Arash Zaghi sees artificial intelligence (AI) through a variety of positive lenses, but its potentially enormous benefit to education, he explains, is its significant contributions to personalized learning.
That overarching belief has led Zaghi, Civil and Environmental Engineering professor, to become an AI champion; he has led the effort to integrate AI at UConn’s College of Engineering (CoE), work supported by several National Science Foundation (NSF) grants, including a recent five-year award focused on innovation in personalized learning with AI. And now, thanks to the broad appeal and value of AI learning, he has spearheaded the creation of an introductory AI course that is part of a proposed pathway to broaden AI literacy at UConn, with the goal of making it available to all incoming students in the near future.
This class, which is being called AI4ALL (ENGR 1195: Special Topics in Engineering: AI Literacy) is now being piloted in CoE as well as in several colleges across the UConn first-year community, with close to 500 students participating. The goal is to triple enrollment in the next few years.
Zaghi explains that a primary driver in his quest to expand student understanding and competence with AI tools arose from efforts to support neurodiverse learners in engineering disciplines, eventually shifting from a medical model to a paradigm that views neurodiversity as an asset. Research examined the challenges of trying to impose a one-size-fits-all model in teaching, and the potential of AI to customize course material for diverse learners.
“We had been studying AI’s potential to revolutionize personalized learning, particularly for engineering students who often struggle with abstract course content,” Zaghi says. “AI4ALL treats AI literacy as a way to level the playing field. By teaching students how to contextualize abstract content, seek timely guidance, and use simple coaching workflows, the course supports varied strengths and starting points. That’s crucial for nontraditional and neurodiverse learners—and a boost for everyone.
“Traditional lecture methods don’t work for every student,” Zaghi adds, “and we know the transition to university life for incoming freshmen is very difficult regardless of their backgrounds or learning differences. Attention and persistence can be huge barriers for students. With AI, we realized we had tools to help students with daily challenges like how to plan out their day, scheduling, homework, coaching and mentoring access, integrating more easily with classmates and other students, communication and cultural changes, and interactive assists to support their well-being, study habits, and planning, just to name a few benefits.”