About project
ALBER project is an Internal Grant of the Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, project number 11061/2023, within Internal Grant for Scientific Research.
- Period: 2023-2024, 8000 Euro
- Computer Science & Education Laboratory, ITIMF Department
ALBER contributes to the field of Affective Learning (i.e. learning based on emotion recognition technologies) by conducting theoretical and experimental studies on the benefits and ethical risks of using automatic emotion recognition systems within learning processes.
Objective:
- Determining a ratio between the benefits and ethical risks of using machine learning techniques for emotion recognition in the learning process.
Research questions:
- RQ1 What are the benefits of using automatic emotion recognition systems in online learning?
- RQ2 What are the ethical risks of using automatic emotion recognition systems in online learning?
- RQ3 What is students’ perception of the use of automatic emotion recognition systems in online learning?
Activities
A systematic literature review on the RQ1, RQ2, RQ3
- Methodology adapted from (Okoli, 2015)
- Google Scholar, ACM DDL, DOAJ, Springer, IEEE, SCOPUS, WorldCat
Development of the emotion recognition models
We use:
- DEAP dataset (Koelstra et al., 2012)
- AffectNet dataset (Mollahosseini et al., 2019)
Development of educational resources
- Fields: math, ICT, philology, electrical engineering, physics
Conduction an experimental study
- Simulation of lessons directed by AER systems
- 3 questionnaires: establishing the participant’s profile; measuring emotions – SAM (Bradley et al., 1994); acquisition of students’ feedback regarding the use of AER in education (benefits and risks)
Dissemination
- Workshop: Affective Learning: Benefits and Ethical Risks in Superior Education, PG University of Ploiesti, May 30, 2024
- Publications:
- Book chapter: Ethical Aspects of Automatic Emotion Recognition in Online Learning in Ethics in Online AI-Based Systems. Risks and Opportunities in Current Technological Trends, 1st Edition – April 19, 2024, Editors: Santi Caballé, Joan Casas-Roma, Jordi Conesa, Paperback ISBN: 9780443188510, eBook ISBN: 9780443188503
- One paper under review
References
- (Okoli, 2015) Okoli, C. A guide to conducting a standalone systematic literature review. Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst. 2015, 37, 43
- (Koelstra et al., 2012) S. Koelstra, C. Muehl, M. Soleymani, J.-S. Lee, A. Yazdani, T. Ebrahimi, T. Pun, A. Nijholt and I. Patras, DEAP: A Database for Emotion Analysis using Physiological Signals, IEEE Trans. Affect. Comput., vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 18-31, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1109/T-AFFC.2011.15
- (Mollahosseini et al., 2019) A. Mollahosseini, B. Hasani and M. Mahoor, “AffectNet: A Database for Facial Expression, Valence, and Arousal Computing in the Wild” in IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, vol. 10, no. 01, pp. 18-31, 2019. doi: 10.1109/TAFFC.2017.2740923
- (Bradley et al., 1994) Margaret M. Bradley, Peter J. Lang,Measuring emotion: The self-assessment manikin and the semantic differential, Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, Volume 25, Issue 1, 1994, Pages 49-59, ISSN 0005-7916, https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7916(94)90063-9
Team
- Gabriela Moise (director, researcher, ICT field)
 | Gabriela Moise graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics at University of Bucharest in 1992, specialization Informatics, and got her PhD in Automatic Control at Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti in 2008 with a thesis related to artificial intelligence applications in online learning. Since 2012 she is Associate Professor at Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti at the Department of Computer Science, Information Technology, Mathematics, and Physics. Her main research fields are computer science & education, affective computing, machine learning, and ethics in artificial intelligence. She published more than 50 papers in journals or conference proceedings. She was involved in 17 projects, of which she coordinated 6 of them. Also, she is coordinator of the Computer Science & Education Lab, coordinator of the Computer Science study program and evaluator member of The Romanian Agency of Quality Assurance in Higher Education. |
https://scholar.google.ro/citations?user=QfpTGMoAAAAJ&hl=ro
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3842-9828
Contact: gmoise@upg-ploiesti.ro
- Simona Elena Nicoară (researcher, ICT)
 | Elena Simona Nicoară earned degrees in Mathematics-Informatics in 2000 and Science of Commodities in 1999, both at Petroleum-Gas University in Ploiești, Romania. Just after she graduated, she qualified as a graduate assistant in the Informatics Department at Petroleum-Gas University in Ploiesti (PGU), where she later earned a PhD degree in Genetic Algorithms applied in Scheduling. Since 2014 she has been an Associate Professor of Computer Science in PGU, in the Department of Computer Science, Information Technology, Mathematics, and Physics. Her research interests include optimization, metaheuristics, algorithms, artificial intelligence, ethics in artificial intelligence, and career development. She is the author or coauthor of 10+ books and book chapters and 40+ scientific papers, having 180+ related citations. |
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=ro&user=vfj14QsAAAAJ
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5501-6136
Contact: snicoara@upg-ploiesti.ro
- Daniela Șchiopu (researcher, ICT)
 | Daniela Șchiopu graduated from the Faculty of Letters and Sciences at Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiești in 2003, specialization Mathematics-Informatics, and got her PhD in Automatic Control at Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti in 2014 with a thesis related to automatic speech recognition. Since 2015 she has been Lecturer at Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti at the Department of Computer Science, Information Technology, Mathematics, and Physics. Her main research fields are computer science & education, speech recognition, data mining, affective computing, machine learning. She published more than 20 papers in journals or conference proceedings. She was involved in 12 projects. Also, she is a member of the Computer Science & Education Lab. |
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=coOVL-sAAAAJ&hl=ro
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4594-3550
Contact: dschiopu@upg-ploiesti.ro
- Elia Georgiana Dragomir (researcher, ICT)
Elia Georgiana Dragomir was born in Ploiesti, Romania, in 1983. She received the BD and MD degrees in Informatics and MD degree in Advanced Automation from Petroleum- Gas University, Ploiesti, Romania, in 2006, 2008, and 2010, respectively. In 2014, she received the PhD degree in Systems Engineering with “Automated system based on intelligent agents for air quality monitoring and analysis” thesis. In 2006, she joined the Department of Informatics at the Petroleum – Gas University of Ploiesti where she is currently a lecturer. Her research interests are in artificial intelligence, data mining techniques, multi-agents systems, and applications of intelligent agents in environment pollution analysis and education.
Contact: elia.dragomir@upg-ploiesti.ro
- Lidia Angelica Iancu (researcher, math)
Iancu Lidia Angelica completed her Bachelor’s Degree in 2000 at the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Bucharest, specializing in Solid and Fluid Mechanics. After a Master’s Degree in Solid Mechanics, she got her PhD in the field of Mathematics, in 2014, at the University of Bucharest. She is specialized in numerical methods in orthotropic elasto-plastic materials.
Since 2004 she has been teaching at the Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiești. Presently she is an university lecturer at the Faculty of Letters and Sciences. She was involved in 3 projects with research activities in numerical methods, education and artificial intelligence.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Vmimay0AAAAJ&hl=ro
Contact: lidia.iancu@upg-ploiesti.ro
- Loredana Florina Netedu (researcher, philology)
 | Loredana Netedu (b. 1975) is an assistant professor at Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiești, Department of Philology, Faculty of Letters and Sciences. Her fields of interest include Middle Age and Romantic Romanian literature, Cultural studies, Children Literature, Romanian language as a foreign language, English language. She has a PhD on the 19th century Romanian literature, title she obtained in 2009 at the University of Bucharest. She has published 3 books as the only author/ as coauthor, and over 30 chapters and articles on Romanian literature, Romanian as a foreign language, E-learning, Cultural studies and Children Literature. She is the editor/ coeditor of 8 volumes published at national and international publishing houses, a member of the Collective of Romanian Language, Culture and Civilization, Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiești, the editor of Petroleum-Gas University Press for Philology field. She is a member of the following committees: Petroleum-Gas University Ethics Committee, The Council of the Faculty of Letters and Sciences, committees for evaluating pre-university teachers (Romanian Language and Primary School Teachers), etc. She participated in numerous national and international conferences and was a member of over 10 research grants and projects. |
Contact: lorenetedu@yahoo.com
- Mihaela Rodica Duma (researcher, philology)
 | Mihaela Duma is currently a Certified Cambridge English Examiner and an independent researcher. For more than 20 years she worked at the Department of Philology at Petroleum – Gas University of Ploiești. As a lecturer, she designed and delivered for both BA and MA students a series of lectures and seminars on the following topics: Introduction to General Linguistics, British Cultural Studies, History of the English Language, English Practical Courses (for different levels and specializations), German Practical Courses (level A1 and A2), Universal Literature (20th Century), British Culture and Civilization, Strategies of Cultural Communication etc. Her research interests cover aspects of English linguistics, especially Corpus Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Sociolinguistics, and Cultural Studies. She is the author of one book, several book chapters and she has also got some international conference contributions. She received her PhD in Philology (English Linguistics) from the “Babeş-Bolyai” University from Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Letters, Doctoral School of Linguistic Studies in 2014. She also obtained an MA degree in Marketing and Business Communication from Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Faculty of Marketing in 2005. |
Contact: mihaela.duma@ymail.com
- Alexandru Săvulescu (researcher, electrical engineering)
Alexandru Săvulescu was born in Moreni, Romania, in 1965. In 1989, he received an engineer degree in Electrotechnics from the Faculty of Electrical and Energy Engineering from University Politehnica of Bucharest. In 2011, he received the PhD degree in Systems Engineering with “Contributions to the development of the automatic control systems of voltage inverters with applications in electric drives with asynchronous motors” thesis. In 1993, he joined the Electrotechnics and Electronics Department at Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Faculty from Petroleum – Gas University of Ploiesti and then, from 2011, he joined the Automatic Control, Computers and Electronics Department at the same faculty, where he is currently a lecturer. His research interests are in simulation of electric drives, control of the electric drives with asynchronous motors, electrical energy balances, renewable energy sources, increasing energy efficiency and education methods.
Contact: asavulescu@upg-ploiesti.ro
- Anca Baciu (researcher, physics)
Anca Baciu graduated from the Faculty of Physics at University of Bucharest in 1997, with specialization Polymer Physics, and got her PhD in engineering at Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti in 2008 with a thesis related to the flow of two-phase fluids. Since 2012 she is university lecturer at Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti at the Department of Computer Science, Information Technology, Mathematics, and Physics. Her main research fields are physics & education. She published more than 20 university courses and 40 papers in journals or conference proceedings. Also she was involved in 8 research project.
Contact: abaciu@upg-ploiesti.ro
- Andreea Elena Stoian (student, software developer)
Contact: barbieandreea69@gmail.com
Results
- List of benefits and ethical risks of using AER in online learning
- 2 AER models
- 24 educational resources
- Access to 2 datasets for emotions recognition
Workshop ALBER – May 30, 2024
The ITIMF Department is organizing the scientific workshop on the theme “Affective Learning: Benefits and Ethical Risks in Higher Education” (ALBER).
The results of the research activities carried out within the GO-GICS project no. 11061/08.06.2023, beneficiary Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiești, will be presented.
Members of the academic community with interests in the proposed theme are invited to participate.
The workshop will take place on May 30, 2024, starting at 1:30 PM, in room AP10.
Organizers: Gabriela Moise, Anca Baciu