Namrata Srivastava
Portrait of Namrata Srivastava

Namrata Srivastava, PhD

Research Scientist, Vanderbilt University

I combine learning analytics, HCI, and AI to understand how students learn, and to build tools that support them in real classrooms.

Download résumé Google Scholar LinkedIn
Ask about my researchTap a question to get a short answer
Hi, I'm Namrata. Pick a question below and I'll answer in a sentence or two.

Latest

  • 2026Presented the SciStory demo at AIED 2026 in Seoul
  • 2026Judge's Choice Award, EdTechnical AIEd Forecasting Competition
  • Apr 2026LAK 2026 paper on how AI agents shape students' inquiry

Eight years of research, one question

I am an interdisciplinary researcher with 8+ years of experience. My work focuses on bringing research ideas into real classrooms. I work closely with schools, nonprofits, foundations, and research teams to build and evaluate the tools students and teachers use.

Projects in blue have full case studies. More are on the way.

The sensing work taught me how to measure learning. The analytics work taught me to do it at scale. Today I use both to study whether AI tools actually help.

What I bring to a team

I measure learning, not just activity, and I build the systems that make it measurable. Pick a skill to see where I've used it.

10 projects

2024 to nowSciStory: AI characters for scientific inquiry Led a classroom study with 73 sixth graders; Markov models and sequence mining of how each agent shaped inquiry. Read the case study
2024 to nowLearnLens teacher dashboard LLM-based scoring and summaries of students' open-ended responses, so teachers can act during the lesson.
2024 to nowInquiry strategies in OECD PISA data Markov-based sequence models of how students investigate in a large-scale digital assessment.
2023 to 2024Detecting boredom, confusion, and carelessness Engagement detectors for intelligent tutoring systems at the Penn Center for Learning Analytics.
2020 to 2023Curriculum analytics on 7M+ enrollments Early-warning models and an R Shiny dashboard; recommendations adopted by Monash's Faculty of IT. Read the case study
2020 to 2023Self-regulated learning strategies Process mining of logs, keystrokes, and eye movements from 253 students writing essays.
2023 to 2025Fair predictive models in education Where bias enters predictive analytics, and how to reduce it (BJET 2025, LAK 2024).
2020 to 2025Reading with AI-generated summaries Controlled user studies with Adobe Research, including crowd-sourced studies at scale (CHI 2021, CHI 2025).
2016 to 2021Measuring cognitive load with sensors Built a contactless eye-tracking and thermal camera system; lab studies with 100 students. Read the case study
2019Detecting mind-wandering while reading Machine learning on eye-tracking and electrodermal activity data at DFKI, Germany.

Where I've worked

Three countries, from software engineering to industry research to classrooms.

  1. 2015AmdocsSoftware EngineerGurgaon, India
  2. 2016University of MelbournePhD in Computer ScienceMelbourne, Australia
  3. 2020Adobe ResearchMachine Learning Research InternRemote, USA
  4. 2020Monash UniversityResearch FellowMelbourne, Australia
  5. 2023University of PennsylvaniaPostdoctoral ResearcherPhiladelphia, USA
  6. 2024Vanderbilt UniversityResearch ScientistNashville, USA

Recognition

  • Judge's Choice Award, EdTechnical AIEd Forecasting Competition, 2026
  • LIVE Ignite Tech Development Grant, Vanderbilt, 2025
  • Emerging Scholar Award, Society for Learning Analytics Research, 2024
  • Executive Committee, Society for Learning Analytics Research, 2024 to 2026

Teaching and mentoring

I teach undergraduate data science at Vanderbilt and supervise PhD and Master's students. Earlier, I was Chief Examiner for a postgraduate data science course at Monash and taught Python at the University of Melbourne.

Research partners

The OECD, Stanford University, SRI International, Digital Promise, Indiana University, NC State University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Let's talk

I'm looking for research scientist and data science roles in industry, especially where AI meets learning. I'm always happy to talk about learning analytics and AI in education.

Download résuméLinkedIn
namratasrivastava.research@gmail.com