Clayton Cohn
PhD Student, Research Assistant at Vanderbilt University
About Me
Greetings! My name is Clayton Cohn, and I am a computer science PhD student and research assistant at Vanderbilt University. My concentration is Artificial Intelligence (AI) with a focus on Natural Language Processing (NLP) in learning environments.
I like to stay active, so I play hockey and golf and also lift weights. I'm a committed Francophile and belong to two French meet-ups that help me improve my language skills and gain additional exposure to French culture. I also enjoy volunteering and participate in two charitable organizations through Vanderbilt. I like taking advantage of Nashville's live music scene, and I enjoy playing guitar.
More than anything, I like to challenge myself. I like to solve problems and learn new things. I like to engage in constructive discourse and hear opposing points of view. I like to broaden my horizons and expose myself to activities outside of my comfort zone.
Contact
Publications
- Proposed temporal, fully-weighted scanpath graphs as a novel representation of gaze behavior
- Combined scanpath graphs with clustering scheme to obtain high-level gaze summaries, which were then used to explain changes in gaze behavior during a nurse training simulation
- Published at International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK) 2023
- Developed custom tagging scheme for analyzing discourse of student nurses
- Applied multimodal ML methods to training phase identification in simulated ER training environments
- Published at Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence
- Evaluated textual data augmentation methods for small and imbalanced datasets
- Outperformed BERT-based baseline models
- Published at International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) 2022
- Completed systematic literature review of BERT's efficacy when applied to scientific and medical datasets
- Explored various BERT adaptations across multiple tasks and languages
- Identified effectiveness of domain-specific pretraining (domain adaptation) before fine-tuning with BERT
Education
- Focus on conversational agents and applying NLP to learning environments.
- 3.93 GPA
- Concentration in Artificial Intelligence
- Graduated with Distinction (3.97 GPA)
- Concentration in Software Development
- Cum Laude (3.54 GPA)
Work Experience
- Performing discourse analysis and event detection of nursing students during training
- Designing conversational pedagogical agent for computer-based high school science learning environment
- Exploring NLP approaches to data augmentation, few-shot learning, and domain-specific learning
- Leveraging multimodal AI approaches toward analyzing learning environments
- Designed, built, and launched iOS music discovery app
- Managed team of three software engineers
- Developed algorithm for quantifying performance of up-and-coming artists
- Implemented Apple SDK APIs and CocoaPods third-party APIs
Military Experience
- Honorably discharged as Sergeant with "Excellent" Proficiency and Conduct Marks
- Completed two deployments to Iraq
- Awarded Purple Heart for wounds sustained in battle
- Awarded Certificate of Commendation as Honor Graduate (first in the class) at Infantry Machinegun Leaders Course
Fellowships
Volunteering
- Organizes meals for and provides guidance to halfway house residents transitioning out of prison
- Participates in semi-monthly challah-bakes to aid in fundraising for hunger-fighting organizations