Ivan Sysoev

Projects

Here are some representative projects that I worked on - tap on the images to read more!

Project lead, Concept, Design, Development, Research

Educational approaches such as constructionism rely on child-driven learning activities. But to be effective, child-driven learning requires scaffolding (guidance). And with every learner working on their own project, such guidance can be very labor-intensive. In this project, we attempted to automate it.

Phoneme blocks for building words

MIT Media Lab

Project lead, Concept, Design, Animation, Development, Research

English is notorious for its convoluted relationship between spelling and pronunciation. This complexity makes it difficult to learn certain literacy skills, or spell words sound-by-sound in child-driven learning apps. Here, we attempted to address this issue by using phoneme-based (instead of letter-based) building blocks.

What would you like to spell?

MIT Media Lab

Project lead, Concept, Design, Development, Research

In other projects above, we explored how software can automatically guide children through making words that they would like to spell. But in order to do that, the system first needs to learn what these words are. In this project, we explore various approaches to do that.

Robotic guide for literacy learning

MIT Media Lab

Project lead, Design, Development, Research

Robotic characters allow for more humanlike scaffolding (guidance). In this project, we explore how a robot can help the child to both build words and come up with creative ideas.

Tinkering with words

MIT Media Lab

Project lead, Concept, Design, Development, Research

Children are natural explorers and tinkerers. This explains the popularity of toys like LEGO, or programming tools like Scratch. In this project, we apply a LEGO-like tool to early literacy learning.

Analyzing open-ended learning play

MIT Media Lab

Participated in Design, Development and Research

Analyzing open-ended play with digital learning apps could be difficult precisely because of its richness. In this project, we developed tools that help to discover interesting phenomena in the play data.

Skills

Research

Designed and ran mixed-method studies
Experienced in utilizing design-based research methodology
Developed instruments for data collection and analysis
Experienced in data analysis using qualitative and quantitative methods
Published author in Computers & Education, IJCCI, IDC, CHI Play, AIIDE and other venues
Reviewer for SemEval, IJTDM, CHI, Creativity & Cognition

Design

Designed multiple technologies for children's learning
Experienced in applying research findings to design
Experienced in iterative prototyping and play-testing using Unity game engine
Created low-fidelity mockups using presentation software
Drawing and painting: pencil, watercolor, acrylics, digital media
Digital animation
Tools: Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Animate, InDesign), Inkscape

Development

Languages: C#, C++, Python, Java, Javascript, Lisp, Haskell
Experienced in object-oriented and functional programming
Experienced in game development using Unity
Experienced in development for Android
Designed, implemented and trained ML and NLP models, including Bayesian and deep neural models
Applied various AI techniques

Publications

This is the list of my academic publications. I also have a non-academic one; you can see it in Art. For the statistics, see my Google Scholar page.

Journal Articles

Nazare, J., Hershman, A., Sysoev, I., Ballinger, S., Saveski, M., Walker, M. & Roy, D. (2022). Technology-assisted coaching can increase engagement with learning technology at home and caregivers’ awareness of it. Computers & Education. link

Sysoev, I., Gray, J. H., Fine, S., Makini, S.P. & Roy, D. (2022). Child-driven, machine-guided: Automatic scaffolding of constructionist-inspired early literacy play. Computers & Education. pdf

Sysoev, I., Gray, J. H., Fine, S., & Roy, D. (2021). Designing building blocks for open-ended early literacy software. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction. pdf

Sysoev I. (2012) A Stereotype-Based Model of Reasoning. Program Engineering, 9/2012, ISSN 2220-3397, New Technologies, Moscow. Russia. (in Russian)

Conference Proceedings

Hershman, A., Nazare, J., Sysoev, I., Fratamico, L., Buitrago, J., Soltangheis, M., Makini, S.P., Chu, E. & Roy, D. (2018). Family Learning Coach: Engaging Families in Children’s Early Literacy Learning with Computer-Supported Tools. Proceedings of International Conference on Computers and Education 2018. Nominated for best paper award. pdf

Nazare, J., Hershman, A., Sysoev, I., & Roy, D. (2017). Bilingual SpeechBlocks: Investigating How Bilingual Children Tinker with Words in English and Spanish. Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. pdf

Sysoev, I., Hershman, A., Fine, S., Traweek, C., & Roy, D. (2017). SpeechBlocks: A Constructionist Early Literacy App. Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children. pdf

Vijayaraghavan, P., Sysoev, I., Vosoughi, S., & Roy, D. (2016). DeepStance at SemEval-2016 Task 6: Detecting Stance in Tweets Using Character and Word-Level CNNs. Proceeding of SemEval (2016). pdf

Davis, N. M., Popova, Y., Sysoev, I., Hsiao, C.-P., Zhang, D., & Magerko, B. (2014). Building Artistic Computer Colleagues with an Enactive Model of Creativity. Proceedings of International Conference on Computational Creativity 2014. pdf

Jacob, M., Coisne, G., Gupta, A., Sysoev, I., Verma, G. G., & Magerko, B. (2013). Viewpoints AI. Proceedings of Ninth Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference (AIIDE). pdf

Posters and Presentations

Nazare, J., Hershman, A., Sysoev, I., Fratamico, L., Buitrago, J., Soltangheis, M., Makini, S.P., Chu, E. & Roy, D. (2018). Child-coach-parent network for early literacy learning. International Society of the Learning Sciences. pdf

Sysoev, I., Hershman, A., Fine, S., Roy, D., Soltangheis, M., & Fitzpatrick, B. (2016). Exploring SpeechBlocks: Piloting a Constructionist Literacy App with Preschool Children. Proceedings of 2016 Convention of American Speech and Hearing Association. pdf

Sysoev, I., Chitloor, R. D., Rajaram, A., Summerlin, R. S., Davis, N., & Walker, B. N. (2013). Middie mercury: an ambient music generator for relaxation. Proceedings of the 8th Audio Mostly Conference. ACM. pdf

Sysoev I. (2011). Applying a variational constraints solver to 3D geometry editing. Proceedings of XLIX International Scientific Students Conference, Novosibirsk, Russia. (in Russian) 1st award.

Sysoev I. (2009). Applying lazy evaluation to semantic text analysis. Proceedings of XLVII International Scientific Students Conference, Novosibirsk, Russia. (in Russian) 2nd award.

Theses

Sysoev, I. (2020). Digital Expressive Media for Supporting Early Literacy through Child-Driven, Scaffolded Play. Doctoral dissertation, MIT Media Lab. pdf

Sysoev I. (2011) Applying a Variational Constraint Solver to 3D Geometry Editing. Master’s thesis, Novosibirsk State University. (in Russian)

Sysoev I. (2009) Applying Lazy Evaluation to Semantic Text Analysis. Bachelor’s thesis, Novosibirsk State University. (in Russian)

Teaching

In Spring 2022 and Spring 2018, I co-taught two classes at the MIT Media Lab.

MAS.S.65 Designing learning technology for children

MIT Media Lab, Spring 2020

Co-Organizer

This special topics class was inspired by our own experience in designing learning systems, and combined perspectives from the fields of learning theory, constructionist learning, design, game design and educational technology practice.

MAS.S.70 Learning in the flow of everyday life

MIT Media Lab, Spring 2018

Lead Teaching Assistant

This special topics class was focused on learning in informal environments and contexts: intrinsically motivated, grounded, socially connected.

Art

I paint, draw and write stories. Here are some examples of my art! You can also visit my art pages on Instagram and DeviantArt.

Fox Lights

Fox Lights is a children book that I wrote, illustrated and published online. It centers on the concept of oneness - an idea that is very dear to me.

Adventures of the little cat and fox

Adventures of the little cat and fox is an ongoing series of paintings in watercolor, acrylics and digital media. Through these works, I strived to convey the senses of warmth, care, playfulness and curiosity, which I think are often desperately needed in our harsh and uncertain world.

Journey

2005-2009

Bachelor of Science,
Novosibirsk State University
- Developed an innovative approach for semantic parsing of natural language sentences.
- Class highlights: Algebra, Analytic Geometry and Numbers Theory; Analysis of Algorithms; Calculus; Decision Theory; Mathematical Logics; Mathematical Optimization; Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics.
2009-2011

Master of Science,
Novosibirsk State University
- Class highlights: Methods of Discrete Mathematics; Decision Theory
2009-2012

Software Engineer,
Ledas Ltd. / Bricsys NV
- Participated in development of a novel approach to modeling in Computer-Aided Design software.
- Developed components of a CAD system in C++.
- Participated in designing the system's architecture.
2012-2014

Master of Science,
Georgia Institute of Technology
- Sponsored by the Fulbright program.
- Participated in development of co-creative digital technologies for drawing and dancing.
- Worked on a variety of projects involving artificial intelligence and machine learning.
- Received Donald Jackson Fellowship, awarded to 3 students in the College of Computing yearly.
- Class highlights: Advanced Game AI; Artificial Intelligence; Cognitive Science - Special Topics; Computational Creativity; Interactive Fiction; Knowledge-Based AI; Machine Learning; Natural Language Processing.
2014-2020

PhD,
MIT Media Lab
- Proposed an innovative technological approach for early literacy learning, combining learner's agency and automatic guidance.
- Designed, developed and play-tested learning software embodying this approach.
- Conducted mixed-methods studies evaluating this approach.
- Collaborated with a large number of other researchers to organize and conduct the studies.
- Supervised research by 4 undergraduate students.
- Assisted in organizing classes, including planning of the curriculum.
- Class highlights: Computational Cognitive Science; Statistical Learning Theory; Designing for Learning by Creating; Creative Learning Technologies.
2020-present

Postdoctoral Associate,
MIT Media Lab
- Designed and implemented innovative digital technologies for playful learning.
- Developed robotic companions to scaffold learning activities.
- Co-taught graduate class "Designing learning technologies for children".
- Supervised research by 3 undergraduate students.
MORE
TO
COME!

Resume and CV

Reach out

I would love to hear from you!

isysoev@mit.edu

Instagram

DeviantArt

Projects

Here are some representative projects that I worked on - tap on the images to read more!