Faculty Spotlight: Professor Majd Sakr and the Sail() Platform
In 2021, there were more than 609,000 open computer science jobs in the U.S., while only 71,000 new computer scientists graduated from American universities last year. (Code.org) Given the limited workforce available to fulfill the growing number of jobs in emerging technology fields, to remain competitive, the nation desperately needs new methods to effectively train the workforce of the future.
Our community colleges, which currently number over 1,100 and train 11 million students, represent a promising opportunity to help fill this gap, due to their focus on job-oriented student outcomes and programmatic alignment with employers’ needs. CMU professor and Block-affiliated faculty member Majd Sakr has partnered with several of these important institutions across the country to deploy his AI-enabled learning platform, Sail(), which provides practical training for jobs in cloud computing, machine learning, data science, and a growing list of in-demand professions. “The Sail() Platform team at Carnegie Mellon is delighted to work with forward-thinking partners as we develop our platform and curricula to effectively train our future workforce using project-based learning methods that account for a learner’s self-efficacy, STEM belonging and adopts culturally-responsive and data-informed teaching,” asserts Professor Sakr.
Sail() can be incorporated with existing curricula, can be used in-class or online, and allows for individually-tailored instruction when one-on-one interaction with the instructor is not possible. The Sail() platform auto-grades students’ work, providing timely and contextual feedback which empowers them to iterate, resubmit, and learn by doing. The platform offers data visualizations to teachers to help identify struggling students and potential reasons, for instance by comparing a student’s attempts and hours invested to the rest of the students in a course. Sail() curricula are designed to prepare any student who completes them to secure an interview and job in the corresponding field.
Sail() has been adopted by four community colleges, and this year received $2 million from the NSF to pursue work with 47 more community colleges around the country. In 2022, the Block Center will continue working with Professor Sakr and his team to further spread the impact of his work to our local and national partners across the education sector.
