This $113,439 National Science Foundation project grant will fund the development of a privacy-preserving intelligent tutoring system and associated algorithms for low-literacy Hispanic breast cancer survivors. The grant is awarded under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program to Texas A&M University-San Antonio, with the parent awardee being the Texas A&M University System.
Specifically, the grant will support two key objectives. The first is to develop an intelligent tutoring system customized for low-literacy Hispanic breast cancer survivors that can effectively query and interact with them using existing educational content. This includes training natural language algorithms and designing interactions that model those of the target population. The second objective is to develop privacy-preserving algorithms utilizing end-to-end encryption to encrypt and decrypt distributed data in real-time without hindering interactions with the tutoring system. The project aims to advance understanding of how culture and education impact the use of intelligent tutoring systems among low-literacy Hispanic populations and facilitate access to health information for minority groups.