Diane Litman

Diane Litman is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh, affiliated with the School of Computing and Information (SCI). She serves as Associate Dean for Mentoring and Development in SCI and holds dual roles as a Senior Scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) and Faculty of the Intelligent Systems Program (ISP). Her academic career spans over three decades, with a PhD from the University of Rochester (1986) and prior industry experience at AT&T Labs and Columbia University.

Education:

• PhD in Computer Science, University of Rochester (1986)
• M.S. in Computer Science, University of Rochester (1982)
• A.B. in Mathematics and Computer Science, College of William and Mary (1980)

Research Interests: Diane’s work bridges artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and education. Key areas include:

• Natural Language Processing: Summarization, argument mining, and dialogue systems.
• AI in Education: Automated writing evaluation, peer feedback, and formative assessment tools.
• Collaborative Learning: Human-robot interaction and educational technologies for K-12 and higher education.
• Spoken Language: Prosodic analysis, lexical alignment, and speech technology applications.

Her research emphasizes practical applications, such as the eRevis system for writing feedback and Discussion Tracker for classroom analysis.

Recent Trends in Publications: Recent work focuses on leveraging large language models (LLMs) for educational applications, including automated assessment, classroom discussion analysis, and improving fairness in AI systems. Key themes include discourse-driven evaluation, argument mining in legal texts, and multimodal learning analytics.

Awards & Honors:

• 2025: Fellow, Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association
• 2020: Provost’s Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring
• 2022-2024: NSF grants for AI in education and reflection-informed learning
• Best Paper Awards and nominations in SIGDIAL, EDM, and ACL workshops

Advising & Grants:

• PhD advisees focus on NLP applications in education, dialogue systems, and computational linguistics.
• Lead or co-PI on NSF-funded projects like CourseMIRROR and TeachTalk, totaling over $2M in grants.
• Recipient of Pitt Momentum Funds for scaling educational technologies.

Labs & Initiatives:

Leads the Natural Language Processing for Education lab, collaborating with LRDC on interdisciplinary projects. Key initiatives include developing AI tools for equitable access to justice and improving STEM education through reflection technologies.