We talk about it with Antuan Angelov, Manager Business Development of Cloud Services and Database at KONTRAX.
1. What are today’s demands and needs of innovations in the field of education?
Today the education in general is a challenge not only for the students but also for everyone engaged in the system processes. Recent research carried out by Dell EMC shows that the use of AI in the educational industry will increase with over 45% till 2021 in result of the fast implementation of technologies and formation of one more connected and social world. The increase of data capacity on its turn suggests also the use of technologies based and known to us from the artificial intelligence (AI).
Therefore, the modern education needs new teaching methods, which shall include the use of interactive mean, including AI. The capability of the AI to self-educate in a specific field (such are the expert systems, for example) makes it a flexible and powerful tool that may be used for automating the activities and analyze processes by processing huge amount of information – text and graphic. Thus the impact of the new approaches related to AI can already be seen in the educational system too – from the kindergarten to the higher education. The efforts necessary for the today’s educational process shall be focused on improving the results of all students and increasing the efficiency of teachers’ activity. Here we need to point that technology giants like Dell EMC monitor and pay special attention, and try to offer product/ services that will make the educational process more interesting, interactive, and easy to learn respectively. From the other side, KONTRAX, as a company with experience in supplies for educational institutions, is willing and have the required experience for establishment of systems and platforms having common grounds with AI.
2. In what aspects do you think the process of education can be improved and how do you see the role of AI in this regard?
Here are several key fields:
Improving the operating efficiency where the final result is the students to gain more knowledge in the field they are interested in and thus to be as much as possible useful for their employers.
In support for the teachers – The AI may automate the working process in the educational organizations by for example accelerating the fulfilment of administrative and routine tasks. AI helps also the teachers themselves. For example, in assessing the knowledge the AI provides innovative approaches for assessing the quality of knowledge gained. There are already examples for automation of the process of assessments for multiple choice tests and this allows the teachers to spend more time with their students and to analyze the individual results. Some of the daily tasks may be controlled by AI, as well as the routine communication between a teacher and a student – a professor may successfully use a chatbot created using AI and communicate with the students as assistant teacher during the whole semester without students knowing that they are not talking to a human being.
Important trend lately is the transition from classic to personalized and remote education, where every personality develops their potential in the field they are interested in. From one side, the content is more easily accessible for the modern student who is surrounded by new technologies. The AI provides the option for adaptive and personalized education, which is much more than a lecture with intelligent study guides, as the students may be taught based on the difficulties they experience in the daily education process in relation to the planned educational scheme. The adaptive education is maybe one of the most promising fields of application for AI in the education. Here the artificial intelligence in the schools may track the progress of every student individually or to correct the training course, or to inform the teacher about the material that the student finds difficult to understand. There are “smart systems” for orientation that use data for specific students in order to give correct feedback about the individual progress. These platforms may be adapted to the huge diversity of learning styles and help every teacher and student.
The AI is a mandatory tool for ensuring security. Education is very sensitive in terms of security, both physical and in regard to the information technologies and communications. Considering the fact that the higher education is very often related also with development and research work, it is very important data and processes to be very well protected. From the other side, all initiatives related to new science researches and developments are bound with the use of AI methods.
Not less important are also the learning materials, the results from tests and exams. Recent research shows that over 40% if the students are willing to hack, and more than 25% have already tried it. All that creates constantly new challenges to the security, but the AI is more and more used as powerful tool for detecting breaks or malicious actions. The AI uses the behavioural analysis amongst hundreds of parameters in order to find and prevent such actions.
We should not forget also the physical security that is irreplaceable part of the process control at school. And that AI shall be used mainly for processing of images from cameras, microphones, and iOT sensors for detecting possibly dangerous for the students people – carrying weapons or offering drugs, or for preventing dangerous situation such as fights or destruction of property.
The concept for intelligent content and work under the conditions of virtual reality is a hot topic as today AI and robots may create digital content with the same creativity as their “human” colleagues, and this technology is already entering the classroom. The AI may help for textbooks digitalization or creating of adaptive 3D, with virtual reality training digital interfaces, which are suitable for all age groups and degrees. The goal is to transform the content of textbooks into more easily understandable training guide with summarized chapters, practical specific tests, and exam forms. There are platforms that allow the teachers to develop digital training program and content in different devices, including video, audio, and online assistant. The virtual content, such as digital lectures and video conferences, is also a reality already due to the AI.
3. What solutions can KONTRAX and Dell EMC offer for the modernization of the Bulgarian education?
As a long-term system integrator in Bulgaria KONTRAX is also a regular participant in transformation of educational environment in way of its own software solution in the field. Those complex platforms use as a must the AI and are based on the intelligent processing and analysis of huge amount of data that require reliable IT equipment – system with sufficient computing power and innovative technologies, such as the product lines by Dell EMC offered by KONTRAX in its capacity of long-term partner of the American manufacturer. Dell EMC Ready Solutions are ready available solutions of hardware and software optimized for troublefree implementation of various AI initiatives. They are developed on block principle for establishing the infrastructure in a way that allows it to grow together with user’s needs. These solutions include several areas – AI for machine learning based on open source software for calculations - Hadoop, and AI – deep machine learning based on hardware by NVIDIA.
The software library by Apache - Hadoop allows distributed processing of huge data arrays in computer clusters using simple programming models. It is developed in a way to expand and install itself on separate servers, each of which makes local calculations and stores data.
In conclusion I would like to mention that giants like Dell EMC monitor and pay special attention, and try to offer products/ services which will make the learning process more interesting, interactive, and easily comprehendible. From the other side, in historical plan KONTRAX as a company with experience in supplying educational organization is willing and have the experience necessary for establishment of systems and platforms having similar and close aspects with those related to the AI.
Soon a series of articles and materials for artificial intelligence will be published, in which we will provide new ideas and concepts, as well as the current projects Kontrax has developed in the field.
KONTRAX is a leading system integrator in Bulgaria. The company has a wide portfolio of technologies and high expertise in implementation of complex solutions for the education. Together with its long-term partner Dell EMC, KONTRAX offers computer equipment, servers, storage and network equipment, which are the basis for successful adoption of artificial intelligence in education.
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