Talk 10/29: Building Trustworthy LLM Agents for Academia through Structured, Interpretable Knowledge Retrieval and Source Attribution Manas Gaur and Yash Saxena, 2-1 pm EDT Wed., Oct. 29, online UMBC Professor Manas Gaur and Ph.D. student Yash Saxena talk online on Building Trustworthy LLM Agents for Academia through Structured, Interpretable Knowledge Retrieval and Source Attribution, 12-1 PM EDT on Wednesday, October 29.

Ensuring the trustworthiness of language model outputs is essential for their adoption in academic research. This work presents a retrieval-augmented LLM agent designed to generate verifiable responses with sentence-level source attribution. The system employs a structured two-stage retrieval approach. In the first stage, lightweight neural modules adapt both query and document representations to improve alignment and enhance the quality of initial retrieval.

The second stage applies an advanced selection method to refine and finalize the evidence set. This pipeline is interpretable and attribution-aware, allowing users to trace each sentence in the generated output back to its supporting source. By combining structured retrieval with fine-grained attribution, the proposed architecture enables generation that is fluent, contextually accurate, and grounded in verifiable evidence. This design aligns with the rigorous standards required for scholarly communication.

Session recording and slides


Register and/or join event here

]]> UMBC Professor Manas Gaur and Ph.D. student Yash Saxena talk online on Building Trustworthy LLM Agents for Academia through Structured, Interpretable Knowledge Retrieval and Source Attribution,... https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/library/events/144147 https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/153828/guest@my.umbc.edu/9f9d94a44570dd576cd79d16e6642a17/api/pixel agent llm rag trust UMBC AI https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/umbc-ai https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/original.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/large.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/medium.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/small.png?1691095779 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxsmall.png?1691095779 UMBC AOK Library https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/828/3584fec116979f7f09dccead4a43085e/xxlarge.jpg?1761166820 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/828/3584fec116979f7f09dccead4a43085e/xlarge.jpg?1761166820 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/828/3584fec116979f7f09dccead4a43085e/large.jpg?1761166820 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/828/3584fec116979f7f09dccead4a43085e/medium.jpg?1761166820 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/828/3584fec116979f7f09dccead4a43085e/small.jpg?1761166820 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/828/3584fec116979f7f09dccead4a43085e/xsmall.jpg?1761166820 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/828/3584fec116979f7f09dccead4a43085e/xxsmall.jpg?1761166820 flyer for talk on Building Trustworthy LLM Agents for Academia 1 0 true Thu, 23 Oct 2025 09:05:37 -0400 Mon, 03 Nov 2025 12:15:30 -0500 AI in Graduate & Postdoctoral Research: Leveraging Gemini, 10/24 Online session with Dr. Anupam Joshi, 2:30-3:30 Fri. Oct 24

Dr. Anupam Joshi, UMBC's Vice Provost and Chief AI Officer, will lead an interactive session to help graduate students and postdocs see how they can enhance their scholarly work with Google's Gemini  systems. The session will give participants a chance to engage with the Gemini platform, experiment, and get help in overcoming obstacles to see what it can do.

Initial post had the wrong link.

Members of the UMBC community can register for the event here. 

]]> Dr. Anupam Joshi, UMBC's Vice Provost and Chief AI Officer, will lead an interactive session to help graduate students and postdocs see how they can enhance their scholarly work with Google's... https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/meyerhoffgrad/events/146875/join_meeting https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/153799/guest@my.umbc.edu/bde7d7d56d5db36994b7c9419bc4ed7a/api/pixel ai gemini genai google llm UMBC AI https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/umbc-ai https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/original.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/large.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/medium.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/small.png?1691095779 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxsmall.png?1691095779 UMBC AI https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/799/c452ebcdbeb49c85a8c31522c65e68ae/xxlarge.jpg?1761144828 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/799/c452ebcdbeb49c85a8c31522c65e68ae/xlarge.jpg?1761144828 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/799/c452ebcdbeb49c85a8c31522c65e68ae/large.jpg?1761144828 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/799/c452ebcdbeb49c85a8c31522c65e68ae/medium.jpg?1761144828 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/799/c452ebcdbeb49c85a8c31522c65e68ae/small.jpg?1761144828 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/799/c452ebcdbeb49c85a8c31522c65e68ae/xsmall.jpg?1761144828 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/799/c452ebcdbeb49c85a8c31522c65e68ae/xxsmall.jpg?1761144828 google gemini ai systems 0 0 true Wed, 22 Oct 2025 10:57:06 -0400 Wed, 22 Oct 2025 11:02:28 -0400 Participate in an online research study of how users interact with an AI chatbot

We are conducting a research study to explore how users interact with AI. Use an AI chatbot to answer 3 quiz questions! Here is the study link: https://llm-frontend-9fnt.onrender.com/signup

Who can participate? You must be

  1. 18 years or older 

  2. Fluent in English

  3. Able to access to a laptop or desktop computer and a stable internet connection

  4. Have a basic understanding of how to use an AI Chatbot (e.g., ChatGPT).

What will I do? 

This task will be completed remotely online and will take 20 minutes or less. You will use an LLM chatbot called Aletheia to answer three on-screen questions and complete a brief survey about your experience.

What will I get? 

You will be entered into a raffle for a $50 Amazon gift card. 

If you would like to learn more or have any questions, please contact 

Chielota Uma at cuma1@umbc.edu or  Dr. Shimei Pan at  shimei@umbc.edu

Thank you for considering helping us with our research! Your time is greatly appreciated.


]]> We are conducting a research study to explore how users interact with AI. Use an AI chatbot to answer 3 quiz questions! Here is the study link: https://llm-frontend-9fnt.onrender.com/signup Who... https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/153732/guest@my.umbc.edu/3015e0bf238af5e537206f5dbc94bb70/api/pixel chatbot llm quiz research study UMBC AI https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/umbc-ai https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/original.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/large.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/medium.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/small.png?1691095779 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxsmall.png?1691095779 UMBC AI https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/732/d1f07c636aa8adacc29b647900cf4fa2/xxlarge.jpg?1761002005 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/732/d1f07c636aa8adacc29b647900cf4fa2/xlarge.jpg?1761002005 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/732/d1f07c636aa8adacc29b647900cf4fa2/large.jpg?1761002005 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/732/d1f07c636aa8adacc29b647900cf4fa2/medium.jpg?1761002005 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/732/d1f07c636aa8adacc29b647900cf4fa2/small.jpg?1761002005 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/732/d1f07c636aa8adacc29b647900cf4fa2/xsmall.jpg?1761002005 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/732/d1f07c636aa8adacc29b647900cf4fa2/xxsmall.jpg?1761002005 online survey with bot 0 0 true Mon, 20 Oct 2025 16:40:20 -0400 Mon, 20 Oct 2025 19:14:10 -0400 Talk: Making Sense of Data with AI: Lowering Barriers, Expanding Who Participates 12-1pm EDT, Wednesday, October 22, online As part of UMBC's AOK Library series of AI Symposia, Jennifer Posada will hold an online session via Webex on making sense of data with AI from 12-1 pm EDT on Wednesday, October 22.

Generative AI tools like Chat GPT have shifted who gets to participate in data analysis and how. Opportunities exist for large language models (LLMs) to support tasks like code writing for data cleaning and exploration. This has potential to make it easier to engage with data, particularly for those that lack formal technical skills or have limited technical support. In this talk, Jennifer reflects on how LLMs have changed her own workflow by streamlining analysis and lowering barriers to iterating and exploring. She also poses questions around who gets to be considered a data analyst now, and what skills or literacies may matter most.

Jennifer Posada is a UMBC PhD student working with professor Lujie Karen Chen in the Lab for Informatics for Human Flourishing. Her research is focused on  Automation and AI for Personal Informatics Data storytelling.

Sign up for the online event here


Video recording of session
]]> As part of UMBC's AOK Library series of AI Symposia, Jennifer Posada will hold an online session via Webex on making sense of data with AI from 12-1 pm EDT on Wednesday, October 22.... https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/library/events/144146 https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/153683/guest@my.umbc.edu/c9c19ff76bf03abcb3d4626e0138a786/api/pixel ai data llm UMBC AI https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/umbc-ai https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/original.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/large.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/medium.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/small.png?1691095779 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxsmall.png?1691095779 UMBC AOK Library https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/683/00e94d4f6976233d70fb7988ed2a9019/xxlarge.jpg?1760891310 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/683/00e94d4f6976233d70fb7988ed2a9019/xlarge.jpg?1760891310 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/683/00e94d4f6976233d70fb7988ed2a9019/large.jpg?1760891310 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/683/00e94d4f6976233d70fb7988ed2a9019/medium.jpg?1760891310 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/683/00e94d4f6976233d70fb7988ed2a9019/small.jpg?1760891310 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/683/00e94d4f6976233d70fb7988ed2a9019/xsmall.jpg?1760891310 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/683/00e94d4f6976233d70fb7988ed2a9019/xxsmall.jpg?1760891310 poster of on online session on Making Sense of Data with AI: Lowering Barriers 1 0 true Sun, 19 Oct 2025 12:47:26 -0400 Wed, 29 Oct 2025 11:19:10 -0400 UMBC undergrads invited to participate in study on reliance on AI for writing

Shahin Hossain, a PhD student in Language, Literacy, and Culture, is conducting a research study on how undergraduate students use generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, and the impact on their writing. The goal is to better understand how these advanced technologies are changing writing practices and behavior.

Current UMBC undergraduate students who have used AI technologies for academic purposes in their writing are invited to complete an online survey, which should take no more than 10 minutes.

Students can get more information and access the survey here.

]]> Shahin Hossain, a PhD student in Language, Literacy, and Culture, is conducting a research study on how undergraduate students use generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, and the impact on their... https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/cahss/posts/153558 https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/153589/guest@my.umbc.edu/37b41cc99eabc6f53a9bf01733d00302/api/pixel ai generative-ai llm survey writing UMBC AI https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/umbc-ai https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/original.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/large.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/medium.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/small.png?1691095779 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxsmall.png?1691095779 UMBC Language, Literacy, and Culture https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/589/e634103d4840efc71d29383260a6ac6f/xxlarge.jpg?1760540213 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/589/e634103d4840efc71d29383260a6ac6f/xlarge.jpg?1760540213 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/589/e634103d4840efc71d29383260a6ac6f/large.jpg?1760540213 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/589/e634103d4840efc71d29383260a6ac6f/medium.jpg?1760540213 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/589/e634103d4840efc71d29383260a6ac6f/small.jpg?1760540213 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/589/e634103d4840efc71d29383260a6ac6f/xsmall.jpg?1760540213 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/589/e634103d4840efc71d29383260a6ac6f/xxsmall.jpg?1760540213 survey on how undergraduate students use generative AI tools for academic writing 0 0 true Wed, 15 Oct 2025 11:01:58 -0400 Wed, 15 Oct 2025 11:05:11 -0400 Generative AI in Teaching II: Applied Skills and Use Cases 12-1 pm EDT Monday, October 13, 2025 online via WebEx
Building on Gen AI & Teaching I, this online Webex interactive session led by UMBC professor John Schumacher highlights applied skills and practical use cases. Faculty will practice effective prompting, explore discipline-specific scenarios, and consider assignment design strategies. Examples will touch on advanced features (custom GPTs/GEMs, Canvas Mode, Deep Research Mode, agent mode) related to teaching.

Reserve a seat and get the WebEx llnk by registering here.

This second session builds on Dr. Shumacher's first session.  Slides and a video of that session are available here.




]]> Building on Gen AI & Teaching I, this online Webex interactive session led by UMBC professor John Schumacher highlights applied skills and practical use cases. Faculty will practice effective... https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/calt/events/146815 https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/153488/guest@my.umbc.edu/f8c2d6d5e99de19170bff2a91fc30ee2/api/pixel agent ai canvas-mode deep-research-mode gehai gem gpts llm teaching UMBC AI https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/umbc-ai https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/original.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/large.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/medium.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/small.png?1691095779 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxsmall.png?1691095779 UMBC AI https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/488/77fe6e828924d44e593f7d864d1e6245/xxlarge.jpg?1760309656 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/488/77fe6e828924d44e593f7d864d1e6245/xlarge.jpg?1760309656 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/488/77fe6e828924d44e593f7d864d1e6245/large.jpg?1760309656 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/488/77fe6e828924d44e593f7d864d1e6245/medium.jpg?1760309656 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/488/77fe6e828924d44e593f7d864d1e6245/small.jpg?1760309656 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/488/77fe6e828924d44e593f7d864d1e6245/xsmall.jpg?1760309656 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/488/77fe6e828924d44e593f7d864d1e6245/xxsmall.jpg?1760309656 College graduation had labeled with AI on an electronic circuit board. Generative AI in Teaching 0 0 true Sun, 12 Oct 2025 19:03:53 -0400 Eric Stokan receives USM professorship to promote AI equity for students and faculty UMBC Professor Eric Stokan, director of the Center for Social Science Scholarship, has been awarded the Elkins Professorship for Academic Transformation to address the significant barrier that prevents many in the social sciences from using powerful tools like AI and open-source software. Although these technologies have revolutionary potential, they often require advanced skills or expensive software, limiting their impact. 

Stokan's work, supported by the University System of Maryland award, aims to bridge this gap by creating scalable, modular training in computational social science and generative AI, making the tools more accessible for faculty and students in teaching, research, and public impact projects.

The funding also supports the design and implementation of five hands-on training modules and workshops tailored for faculty, students, and community organizations. Participants will learn to use generative AI systems like ChatGPT with simple programs written in R. The goal is to help them answer novel and important research questions, develop marketable technical skills, work more effectively with data, and better communicate the results of their analyses with the broader community.

Read more about Professor Stokan's work and award in this UMBC News article.
]]> UMBC Professor Eric Stokan, director of the Center for Social Science Scholarship, has been awarded the Elkins Professorship for Academic Transformation to address the significant barrier that... https://umbc.edu/stories/eric-stokan-usm-professorship-ai-access/ https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/153469/guest@my.umbc.edu/677a8112fb25fcba4d664222ce6a18cc/api/pixel ai award llm social-science stokan UMBC AI https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/umbc-ai https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/original.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/large.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/medium.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/small.png?1691095779 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxsmall.png?1691095779 UMBC AI https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/469/2523d762d99e2eaf08f8d74efc7cf83c/xxlarge.jpg?1760111466 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/469/2523d762d99e2eaf08f8d74efc7cf83c/xlarge.jpg?1760111466 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/469/2523d762d99e2eaf08f8d74efc7cf83c/large.jpg?1760111466 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/469/2523d762d99e2eaf08f8d74efc7cf83c/medium.jpg?1760111466 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/469/2523d762d99e2eaf08f8d74efc7cf83c/small.jpg?1760111466 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/469/2523d762d99e2eaf08f8d74efc7cf83c/xsmall.jpg?1760111466 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/469/2523d762d99e2eaf08f8d74efc7cf83c/xxsmall.jpg?1760111466 UMBC professor Weic Stokan lecturing 0 0 true Fri, 10 Oct 2025 12:26:09 -0400 Talk: Towards Multilingual Evaluations of Knowledge for LLMs 2-3pm EDT Tue., Oct. 14, 2025, ITE 325b, UMBC
Language Technology Seminar Series (LaTeSS)

Towards Multilingual Evaluations of Knowledge for Large Language Models

Bryan Li, University of Pennsylvania
2-3pm Tue., Oct. 14, 2025, ITE 325b, UMBC
Contemporary language models (LMs) support dozens of languages, promising to broaden information access for global users. However, existing multilingual evaluations largely study factual recall tasks, failing to address knowledge-intensive tasks shaped by the uneven coverage and different perspectives of knowledge across languages. This dissertation investigates how LMs handle such tasks by examining their internal parametric knowledge and their use of externally-provided contextual knowledge. In the first part, I introduce benchmarks for complex reasoning and territorial disputes, and find that LM responses on both tasks exhibit a lack of cross-lingual robustness, outputting inconsistent answers to underlying queries written in different languages. I then show that lightweight methods of leveraging program code and persona-based prompting can mitigate these issues.

In the second part, I explore the retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) setting, which combines LM's internal parametric knowledge with contextual knowledge from external knowledge bases (KBs). Focusing on the territorial disputes task, I show that while RAG over single-language or single-source KBs has mixed effects on robustness, retrieving over multilingual and multi-source KBs — Wikipedia, as well as a large-scale dataset of state media articles I collected — substantially boosts robustness. Together, these findings highlight the need for LMs that can navigate, and assist users in navigating, the real-world distribution of knowledge across languages and sources. This is a practice dissertation talk, and your feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Bryan Li is a final-year PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, advised by Prof. Chris Callison-Burch. His research focuses on multilingual evaluations of LLMs, spanning both the fields of natural language processing and computational social science. His work has appeared in conferences such as ACL, COLM, and ICLR. Outside of research, you can find him in a trendy cafe, a river-side running trail, or at home listening to a good podcast.
]]> Language Technology Seminar Series (LaTeSS) Towards Multilingual Evaluations of Knowledge for Large Language Models Bryan Li, University of Pennsylvania 2-3pm Tue., Oct. 14, 2025, ITE 325b, UMBC... https://laramartin.net/LaTeSS https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/153403/guest@my.umbc.edu/62abef58462a166d634b00ce2adf44ee/api/pixel language-model llm multilingual nlp rag UMBC AI https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/umbc-ai https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/original.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/large.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/medium.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/small.png?1691095779 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxsmall.png?1691095779 UMBC Language, Aid, and Representation AI Lab https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/403/e97b7ff3606ac8b1622433fd30815d10/xxlarge.jpg?1759949298 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/403/e97b7ff3606ac8b1622433fd30815d10/xlarge.jpg?1759949298 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/403/e97b7ff3606ac8b1622433fd30815d10/large.jpg?1759949298 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/403/e97b7ff3606ac8b1622433fd30815d10/medium.jpg?1759949298 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/403/e97b7ff3606ac8b1622433fd30815d10/small.jpg?1759949298 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/403/e97b7ff3606ac8b1622433fd30815d10/xsmall.jpg?1759949298 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/403/e97b7ff3606ac8b1622433fd30815d10/xxsmall.jpg?1759949298 Bryan Li observing a crash between a vehicle and baloon 0 0 true Wed, 08 Oct 2025 15:07:02 -0400 UMBC Faculty Development Center: Introduction to Generative AI in Teaching Webinar Series Three sessions: 12-1pm Mondays, Oct. 6, 13, & 27, online UMBC's Faculty Development Center will host a series of three webinars for UMBC faculty on teaching and generative AI systems from 12:00-1:00 p.m. on October 6, 13, and 27. For more information, please follow the links below.  Faculty can register for any of them by clicking on the Going Virtually link on the event's web page.

Generative AI in Teaching I:  Literacy and Foundations
Monday, Oct 6,  12:00-1:00 pm 

This session introduces the basics of generative AI and its implications for teaching and learning.  It focuses on AI literacy by examining what these tools are, what they can and cannot do, basic prompting, ethical & responsible use, and how they may impact classroom practice.  Faculty will see short demos of ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and have space for Q&A. 

Generative AI in Teaching II:  Applied Skills and Use Cases
Monday, Oct 13, 12:00-1:00 pm

Building on Generative AI in Teaching I, this interactive session highlights applied skills and practical use cases.  Faculty will practice effective prompting, explore discipline-specific scenarios, and consider assignment design strategies.  Examples will touch on advanced features (custom GPTs/GEMs, Canvas Mode, Deep Research Mode, agent mode) related to teaching.

I'm Not Teaching with Generative AI, But What Do I Still Need to Know?
Monday, Oct 27,  12:00-1:00 pm

This session highlights what faculty need to know, even if they are not adopting AI in their own teaching. Topics include basic Gen AI literacy, a critical examination of student use of AI tools, equity and access, ethical concerns, credible sources of Gen AI information, and implications for assessment and pedagogy..

]]> UMBC's Faculty Development Center will host a series of three webinars for UMBC faculty on teaching and generative AI systems from 12:00-1:00 p.m. on October 6, 13, and 27. For more information,... https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/153195/guest@my.umbc.edu/1e3a907e3756743d582ba548a7dbb3c5/api/pixel ai generative-ai llm teaching UMBC AI https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/umbc-ai https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/original.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/large.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/medium.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/small.png?1691095779 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxsmall.png?1691095779 UMBC Faculty Development Center 1 0 true Thu, 02 Oct 2025 21:47:10 -0400 Introduction to R and the Basics of LLMs and Generative AI 12-1:30pm EDT, Friday October 3, 2025 in PUP 451 UMBC's Center for Social Science Scholarship kicks off its Fall workshop series on generative AI, LLMs, and computational social science methods with Eric Stokan's session on computing in R and how to use generative AI/LLMs in social science research workflows. The session will cover:
  • How to install and set up R and RStudio
  • R fundamentals: objects, vectors, data frames, scripts, packages (tidyverse)
  • R Markdown/Quarto: document structure, code chunks, rendering to HTML/PDF
  • LLMs 101: what they are, common research use cases, and calling them through the R package ellmer
  • A checklist for responsible LLM use in research
The session will be held 12-1:30pm in person in room 451 of the Public Policy Building.

Lunch will be provided for registered attendees only.

Register here


]]> UMBC's Center for Social Science Scholarship kicks off its Fall workshop series on generative AI, LLMs, and computational social science methods with Eric Stokan's session on computing in R and... https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/csss/events/146488 https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/153192/guest@my.umbc.edu/ac21a062f4361afd0525984cc2633ac9/api/pixel ai ellmer genai llm programming r UMBC AI https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/umbc-ai https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/original.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xlarge.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/large.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/medium.png?1691095779 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/small.png?1691095779 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xsmall.png?1691095779 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/002/081/cfb27ebe008c2636486089a759ea5c36/xxsmall.png?1691095779 UMBC AI https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/192/4813b64b24b579d0aa17736e5023ea7e/xxlarge.jpg?1759432868 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/192/4813b64b24b579d0aa17736e5023ea7e/xlarge.jpg?1759432868 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/192/4813b64b24b579d0aa17736e5023ea7e/large.jpg?1759432868 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/192/4813b64b24b579d0aa17736e5023ea7e/medium.jpg?1759432868 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/192/4813b64b24b579d0aa17736e5023ea7e/small.jpg?1759432868 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/192/4813b64b24b579d0aa17736e5023ea7e/xsmall.jpg?1759432868 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/thumbnails/news/000/153/192/4813b64b24b579d0aa17736e5023ea7e/xxsmall.jpg?1759432868 Headshot of UMBC Professor Eric Stokan 1 0 true Thu, 02 Oct 2025 15:31:32 -0400 Thu, 02 Oct 2025 15:39:29 -0400