The National GENIUS Center successfully held its first-year Advisory Board (AB) meeting on April 14-15, 2025, at the AI4STEM Education Center, University of Georgia.

The AB meeting was chaired by Dr. James Pellegrino from the University of Illinois Chicago. Three AB members—Dr. Logan Fiorella (University of Georgia), Dr. Will Lorie (National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment), and Dr. Anirban Bhattacharyya (Transcend Education) attended in-person and one member Dr. Chinasa T. Okolo (Brookings Institution) joined the meeting virtually. Team members from the University of Georgia, ETS, and Vanderbilt University attended the meeting.

Dr. Xiaoming Zhai, Principal Investigator, kicked off the meeting by presenting the project’s goals, management and structure, and the first-year performance agreement. Following the project overview, 13 groups reported their major progress from September 1, 2024 to April 2025 to AB members. AB members provided insightful comments and constructive suggestions to guide the next phase of development.

The meeting concluded with a collaborative discussion of the second-year performance agreement and planning for the upcoming year. Dr. James Pellegrino concluded the meeting with insightful reflections and strategic recommendations to guide future work.