Senior Staff
Dr. Leah C. Windsor
B.S., M.A., PhD, Institute for Intelligent Systems
Principal Investigator
The Institute for Intelligent Systems
The University of Memphis
leahc.windsor@gmail.com
CV
Dr. Leah Windsor is a Research Assistant Professor in the Institute for Intelligent Systems at The University of Memphis. She received her Bachelor of Science in Linguistics from Georgetown University in 1998, her Master’s degree in Political Science at The University of Memphis in 2005, and her Ph.D. in Political Science from The University of Mississippi in 2012. Dr. Windsor currently serves as PI for a Minerva Initiative grant administered by the U.S. Department of Defense that examines political communication in authoritarian regimes and opaque political groups. Her work uses computational linguistics and discourse analysis to answer questions about regime survival, political crisis and conflict, propaganda and persuasion, bluffs and threats, governance, and radicalization. Her interdisciplinary approach to understanding political language is situated at the intersection of political science, psychology, cognitive science, computer science, neurobiology, methodology, and linguistics. She has analyzed the language of political leaders including Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong Un, Hugo Chavez, and Muammar Qaddafi. Dr. Windsor was selected as Smart City Fellow with the City of Memphis and the FedEx Institute of Technology where she analyzes issues in local Memphis politics. She is also interested in issues of bias and ethnocentrism in studying political language, including corpus selection, translation, and document preparation. In February 2017, Dr. Windsor’s lab was selected for a Team Initiation Grant by the University of Memphis’ Division of Research and Sponsored Programs to study how multimodal forms of communication including language, nonverbal cues, and audiovisual elements, can inform our understanding of methods of persuasion, elements of cognition, keys to decoding deception, and locus of attention. Most recently she was invited to present her work to the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Defense. Her work has been published in Terrorism and Political Violence, International Interactions, The International Feminist Journal of Politics, and Political Research Quarterly.
B.S., M.A., PhD, Institute for Intelligent Systems
Principal Investigator
The Institute for Intelligent Systems
The University of Memphis
leahc.windsor@gmail.com
CV
Dr. Leah Windsor is a Research Assistant Professor in the Institute for Intelligent Systems at The University of Memphis. She received her Bachelor of Science in Linguistics from Georgetown University in 1998, her Master’s degree in Political Science at The University of Memphis in 2005, and her Ph.D. in Political Science from The University of Mississippi in 2012. Dr. Windsor currently serves as PI for a Minerva Initiative grant administered by the U.S. Department of Defense that examines political communication in authoritarian regimes and opaque political groups. Her work uses computational linguistics and discourse analysis to answer questions about regime survival, political crisis and conflict, propaganda and persuasion, bluffs and threats, governance, and radicalization. Her interdisciplinary approach to understanding political language is situated at the intersection of political science, psychology, cognitive science, computer science, neurobiology, methodology, and linguistics. She has analyzed the language of political leaders including Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong Un, Hugo Chavez, and Muammar Qaddafi. Dr. Windsor was selected as Smart City Fellow with the City of Memphis and the FedEx Institute of Technology where she analyzes issues in local Memphis politics. She is also interested in issues of bias and ethnocentrism in studying political language, including corpus selection, translation, and document preparation. In February 2017, Dr. Windsor’s lab was selected for a Team Initiation Grant by the University of Memphis’ Division of Research and Sponsored Programs to study how multimodal forms of communication including language, nonverbal cues, and audiovisual elements, can inform our understanding of methods of persuasion, elements of cognition, keys to decoding deception, and locus of attention. Most recently she was invited to present her work to the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Defense. Her work has been published in Terrorism and Political Violence, International Interactions, The International Feminist Journal of Politics, and Political Research Quarterly.
Dr. Arthur C. Graesser
B.A., PhD, Cognitive Psychology
Co-Principal Investigator
The Institute for Intelligent Systems
The University of Memphis
art.graesser@gmail.com
CV
Dr. Art Graesser is a professor in the Department of Psychology and the Institute of Intelligent Systems at the University of Memphis and is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at San Diego. Dr. Graesser’s primary research interests are in cognitive science, discourse processing, and the learning sciences. More specific interests include knowledge representation, question asking and answering, tutoring, text comprehension, inference generation, conversation, reading, education, memory, emotions, computational linguistics, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, and learning technologies with animated conversational agents. Dr. Graesser served as editor of the journal Discourse Processes (1996–2005) and Journal of Educational Psychology (2009-2014) and as president of the Empirical Studies of Literature, Art, and Media (1989-1992), the Society for Text and Discourse (2007-2010), International Society for Artificial Intelligence in Education (2007-2009), and the FABBS Foundation (2012-13). He has published over 500 articles in journals, books, and conference proceedings. Dr. Graesser and his colleagues have designed, developed, and tested software that integrates psychological sciences with learning, language, and discourse technologies, including AutoTutor, AutoTutor-Lite, MetaTutor, GuruTutor, DeepTutor, HURA Advisor, SEEK Web Tutor, Operation ARIES!, iSTART, Writing-Pal, AutoCommunicator, Point & Query, Question Understanding Aid (QUAID), QUEST, & Coh-Metrix. In 2010, Dr. Graesser received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award (Society for Text and Discourse) and in 2011 he received the Distinguished Contributions of Applications of Psychology to Education and Training Award (American Psychological Association). He is currently serving as Chair of the Framework group in PISA Collaborative Problem Solving 2015. On February 28, 2012, Dr. Graesser received the first Presidential Award for Lifetime Achievement in Research from the University of Memphis. This award is the University’s highest level of research recognition given to its faculty. It was established as part of the University’s Centennial fundraising campaign in order to recognize the vital role and impact of research at the University of Memphis
B.A., PhD, Cognitive Psychology
Co-Principal Investigator
The Institute for Intelligent Systems
The University of Memphis
art.graesser@gmail.com
CV
Dr. Art Graesser is a professor in the Department of Psychology and the Institute of Intelligent Systems at the University of Memphis and is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at San Diego. Dr. Graesser’s primary research interests are in cognitive science, discourse processing, and the learning sciences. More specific interests include knowledge representation, question asking and answering, tutoring, text comprehension, inference generation, conversation, reading, education, memory, emotions, computational linguistics, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, and learning technologies with animated conversational agents. Dr. Graesser served as editor of the journal Discourse Processes (1996–2005) and Journal of Educational Psychology (2009-2014) and as president of the Empirical Studies of Literature, Art, and Media (1989-1992), the Society for Text and Discourse (2007-2010), International Society for Artificial Intelligence in Education (2007-2009), and the FABBS Foundation (2012-13). He has published over 500 articles in journals, books, and conference proceedings. Dr. Graesser and his colleagues have designed, developed, and tested software that integrates psychological sciences with learning, language, and discourse technologies, including AutoTutor, AutoTutor-Lite, MetaTutor, GuruTutor, DeepTutor, HURA Advisor, SEEK Web Tutor, Operation ARIES!, iSTART, Writing-Pal, AutoCommunicator, Point & Query, Question Understanding Aid (QUAID), QUEST, & Coh-Metrix. In 2010, Dr. Graesser received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award (Society for Text and Discourse) and in 2011 he received the Distinguished Contributions of Applications of Psychology to Education and Training Award (American Psychological Association). He is currently serving as Chair of the Framework group in PISA Collaborative Problem Solving 2015. On February 28, 2012, Dr. Graesser received the first Presidential Award for Lifetime Achievement in Research from the University of Memphis. This award is the University’s highest level of research recognition given to its faculty. It was established as part of the University’s Centennial fundraising campaign in order to recognize the vital role and impact of research at the University of Memphis
Zhiqiang Cai
B.S., M.S.
The Institute for Intelligent Systems
The University of Memphis
zhiqiang.cai@gmail.com
CV
Zhiqiang Cai is presently a research assistant professor in the Institute of Intelligent Systems at the University of Memphis. Cai received his M.S. in mathematics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and was an associate professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, a visiting associate professor at the University of Paris VI, a visiting associate professor at Sudan University for Science and Technology. He has 15 years teaching experiences in universities. Since 2001, he shifted his work from teaching to research and developing software that involves mathematical modeling in linguistics and cognition. He is the chief software designer and developer of QUAID, AutoTutor, Coh-Metrix, ARIES, WPAL, ACE, ASAT, ASAT-V，AutoTutor-CSAL, ElectroinxTutor and Sprout.
B.S., M.S.
The Institute for Intelligent Systems
The University of Memphis
zhiqiang.cai@gmail.com
CV
Zhiqiang Cai is presently a research assistant professor in the Institute of Intelligent Systems at the University of Memphis. Cai received his M.S. in mathematics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and was an associate professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, a visiting associate professor at the University of Paris VI, a visiting associate professor at Sudan University for Science and Technology. He has 15 years teaching experiences in universities. Since 2001, he shifted his work from teaching to research and developing software that involves mathematical modeling in linguistics and cognition. He is the chief software designer and developer of QUAID, AutoTutor, Coh-Metrix, ARIES, WPAL, ACE, ASAT, ASAT-V，AutoTutor-CSAL, ElectroinxTutor and Sprout.
Dr. Alistair Windsor
The University of Memphis
alistair.windsor@gmail.com
Alistair Windsor received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Penn State University in 2002. He held positions at the Victoria University of Manchester and the University of Texas at Austin before coming to Memphis in 2007. He is currently the Director of the Institute for Intelligent Systems and an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. From 2012 - 2014 served as Co-Director of Tigers Teach, a Mathematics and Science teacher preparation program and remains active in mathematics teacher preparation. His current research interests are computational linguistics, machine learning, and mathematics education.
The University of Memphis
alistair.windsor@gmail.com
Alistair Windsor received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Penn State University in 2002. He held positions at the Victoria University of Manchester and the University of Texas at Austin before coming to Memphis in 2007. He is currently the Director of the Institute for Intelligent Systems and an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. From 2012 - 2014 served as Co-Director of Tigers Teach, a Mathematics and Science teacher preparation program and remains active in mathematics teacher preparation. His current research interests are computational linguistics, machine learning, and mathematics education.
