Publications


Educational Data Mining


Automated Detection of Proactive Remediation by Teachers in Reasoning Mind Classrooms

W. L. Miller, R. Baker, M. Labrum, K. Petsche, Y.-H. Liu, and A. Z. Wagner. The Fifth International Learning Analytics & Knowledge Conference (LAK 15) (2015).

In collaboration with Columbia University Teachers College professor Ryan Baker, we build automated, sensor-free detectors of “proactive remediation” (on-the-spot teacher intervention with students based upon their performance) by Reasoning Mind teachers. Previous work has focused on student behaviors; here, we are able to infer teacher behavior based upon student actions. In particular, we can distinguish them from student off-task behavior or idle time. This and the following EDM papers use a variety of machine learning techniques to build models of student and teacher behavior and affect, based wholly on the student’s activities within the system.


Boredom Across Activities, and Across the Year, within Reasoning Mind

W. L. Miller, R. Baker, M. J. Labrum, K. Petsche and A. Z. Wagner. KDD Workshop on Data Mining for Educational Assessment and Feedback (ASSESS 2014) (2014).

We construct an automated, sensor-free detector of student boredom within the Readoning Mind system. To demonstrate the use of this detector, we apply it to data from 70,000 students across the entire school year. Analysis of the results reveals a systematic, bimodal distribution in student boredom; the Reasoning Mind curriculum is roughly evenly split between high- and low-boredom lessons.


Unifying Computer-Based Assessment Across Conceptual Instruction, Problem-Solving, and Digital Games

W. L. Miller, R. S. Baker, and L. M. Rossi. Technology, Knowledge and Learning 19, 165 (2014). (preprint)

As students work through online learning systems such as Reasoning Mind, they often are not confined to working within a single educational activity; instead, they work through various different activities such as conceptual instruction, problem-solving items, and fluency-building games. In this paper, we apply Bayesian Knowledge Tracing (BKT), which is a method of estimating a student’s knowlege of different topics (known as knowledge components) in an educational system. In particular, we explore different ways of modeling student knowledge across the different types of activies they encounter, and find that integrating different activities does not improve predictive performance.

As part of this work, I adapted Baker et al.’s BKT Brute Force algorithm to simulated annealing for parameter fitting, resulting in a speed-up of roughly fifty times. A Java implementation of this method can be seen on GitHub here.


Soft Matter Physics

Some sample code from some of these publications can be found on GitHub here. A thorough overview of this work can be found in my doctoral dissertation, hosted here.


Free energy of alternating two-component polymer brushes on cylindrical templates

W. L. Miller, B. Bozorgui, K. Klymko, and A. Cacciuto. Journal of Chemical Physics 135, 244902 (2011). (preprint)


Two-dimensional packing of soft particles and the soft generalized Thomson problem

W. L. Miller and A. Cacciuto. Soft Matter 7, 7552 (2011). (preprint)


On the phase behavior of hard aspherical particles

W. L. Miller and A. Cacciuto. Journal of Chemical Physics 133, 234903 (2010). (preprint)


Exploiting classical nucleation theory for reverse self-assembly

W. L. Miller and A. Cacciuto. Journal of Chemical Physics 133, 234108 (2010). (preprint)


Crystallization of hard aspherical particles

W. L. Miller, B. Bozorgui, and A. Cacciuto. Journal of Chemical Physics 132, 134901 (2010). (preprint)


Phase behavior of repulsive polymer-tethered colloids

B. Bozorgui, M. Sen, W. L. Miller, J. C. Pàmies, and A. Cacciuto. Journal of Chemical Physics 132, 014901 (2010). (preprint)


Hierarchical self-assembly of asymmetric amphiphatic spherical colloidal particles

W. L. Miller and A. Cacciuto. Physical Review E 80, 021404 (2009). (preprint)


Single-Molecule Spectroscopy

An overview of this work can be found in my undergraduate thesis, which can be downloaded here (PDF link).


Detailed single-molecule spectroelectrochemical studies of the oxidation of conjugated polymers

R. E. Palacios, W.-S. Chang, J. K. Grey, W. L. Miller, C.-Y. Liu, G. Henkelman, D. Zepeda, J. Ferraris, and P. F. Barbara. Journal of Physical Chemistry B 113, 14619 (2009).


Effect of electric field on the photoluminescence intensity of single CdSe nanocrystals

S.-J. Park, S. Link, W. L. Miller, A. Gesquiere, and P. F. Barbara. Chemical Physics 341, 169 (2007).


Size-dependent spectroscopic properties of conjugated polymer nanoparticles

J. K. Grey, D. Y. Kim, B. C. Norris, W. L. Miller, and P. F. Barbara. Journal of Physical Chemistry B 110, 25568 (2006).


Effect of temperature and chain length on the bimodal emission properties of single polyfluorene copolymer molecules

J. K. Grey, D. Y. Kim, C. L. Donley, W. L. Miller, J. S. Kim, C. Silva, R. H. Friend, and P. F. Barbara. Journal of Physical Chemistry B 110, 18898 (2006).