Renu Balyan

Renu Balyan
Position/Role
Assistant Professor
Department
Mathematics, Computer & Information Science
School
School of Arts and Sciences
Building
New Academic Building
Room
1012
E-mail
Email
Courses Taught
  • CS 2511 - CS Programming II (Java) - Fall 2020-21; Spring 2021-22
  • CS 2521 - Scientific Computing using Python - Spring 2022
  • CS 3911 - C++ in Object Oriented Design - Fall 2022-23; Spring 2023
  • CS 4550 - Database Management Systems - Spring 2022; Fall 2022-23
  • CS 5910 - System Design and Implementation (Capstone) - Spring 2023
  • CS 6110 - Data Analytics - I  - Spring 2021-23
  • CS 6120 - Data Analytics -II - Fall 2020-23
Honors & Awards
Grants
  • NSF Collaborative Grant: Orchestration of Network Slicing for 5G-Enabled IoT Devices Using Reinforcement Learning (Oct 2023 - Sept 2025): $399,897 (SUNY OW: $122, 598)
  • NSF Collaborative Grant: Privacy Preserving Tutoring System for Health Education of Low Literacy Hispanic Populations (Sept 2022 - Aug 2025): $598,925 (SUNY OW: $140,215)
  • ASEE Summer Mini Grant: Investigating NLP and ML techniques for developing a secure and privacy-preserving health-centric Intelligent Tutoring System (May 2022 - Sept 2022): $10,000
  • NSF Grant: StEM: Stimulate, Engage and Motivate student research by enhancing the research capacity (Oct 2021 - Sept 2023) : $299, 498
  • IES Summer Grant (ASU sub-award): Precision Education: The Virtual Learning Lab (May 2021 - June 2021): $35,000

Student/College Service
Professional life & Development Presidential committee (Co-Chair) ITGAC Presidential committee (Member) Residential College - OW Model committee (Member)
Advanced Research Task Force (Member) IRB Committee (Member) Student Research Day Committee (Member)
SPAAR Committee (Member) PRODiG Committee (Member) TLRC (Secretary)
Department Senator Department Academic Coordinatior for CSTEP Department Web Editor & Publisher
Research Interests
  • Natural Language Processing (Machine Translation, summarization, Question-asking, named entity recognition)
  • Machine Learning
  • Data Mining (Health and Education data)
Publications

2023

  • Nicula B., Dascalu M., Arner T., Balyan R., McNamara DS. (2023). Automated Assessment of Comprehension Strategies from Self-Explanations Using LLMs. Information. 2023; 14(10):567. https://doi.org/10.3390/info14100567
  • Shin, J., Balyan, R., Banawan, M., Arner, T., Leite, W., & McNamara, D. (2023) Pedagogical Discourse Markers in Online Algebra learning: Unraveling Instructor's Communication using Natural Language Processing. Computers and Education. Volume 205, 104897, ISSN 0360-1315, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104897
  • Roscoe, R., Balyan, R., Banawan, M., Schillinger, D., McNamara, D. (2023). Automated Strategy Feedback Can Improve the Readability of Physicians’ Electronic Communications to Simulated Patients. International Journal of Human - Computer Studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2023.103059
  • Banawan MP, Shin J, Arner T, Balyan R, Leite WL, McNamara DS. Shared Language: Linguistic Similarity in an Algebra Discussion Forum. Computers. 2023. 12(3):53. https://doi.org/10.3390/computers12030053
  • Ackerman, R.* and Balyan, R. (2023, Aug). Automatic Multilingual Question Generation for Health Data using LLMs. Proceedings of the International Conference on AI Generated Content (AIGC 2023). (* student author).
  • Yetunde E. A*., Minocha, A.*, and Balyan, R. (2023, Aug). Analyzing Multilingual Automatic Speech Recognition Systems Performance. Proceedings of the International Conference on AI Generated Content (AIGC 2023). (* student authors).
  • Kinning Poon, Solomon T. C. Chak, Mohamed Khalefa, Christos Noutsos, Shebuti Rayana and Renu Balyan (July 2023). Undergraduate Student Motivation in Research, Science, and Post-Bachelor Education. Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC) 2023. Portland, Oregon.
  • Bogdan Nicula, Marilena Panaite, Tracy Arner, Renu Balyan, Mihai Dascalu, and Danielle S. McNamara. (July 2023). Automated Assessment of Comprehension Strategies from Self-Explanations using Transformers and Multi-Task Learning. 24th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, AIED 2023, July 3-7, 2023. Tokyo, Japan.
  • Amanda Jensen, Kyle Stagnaro, Ali Fulsher, Tracy Arner, Zeinab Serhan, Tong Li, Renu Balyan, Danielle McNamara, Panayiota Kendeou (June, 2023). Reinventing the Think-Aloud: A Study Exploring Alternative Delivery Methods for the Traditional Think-Aloud Protocol. The 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse (ST&D).  June 28 -30, 2023. Oslo, Norway.

2022

  • Ackerman, R*., Balyan, R. & Icobelli, F. (2022). Intelligent Tutoring Systems in Healthcare for Low Literacy Population: A Concise survey and the next steps. International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI'22). Dec 14-16, 2022. Las Vegas. (* student author).
  • Balyan, R.,  T. Arner, K. Taylor, J. Shin, M. Banawan, W. Leite, and D. McNamara. (2022). Modeling one-on-one online tutoring discourse using an accountable talk framework. In A. Mitrovic and N. Bosch, editors, Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Educational Data Mining, pages 477–483, Durham, United Kingdom, July 2022. International Educational Data Mining Society.
  • Balyan, R., Arner, T., Li, T., Orcutt, E., Butterfuss, R., Kendeou, P., & McNamara, D. (2022). Integrating Speech Technology into the iSTART-Early Intelligent Tutoring System. In International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (pp. 362-370). Springer, Cham.
  • Kendeou, P., Orcutt, E., Arner, T., Li, T., Balyan, R., Butterfuss, R., ... & McNamara, D. (2022). iSTART-Early: Interactive Strategy Training for Early Readers. In International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (pp. 371-379). Springer, Cham.
  • Banawan, M., Shin, J., Balyan, R., Leite, W. L., & McNamara, D. S. (2022). Math Discourse Linguistic Components (Cohesive Cues within a Math Discussion Board Discourse). In Proceedings of the Ninth ACM Conference on Learning@ Scale (pp. 389-394).

2021

  • Schillinger, D., Duran, N. D., McNamara, D. S., Crossley, S. A., Balyan, R., & Karter, A. J. (2021). Precision communication: Physicians’ linguistic adaptation to patients’ health literacy. Science advances, 7(51), eabj2836.
  • Schillinger, D*, Balyan, R*, Crossley, SA, McNamara, DS, Liu, JY, & Karter, AJ. (2021) Employing Computational Linguistics Techniques to Estimate Patient Health Literacy: Findings from the ECLIPPSE Study. Health Services Research. Volume 56, Issue 1:132-144. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.13560 (* first co-authors)
  • Schillinger, D., Balyan, R., Crossley, S.A., McNamara, D.S., & Karter, A.J. (2021). Validity of a Computational Linguistics-Derived Automated Health Literacy Measure Across Race/Ethnicity: Findings from The ECLIPPSE Project. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved (JHCPU) 32 (2021): 347-365. doi:10.1353/hpu.2021.0067.
  • Brown, W., Balyan, R., Crossley, S., ….., Schillinger, D. (2021). Challenges and Solutions to Employing Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning to Measure Patients' Health Literacy and Physician Writing Complexity: The ECLIPPSE Study. Journal of Biomedical Informatics. Volume 113, 103658, ISSN 1532-0464, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2020.103658
  • Banawan, M., Balyan, R., Shin, J., Leite, W., & McNamara, D. (2021). Linguistic Features of Discourse within an Algebra Online Discussion Board. Proceedings in the International Conference on Education in Data Mining (EDM, 2021). June 29-July 2, 2021. Paris.
  • Wan, Q., Crossley, S. A., Banawan, M., Balyan, R., McNamara, D. S., & Allen, L. (2021). Automated Claim Identification Using NLP Features in Student Argumentative Essays. In. F. Bouchet, J. Vie, S. Hsiao, & S. Sahebi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM-2021): International Education Data Mining Society.
  • Shin, J., Balyan, R., Banawan, M., Leite, W., & McNamara, D. (2021). Pedagogical Communication Language in Video Lectures: Empirical Findings from Algebra Nation. International Society of Learning Sciences (ISLS).

2020

  • Crossley, S. A., Balyan, R., Liu, J. Y., Schillinger, D., Karter, A. J., McNamara, D. S. (2020). Predicting the readability of physicians’ secure messages to improve health communication using novel linguistic features: Findings from the ECLIPPSE study. Journal of Communication in Healthcare: 344-356.  https://doi.org/10.1080/17538068.2020.1822726
  • Balyan, R., McCarthy, K.S. & McNamara, D.S. Applying Natural Language Processing and Hierarchical Machine Learning Approaches to Text Difficulty Classification. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-020-00201-7
  • Scott A. Crossley, Renu Balyan, Jennifer Liu, Andrew J. Karter, Danielle McNamara & Dean Schillinger (2020): Developing and Testing Automatic Models of Patient Communicative Health Literacy Using Linguistic Features: Findings from the ECLIPPSE study, Health Communication, https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2020.1731781
Presentations
  • Stille, Daniel*, Abhay Paidipalli*, Benjamin Caulfield*, Kevin Rueda*, Raquel Saldivar*, Sooyeon Jeong*, Renu Balyan and Francisco Iacobelli (2023, October). Intelligent Tutoring System for Breast Cancer Survivors. in SACNAS NDiSTEM 2023. October 26-28. Portland, OR. (* student authors).
  • Ackerman, R.* and Balyan, R. (2023, August). Automatic Multilingual Question Generation for Health Data using LLMs. Proceedings of the International Conference on AI Generated Content (AIGC 2023). (* student author).
  • Yetunde E. A*., Minocha, A.*, and Balyan, R. (2023, August). Analyzing Multilingual Automatic Speech Recognition Systems Performance. Proceedings of the International Conference on AI Generated Content (AIGC 2023). (* student authors).
  • Vladislav Yashaev*, Mohamed Khalefa, & Renu Balyan. (2023, April) Streamlining Literature Review with Machine Learning. SUNY Graduate Research Conference (GradCon), 11 April 2023 (* student presenter)
  • Balyan, R.,  T. Arner, K. Taylor, J. Shin, M. Banawan, W. Leite, and D. McNamara. (July 2022). Modeling one-on-one online tutoring discourse using an accountable talk framework. International Conference on Educational Data Mining, Durham, United Kingdom, July 24-27, 2022.
  • Balyan, R., Arner, T., Li, T., Orcutt, E., Butterfuss, R., Kendeou, P., & McNamara, D. (June 2022). Integrating Speech Technology into the iSTART-Early Intelligent Tutoring System. International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Bucharest, Romania, June 29- July 01, 2022.
  • Joy, L. Lee, Balyan, R., McNamara, D., & Schillinger, D. (June 2022). Acceptability of an Automated Intervention to DEcrease the Complexity of Physicians' Secure Messages. AcademyHealth ARM, Washington DC, June 2022.
  • Balyan, R., McCarthy, K.S. & McNamara, D.S. Applying Natural Language Processing and Hierarchical Machine Learning Approaches to Text Difficulty Classification. Journal Presentation for Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED – June 2021)
  • Shin, J., Balyan, R., Banawan, M., Walter, L. & McNamara, D.S. (2021). Discovering Pedagogical Communication Strategies with Algebra Tutoring videos with a Theory-based NLP Approach. To be presented at American Educational Research Association (AERA: April 2021)
  • Balyan, R., McNamara, D. S., Crossley, S. A., Liu, J. Y, Karter, A. J., & Schillinger, D. (2020). Reducing Computational Complexity and Enhancing Transportability in Machine Learning: Findings from The ECLIPPSE Project. Presented as oral abstract at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Computers in Psychology (SCiP, 19 Nov 2020).
  • Shin, J., Balyan, R., Banawan, M., Walter, L. & McNamara, D.S. (2020). Combining Discourse Analysis and Natural Language Processing: Revealing Patterns of Pedagogical Communication in Algebra Tutoring. Presented as oral abstract at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Computers in Psychology (SCiP, 19 Nov 2020).
  • Dean Schillinger, Renu Balyan, Scott Crossley, Danielle McNamara, Andrew J. Karter. Validity of a Computational Linguistics-Derived Automated Health Literacy Measure Across Race/Ethnicity: Findings from The ECLIPPSE Project. Presented as Oral Abstract at the Health Literacy Research Conference (HARC). Online event. October 21, 2020.
  • Balyan, R., McCarthy, K. S., Allen, L. K., Crossley, S. A., & McNamara, D. S. (2019, November).  Toward automated assessment of source-based essays.  Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Computers in Psychology (SCiP), Montreal, Canada.
  • Perret, C. A., Balyan, R., & McNamara, D. S. (2019). Predicting argumentation sentence types of source-based essays using Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning techniques. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Computers in Psychology (SCiP), Montreal, Canada.