Rate My Professor Kalina Yacef

Professor Kalina Yacef serves as Deputy Dean and Associate Dean (Research Education) of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sydney, and as a Professor in the School of Computer Science. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Paris. Her academic career at the University of Sydney dates back to at least 2003, with early work on web-based tutoring tools equipped with data mining capabilities to enhance learning and teaching. Yacef has held various leadership roles within the university, contributing to research education and faculty administration. She leads a research group on human-centred data science for education and health, focusing on applications that improve educational outcomes and health interventions through data analytics.

Yacef's research specializations encompass Educational Data Mining, Artificial Intelligence in Education, Health Sensors Data Mining, and Human-centred Data Mining. She is a founding member of the International Educational Data Mining Society (IEDMS) and serves on its Board of Directors. Additionally, she is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society (AIED). Her editorial contributions include serving as Founding Editor-in-Chief and current Associate Editor of the Journal of Educational Data Mining (JEDM), as well as Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies (TLT). Yacef regularly participates as a program committee member and chair for major international conferences in learning analytics and AI in education. Her scholarly impact is evidenced by over 8,600 citations on Google Scholar. Key publications include 'The state of educational data mining in 2009: A review and future visions' (with R.S.J.d. Baker, 2009), cited over 2,700 times; 'Clustering and sequential pattern mining of online collaborative learning data' (with D. Perera, J. Kay, I. Koprinska, and O.R. Zaïane, 2008); 'Educational Data Mining: a Case Study' (with A. Merceron, 2005); 'Collaborative writing support tools on the cloud' (with R.A. Calvo, S.T. O'Rourke, J. Jones, and P. Reimann, 2010); and 'An interactive teacher’s dashboard for monitoring groups in a multi-tabletop learning environment' (with R. Martinez-Maldonado, J. Kay, and B. Schwendimann, 2012). She has secured funding from the Australian Research Council for projects in educational technologies.