Dr. Vincent Aleven

Dr. Vincent Aleven is an Associate Professor in Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, and has 20 years of experience in research and development of advanced learning technologies, grounded in cognitive theory.

Dr. Aleven is a firm believer in the notion that effective educational games will emerge when the best practices and practitioners in game design and instructional design come together. He is dedicated to make this vision come to fruition in his research on virtual worlds and game-based learning. He is the principal investigator on a project to develop and evaluate educational games for science learning for children in pre-K through grade 3, sponsored by the DARPA ENGAGE program.

Dr. Aleven’s research is also producing advances in intelligent tutoring systems, a proven and practical learning technology that supports learning by doing of complex skills. He and colleagues developed novel authoring technology that makes the development of tutors 4-8 times more cost effective and possible for non-programmers.

Dr. Aleven is a member of the Executive Committee of the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC), an NSF-sponsored research center spanning Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. He is a co-founder of Carnegie Learning, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based company that markets Cognitive Tutor™ math courses that include intelligent tutoring software. Dr. Aleven has taught numerous courses and workshops on the development of intelligent tutoring systems and educational games.