CareerFair.ai:

About

CareerFair.ai: Increasing Connections to Fast-Growing STEM Careers is a 3-year research project funded by the Department of Defense (awarded to University of Southern California, Institute for Creative Technologies; subaward to CSUF) that scales up mentoring -- one of the most effective ways to increase underserved/under-represented students' persistence in STEM -- by way of conversational virtual agents.

These virtual agents ("virtual mentors") are recorded by real-life STEM/STEM-adjacent mentors using a self-serve web platform that was developed for this project. These virtual mentors can have simulated video conversations with students and are showcased on institution-specific CareerFair.ai web portals, where students at participating institutions can freely choose and chat with virtual mentors of their own choosing to explore STEM-oriented careers and obtain career advice.

Key goals for the project include:

• Increase interest and persistence in STEM/STEM-adjacent career paths

• Facilitate connections among students (especially those at minority-serving institutions), campus centers/organizations, and STEM professionals/mentors

• Develop an open-source platform for virtual mentor self-recording and publishing

• Develop a process for STEM outreach using 'virtual mentors' grounded in needs assessment with key stakeholders

links

• CareerFair.ai project home page: http://careerfair.ai/

• Public-facing version of the CareerFair.ai career resource: https://dodstem.mentorpal.org/home/?referrer=okadolab 

• Press release (CSUF): https://news.fullerton.edu/2022/01/can-artificial-intelligence-help-increase-diversity-in-stem/

• Read a one-page summary of the project here: CareerFair.ai (Prime: University of Southern California) Abstract

PRODUCTS

Conference Papers Published as Part of Proceedings:

Okado, Y., Nye, B. D., Aguirre, A., & Swartout, W. (2024, April 11—14). How do students choose a (virtual) mentor?: Insights from an interactive virtual career fair [Paper presentation]. 2024 American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, United States. https://doi.org/10.3102/2112955

Okado, Y., Nye, B. D., Saravia, D. H., & Swartout, W. (2024, April 11—14). “She is what I want to become”: STEM expectations of young women after virtual mentoring [Paper presentation]. 2024 American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, United States. https://doi.org/10.3102/2114386

Okado, Y., Nye, B. D., Aguirre, A., & Swartout, W. (2023). Can virtual agents scale up mentoring?: Insights from college students’ experiences using the CareerFair.ai platform at an American Hispanic-serving institution. In N. Wang, G. Rebolledo-Mendez, N. Matsuda, O. C. Santos, & V. Dimitrova (Eds.), Artificial Intelligence in Education: 24th International Conference, AIED 2023 Tokyo, Japan, July 3–7, 2023 Proceedings (Vol. 13916, pp. 189-201). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36272-9_16

Nye, B. D., Okado, Y., Shiel, A., Carr, K., Rosenberg, M., Rice, E., Ostrander, L., Ju, M., Gutierrez, C., Ramirez, D., Auerbach, D., Aguirre, A., & Swartout, W. (2023, July 3–7). MentorStudio: Amplifying diverse voices through rapid, self-authorable virtual mentors [Paper presentation]. Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Educational Technology Research and Development at the 24th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, Tokyo, Japan. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8226275

Okado, Y., Nye, B. D., & Swartout, W. (2023, May 4–5). Student acceptance of virtual agents for career-oriented mentoring: A pilot study for the CareerFair.ai Project [Paper presentation]. 2023 American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Virtual. https://doi.org/10.3102/2018950

Conference Papers and Presentations Not Published:

Nye, B. D., Okado, Y., Swartout, W., Carr, K., Shiel, A., Aguirre, A., & Rosenberg, M. (2023, July 3–7). MentorStudio: Amplifying outreach with self-recorded virtual mentors [Interactive Event]. 24th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, Tokyo, Japan.

Okado, Y., Aguirre, A., Nye, B. D., & Swartout, W. (2023, April 27–30). College students’ future career plans and perceived barriers: An exploration of pandemic-era experiences [Paper presentation]. Western Psychological Association 103rd Annual Convention, Riverside, CA, United States.

Okado, Y., Nye, B. D., Saravia, D., & Swartout, W. (2023, April 27–30). How do students choose their mentors?: An exploration using virtual agent-mentors [Paper presentation]. Western Psychological Association 103rd Annual Convention, Riverside, CA, United States.

Conference Poster Presentations:

Aguirre, A., Okado, Y., & Gomberg, J. (2023, April 27–30). Assessing college students’ career interests and needs in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics [Poster presentation]. Western Psychological Association 103rd Annual Convention, Riverside, CA, United States. 

Gomberg, J., Okado, Y., & Aguirre, A. (2023, April 27–30). An investigation of the relationships between acceptance of a virtual agent-mentoring platform and college students’ interest in STEM majors and careers [Poster presentation]. Western Psychological Association 103rd Annual Convention, Riverside, CA, United States.

Aguirre, A., Gomberg, J., Nguyen, S. B., & Okado, Y.​ (2022, April 27–May 1). Belongingness and expectations for success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics among underrepresented students [Poster presentation]. Western Psychological Association 102nd Annual Convention, Portland, OR, United States. 

Nguyen, S. B., Aguirre, A., Gomberg, J., & Okado, Y. (2022, April 27–May 1). Belongingness to and intentions to leave STEM for underrepresented demographics [Poster presentation]. Western Psychological Association 102nd Annual Convention, Portland, OR, United States.

Gutierrez, C. S., Nye, B., & Shiel, A. (2022). MentorStudio: Refining virtual mentors by recommending trending unanswered user questions [Poster presentation]. Southern California National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates, Playa Vista, CA, United States.

Ju, M., Nye, B., Shiel, A., & Ramirez, D. (2022). MentorStudio: Guiding users to create virtual mentors [Poster presentation]. Southern California National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates, Playa Vista, CA, United States.

Ostrander, L. (2022). Improving Virtual Mentor Creation through swappable virtual backgrounds and transcript formatting [Poster presentation]. Southern California National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates, Playa Vista, CA, United States.

Gomberg, J., Okado, Y., & Aguirre, A. (2021, November 20). COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on college students’ future plans [Poster presentation]. Annual Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research, Virtual.

Support

This project was funded by a grant from the Department of Defense’s National Defense Education Program (NDEP) for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education, Outreach, and Workforce Initiative Programs (HQ0034-20-S-FO01), awarded to University of Southern California (PIs: Nye, Swartout; CSUF co-PI: Okado). The views expressed in written materials or publications, and/or made by speakers, moderators, and presenters, do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Defense nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.