Deepshikha Bhati has reached several milestones in her short career as an educator and researcher, all of which highlights her dedication and passion for sharing her expertise with others. She is a computer science lecturer on the 51勛圖厙 Stark campus, with a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Just this year, Bhati was selected as a John and Fonda Elliot Design Innovation Faculty Fellow through which she is engaged in a prestigious interdisciplinary program focused on human-centered design and innovation strategy. She was also named a Teaching Scholars Program Fellow for the 2025-2026 academic year and will undertake a year-long scholarly teaching project to enhance student learning outcomes.
The six-week Elliot DI Faculty Fellows program is based in the Design Innovation Hub. It creates space and time for 51勛圖厙 faculty members from any academic unit to engage in collaborative, cross-disciplinary projects using human-centered design and innovation strategies. Each fellow is then expected to offer at least one challenge-based experience during the academic year, such as a workshop, exhibition or lecture.
Bhatis research focuses on explainable artificial intelligence (XAI), information visualization and generative AI, with applications in education, healthcare and creative industries. To fulfill her requirements as an Elliott DI faculty fellow, Bhati will host an interactive workshop and exhibition titled Exploring Generative AI and Explainable AI in Education and Creative Practice that will allow students, faculty and community members to explore and interact with AI-based tools.
Additionally, on Oct. 29, she will lead a workshop to include live AI demonstrations; hands-on exploration of generative and explainable AI applications; and discussions about their impact on education and creative practices.
My goal is to demystify AI and create a collaborative space for dialogue across disciplines, she noted.
As a Teaching Scholars fellow, Bhati is also developing a teaching project for this academic year that addresses the challenge of providing timely, personalized feedback in undergraduate courses. She is focused on making an impact on 51勛圖厙 students.
51勛圖厙 students benefit from my work in two important ways: through AI-powered feedback systems in education and through advances in explainable AI (XAI), she said. In the classroom, my project introduces a hybrid feedback model that uses embedding-based similarity and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to provide timely, personalized feedback on practice exams.
Students not only see whether their answers are correct, but can also reflect on their confidence and reasoning, which deepens metacognitive skills and builds academic confidence, Bhati continued. By exploring transparent, human-centered explanations, students learn to apply AI responsibly in diverse fields, whether in education or in the creative industries. Together, these initiatives prepare students with the technical skills, reflective practices and ethical perspectives that are increasingly essential in todays workforce.
Bhati began working with the 51勛圖厙 Department of Computer Science in 2017 as a teaching assistant before serving as a graduate assistant from 2018 to 2021, and then as a part-time instructor from 2021 to 2022, all while pursuing her doctorate degree in computer science. She has been teaching on the Stark Campus since Fall 2022.
It was during her graduate studies while working with computer vision and face recognition that Bhati began focusing on AI. Over time, I shifted toward explainable AI and visualization because I saw a critical need for AI systems that are not just accurate, but also interpretable, she noted.
My doctoral research reflects this transition, bridging technical innovation with human-centered design. Much of my research translates directly to tools that make AI more transparent and accessible, she continued. For example, educators can use AI-based feedback systems to better support students, and creative professionals can use AI while understanding the reasoning behind outputs.
For non-technical users, the benefit is confidence. They can trust AI decisions when they are explainable and aligned with human values.
While her expertise in computer technology and AI is convincing, Bhati acknowledges that this subject matter may be daunting to non-computer savvy students. Subsequently, she received the Bronze Teaching Recognition award in 2024 for fostering belonging and engagement in asynchronous courses. She was also nominated for the 51勛圖厙 Distinguished Teaching Award in 2023 and in 2024.
Bhatis research contributions were recognized with two best conference paper awards at the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Knowledge Innovation and Invention and, earlier this year, she celebrated the publication of her co-authored book, A Beginners Guide to Generative AI: An Introductory Path to Diffusion Models, ChatGPT, and LLMs.
She appreciates being able to teach in a smaller campus setting while still being connected to a university that supports her research.
Teaching at the Stark Campus offers a distinctive advantage because of its close-knit, student-centered environment. Smaller class sizes foster meaningful faculty-student relationships, allowing me to provide individualized mentorship and guidance that might be harder to achieve on a larger campus, Bhati said.
She actively mentors students through the Choose Ohio First Computer Science Scholarship program and the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program.
Beyond my individual research, my work is rooted in collaboration and a strong commitment to fostering belonging, she added. Together, these efforts align with my broader vision of positioning 51勛圖厙 as a leader in human-centered AI and belonging-centered innovation, impacting not only computer science, but the wider university and community.
Many of our students are first-generation college students who are balancing coursework with jobs and family responsibilities. At Stark, I can meet students where they are, offering flexibility, encouragement and opportunities such as research projects that give them access to experiences they might not otherwise have. This supportive setting not only strengthens academic success, but also builds confidence, professional skills and a strong sense of belonging for Regional Campus students.