B1: Inclusion AI for Neurodiverse Employment

B1：包容性人工智能促进神经多元化就业

• 批准号: 2033413
• 负责人: Keivan Stassun
• 金额: $ 500万
• 依托单位: Vanderbilt University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2033413&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: B1; Inclusion; AI; Neurodiverse; Employment

The NSF Convergence Accelerator supports use-inspired, team-based, multidisciplinary efforts that address challenges of national importance and will produce deliverables of value to society in the near future.Neurodiversity is an emerging concept through which certain neurological differences—Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Dyslexia, and others—are considered a natural part of human neurocognitive variation, associated not only with impairments but also with unique strengths. Indeed, many neurodiverse people have capabilities that are in high demand across many sectors. Yet, while some 70,000 Americans with autism enter adulthood every year, currently 85% of them will be unemployed or underemployed relative to their skill levels, representing a cost to the United States of $175 billion annually. Thus, optimizing workforce engagement for individuals with autism holds the potential to transform great cost into great value. This National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator (C-Accel) award to Vanderbilt University will address this grand challenge by bringing together cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovations with transdisciplinary expertise—spanning engineering and computer science to organizational psychology, clinical translation, and implementation science—to create a suite of commercially viable technologies that integrate AI within virtual environments, robotic systems, human-human interactions, and novel assessment tools. These technologies will be created using input from stakeholders, including employers of individuals with autism, companies that develop technological products to help employment, state vocational and rehabilitation services that provide job training, and advocacy groups that provide guidance regarding community needs. The technologies will be transitioned to practice through deployment with private- and public-sector partners, together with analysis using implementation science to ensure long-term sustainability and the broadest impact.This C-Accel Phase II program will advance the scientific and technological methodologies of the projects initiated in Phase I that are designed to create a pipeline to employment for people with autism. Specifically, the suite of tools to be developed include: (1) Visual and Cognitive AI Tools to Assess Autistic Talent; (2) Virtual Reality (VR)-based Simulator for Improving Job-Interview Skills; (3) Collaborative Virtual Environments with Embedded Intelligent Agent for Social Interaction Assessment and Support; (4) Social Robotic System to Assess and Train Tolerance to Interruption; and (5) Computer Vision Tools to Measure and Improve Non-verbal Communication. Across these projects, we will make fundamental scientific and technological advancements in: (i) data-driven visual AI for innovative assessment tools to identify strengths, talents, and job-relevant skills, as well as employer-identified work needs; (ii) novel VR-based platform for job interview training that utilizes real-time closed-loop multimodal affective computing for stress and attention recognition; (iii) a collaborative virtual environment that create new skill estimation algorithms and a peer-based learning paradigm mediated by an AI agent; (iv) a home-based skill assessment and training systems using socially assistive robotics; and (v) novel computer-vision and deep learning methods and algorithms to assess real-world generalization of nonverbal social communication. The project’s intellectual property plan includes advancing each of these technologies from prototype to minimum viable product (MVP) stage and into commercial use through licensing agreements within the two-year project period. Through Vanderbilt University’s Frist Center for Autism & Innovation, graduate students and neurodiverse interns will participate in all aspects of the C-Accel research and development efforts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF融合加速器支持以使用为灵感，以团队为基础，多学科的努力，解决国家重要性的挑战，并将在不久的将来产生对社会有价值的可交付成果。神经多样性是一个新兴的概念，通过这个概念，某些神经差异——自闭症、注意缺陷多动障碍、阅读障碍等——被认为是人类神经认知差异的自然组成部分，不仅与损伤有关，而且与独特的优势有关。事实上，许多神经多样性的人都有许多行业都急需的能力。然而，虽然每年约有7万名自闭症患者进入成年期，但目前他们中85%的人将失业或相对于他们的技能水平就业不足，这对美国来说意味着每年1750亿美元的成本。因此，优化自闭症患者的劳动力投入有可能将巨大的成本转化为巨大的价值。这项授予范德比尔特大学的国家科学基金会融合加速器（C-Accel）奖将通过将尖端的人工智能（AI）创新与跨学科专业知识（从工程和计算机科学到组织心理学、临床翻译和实施科学）结合起来，创造一套商业上可行的技术，将人工智能集成到虚拟环境、机器人系统、人与人之间的互动，以及新的评估工具。这些技术将利用利益相关者的投入来创造，这些利益相关者包括自闭症患者的雇主、开发技术产品以帮助就业的公司、提供职业培训的国家职业和康复服务机构，以及为社区需求提供指导的倡导团体。这些技术将通过与私营和公共部门合作伙伴的部署以及利用实施科学进行分析来转化为实践，以确保长期可持续性和最广泛的影响。C-Accel第二阶段计划将推进第一阶段启动的项目的科学和技术方法，旨在为自闭症患者创造就业渠道。具体来说，要开发的工具套件包括：(1)评估自闭症人才的视觉和认知人工智能工具；(2)基于虚拟现实（VR）的模拟器提高求职面试技能；(3)基于嵌入式智能代理的协同虚拟环境社会互动评估与支持；(4)评估和训练中断容忍度的社会机器人系统；(5)测量和改善非语言交流的计算机视觉工具。在这些项目中，我们将在以下方面取得根本性的科技进步：(i)数据驱动的视觉人工智能创新评估工具，以识别优势、人才和与工作相关的技能，以及雇主确定的工作需求；（ii）新颖的基于虚拟现实的求职面试培训平台，利用实时闭环多模态情感计算进行压力和注意力识别；（iii）创建新的技能估计算法和由人工智能代理介导的基于同伴的学习范式的协作虚拟环境；（iv）使用社会辅助机器人的家庭技能评估和培训系统；(v)新的计算机视觉和深度学习方法和算法来评估非语言社交的现实世界泛化。该项目的知识产权计划包括在两年的项目期内，通过许可协议，将这些技术从原型推进到最小可行产品（MVP）阶段，并投入商业使用。通过范德比尔特大学自闭症与创新第一中心，研究生和神经多样性实习生将参与C-Accel研发工作的各个方面。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Design and Validation of a Stress Detection Model for Use with a VR Based Interview Simulator for Autistic Young Adults

与基于 VR 的自闭症年轻人访谈模拟器一起使用的压力检测模型的设计和验证

• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-78092-0_40
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCII
• 作者: Migovich, M;Korman, A;Wade, J;Sarkar, N.
• 通讯作者: Sarkar, N.

2D and 3D Visualization of Eye Gaze Patterns in a VR-Based Job Interview Simulator: Application in Educating Employers on the Gaze Patterns of Autistic Candidates

基于 VR 的工作面试模拟器中眼睛注视模式的 2D 和 3D 可视化：在对自闭症候选人的注视模式进行雇主教育中的应用

• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-78092-0_36
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCII
• 作者: Breen, M;McClarty, J;Langley, C;Farzidayeri, J;Trevethan, K;Swenson, B;Sarkar, M;Wade, J;Sarkar, N.
• 通讯作者: Sarkar, N.

A Social Robot for Improving Interruptions Tolerance and Employability in Adults with ASD

• DOI: 10.1109/hri53351.2022.9889383
• 发表时间: 2022-03
• 期刊: 2022 17th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)
• 作者: Rebecca Ramnauth;Emmanuel Adéníran;Timothy Adamson;Michael A. Lewkowicz;Rohit Giridharan;Caroline Reiner;B. Scassellati