting of America Educational Research Association (AERA), San Diego, CA. April, 2009.
  Read more
  
  
• Feng, M., Heffernan, N.T., & Koedinger, K.R. (2009). Addressing the assessment challenge in an Online System that tutors as it assesses. In User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction: The Journal of Personalization Research (UMUAI journal). 19(3), 243-266, August, 2009. (James Chen award nominee)
  Read more
  
  
• Feng, M., Heffernan, N.T., Beck, J. (2009). Using learning decomposition to analyze instructional effectiveness in the ASSISTment system. In Dimitrova, Mizoguchi, du Boulay, and Grasser (Eds), Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED-2009). pp. 523-530. Amsterdam, Netherlands: IOS Press
  Read more
  
  
• Hansen E. G., Zapata-Rivera, D., & Feng, M. (2009). Beyond Accessibility: Evidence Centered Design for Learning (ECDL) for Improving the Efficiency of Instruction. Paper presented at the session of Test use in special populations at the National Council on Educational Measurement 2009 Annual Conference (NCME, 2009), San Diego, CA.
  Read more
  
  
• Razzaq, L., Parvarczki, J., Almeida, S.F., Vartak, M., Feng, M., Heffernan, N.T. and Koedinger, K. (2009). The ASSISTment builder: Supporting the Life-cycle of ITS Content Creation. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 07 May. 2009. IEEE computer Society Digital Library. IEEE Computer Society,
  Read more
  
  
• Feng, M., Beck, J,. Heffernan, N. & Koedinger, K. (2008) Can an Intelligent Tutoring System Predict Math Proficiency as Well as a Standardized Test? In Baker & Beck (Eds.). Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Education Data Mining. pp.107-116. Montreal 2008.
  Read more
  
  
• Feng, M. & Heffernan, N. (2007). Towards Live Informing and Automatic Analyzing of Student Learning: Reporting in the Assistment System. Journal of Interactive Learning Research. 18 (2), pp. 207-230. Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
  Read more
  
  
• Feng, M., Heffernan, N. T. (2007). Assessing Students. Performance Longitudinally: Item Difficulty Parameter vs. Skill Learning Tracking. Paper presented at the 2007 Annual meeting of National Council of Measurement on Educational (NCME'2007), Chicago.
  Read more
  
  
• Pardos, Z., Feng, M. & Heffernan, N. T. & Heffernan-Lindquist, C. (2007).Analyzing fine-grained skill models using bayesian and mixed effect methods. In Luckin & Koedinger (Eds.) Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education. Amsterdam, Netherlands: IOS Press.pp.626-628.
  Read more
  
  
• Razzaq, L., Feng, M., Heffernan, N., Koedinger, K., Nuzzo-Jones, G., Junker, B., Macasek, M., Rasmussen, K., Turner, T., & Walonoski, J. (2007). Blending Assessment and Instructional Assistance. In Nedjah, Mourelle, Borges and Almeida (Eds). Intelligent Educational Machines within the Intelligent Systems Engineering Book Series . pp.23-49. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg.
  Read more
  
  
• Razzaq, L., Heffernan, N., Feng, M., Pardos, Z. (2007). Developing Fine-Grained Transfer Models in the ASSISTment System. Journal of Technology, Instruction, Cognition, and Learning , Vol. 5. Number 3. Old City Publishing, Philadelphia, PA. 2007. pp. 289-304.
  Read more
  
  
• Feng, M., Heffernan, N.T, Koedinger, K.R. (2006a) Addressing the Testing Challenge with a Web-Based E-Assessment System that Tutors as it Assesses. In Proceedings of the 15th International World Wide Web Conference. pp. 307-316. New York, NY: ACM Press. 2006. (Best student paper nominee)
  Read more
  
  
• Feng, M., Heffernan, N.T, Koedinger, K.R. (2006b). Predicting State Test Scores Better with Intelligent Tutoring Systems: Developing Metrics to Measure Assistance Required. In Ikeda, Ashley & Chan (Eds.). Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Springer-Verlag: Berlin. pp. 31-40. 2006.
  Read more