Beverly Woolf
Research scientist, computer science, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Because Beverly Woolf's research interests span several fields, the students she attracts come from varied backgrounds, including computer science, education, and the physical sciences. Together, they are designing knowledge- based tutoring systems for subjects ranging from high school physics to emergency cardiac treatment.

About 100 paper mills now use Woolf's tutoring system for recovery boilers. Operators used to have many accidents; Woolf's system was so successful at showing operators how to avoid accidents that insurance companies now require mills to use it in the control room. And the system did not cost a lot of money to develop. Woolf sees a great need in industrial and technical societies for one-on-one training and alternative teaching systems. She would like teachers to have a repertoire of tools at their disposal, including tutoring systems.

A key to building these systems, Woolf says, is involving educators who know their discipline. These domain experts are invaluable during design and testing, because they quickly find gaps in the software. Woolf used a high-school physics teacher over a long period of time to test and refine the physics tutor. Now she and her colleagues are testing their cardiac-arrest tutoring system. Recently, they found that doctors using the program quickly forgot it was a simulation and began acting as if they were handling a real emergency. She expects this system to be ready in about a year.

Now Woolf is ready to take the field to the next level: to create shells that can get more systems produced and installed, helping to teach in multiple domains. One of the exciting things about knowledge-based tutoring systems is that it is ``AI-complete'' - that is, almost all the subareas of the field, even machine learning, will be involved as applications are developed.

As a woman and a leader in the field of knowledge-based tutoring systems, Woolf finds she is often the only woman on a program committee, the only woman on a list of invited speakers. She's looking forward to the day when she won't be the only one.

Suggestions:

1. Collate and make available lists of qualified female candidates, so that colleagues can use them to recruit speakers and committee members.
2. Encourage group sharing and support: Successful people in science work in groups.
3. Believe in your own work, don't manifest doubt.
4. Break stereotypes: Women don't have to be placid and nourishing.
5. Cultivate a strong personality: Good science is often supported by a powerful and committed personality.
6. Get a male mentor: If your environment has few female teachers, find a man who can be helpful.
7. On the other hand, research shows that female graduate students do better if they work with a female researcher.