Assma Boughoula
Henrico,VA
Summary
Dynamic project lead with extensive experience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specializing in data mining and machine learning. Proven track record in guiding research teams, enhancing project outcomes, and mentoring students. Adept in algorithm development and project management, driving innovative solutions in educational technology.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
Education
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) - Computer Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
USA12.2025
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA, USA06.2014
Skills
- Data mining
- Machine learning
- Project management
- Research methodology
- Technical writing
- Algorithm development
- Statistical analysis
- Team leadership
Research Interests
- Educational Data Mining
- Learning Analytics
- Text Mining
- Information Retrieval
- Applied Artificial Intelligence for Online and Blended Learning Systems
Leadership And Academic Service
- Project Lead, ConceptView (SmartMOOCs Project), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 05/21, Present
- Project Lead, Measuring Concept Difficulty (SmartMOOCs Project), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 05/21, Present
- Website Development Lead, SmartMOOCs, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 05/21, 09/21
- Research Seminar Organizer, TIMAN for Social Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Fall 2019
Honors And Awards
- CS Department Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award — Lifetime Achievement Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2018
- CS Department Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Fall 2017, Fall 2019
- Brewster Scholarship for Undergraduate Students, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010 – 2014
- Burchard Scholarship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012
- Henry Buresh Alumni Award, American School, 2010
- Commended Student, National Merit Scholarship Corporation, 2009
Publications
- An Optimization Approach to Automatic Construction of a Browsable Concept Index for Organizing Online Educational Content, Boughoula, A., Ros, K., Zhai, C. X., Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Knowledge Graph (ICKG 2022), 2022
- Leveraging Book Indexes for Automatic Extraction of Concepts in MOOCs, Boughoula, A., San, A., Zhai, C. X., Proceedings of the 7th ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S 2020), 2020
- Collective Development of Large-Scale Data Science Products via Modularized Assignments: An Experience Report, Bhavya, Boughoula, A., Green, A., Zhai, C. X., Proceedings of the ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2020), 2020
- Web of Slides: Automatic Linking of Lecture Slides to Facilitate Navigation, Labhishetty, S., Bhavya, Pei, K., Boughoula, A., Zhai, C. X., Proceedings of the 6th ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S 2019), 2019
- WOSView Demo: A Tool to Explore the Web of Slides, Labhishetty, S., Bhavya, Pei, K., Boughoula, A., Zhai, C. X., Proceedings of the 6th ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S 2019) — Demo Paper, 2019
- Mining MOOC Lecture Transcripts to Construct Concept Dependency Graphs, Alsaad, F., Boughoula, A., Geigle, C., Sundaram, H., Zhai, C. X., Proceedings of the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2018), 2018
- A Probabilistic Approach for Discovering Difficult Course Topics Using Clickstream Data, Boughoula, A., Geigle, C., Zhai, C. X., Proceedings of the 4th ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S 2017), 2017
Research
- Researcher, Text Information Management and Analysis Group (TIMAN), Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 09/16, Present, Conduct research in educational data mining, text mining, and information retrieval., Develop algorithmic and optimization-based methods for automatic concept extraction., Design and evaluate models for detecting learner confusion.
- SmartMOOCs Project (Doctoral Research), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, SmartMOOCs: Browsable Concept Index, 08/21, 10/21, Proposed and implemented the concept of a Browsable Concept Index (BCI)., SmartMOOCs: ConceptView, 04/21, 08/21, Defined a quantitative notion of 'taught concepts' in online learning modules., SmartMOOCs: Measuring Concept Difficulty, 09/16, 12/17, Analyzed large-scale clickstream data from Coursera MOOCs.
- Researcher, Learning Analytics Lab, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 01/18, 12/18, Worked on the development of automated systems for generating and improving assignment rubrics.
- Project Developer, CS 225 Data Structures Guidebook, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 09/17, 12/17, Collaborated with course staff to design and develop an intelligent textbook.
- Undergraduate Researcher, iLabs Project, MIT Center for Educational Computing Initiatives (CECI), 09/13, 05/14, Worked with senior developers to integrate iLabs remote laboratory infrastructure.
- Undergraduate Researcher, Scheller Teacher Education Program, MIT Media Lab, 01/13, 01/13, Contributed to the release of the first version of WebLogo.
Work History
Project Lead, ConceptView (SmartMOOCs Project)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
05.2021 - Current
- Led a research sub-project focused on automatic concept summarization for online learning modules.
- Supervised and mentored two Master’s students in early-stage research exploration and experimentation.
- Guided project planning and preparation toward publication.
Project Lead, Measuring Concept Difficulty (SmartMOOCs Project)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
05.2021 - Current
- Led a team of three undergraduate researchers working on extending and refining the concept difficulty pipeline.
- Oversaw integration of new raw datasets, improvements to interpretability of topic modeling results, and implementation of new evaluation methodologies.
- Assigned roles, provided technical guidance, and mentored students in applied research.
Researcher, Text Information Management and Analysis Group (TIMAN)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
09.2016 - Current
- Conduct research in educational data mining, text mining, and information retrieval, with a focus on leveraging large-scale data from MOOCs and online learning platforms to support independent learning.
- Develop algorithmic and optimization-based methods for automatic concept extraction, indexing, and organization of educational content.
- Design and evaluate models for detecting learner confusion and estimating concept difficulty using clickstream and interaction data.
- Collaborate closely with faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers; contribute to peer-reviewed publications in ACM and IEEE venues.
Website Development Lead, SmartMOOCs
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
05.2021 - 05.2025
- Led a team of three software developers in the design and development of a project website.
- Coordinated requirements, design discussions, and implementation efforts.
Instructor of Record, AI 491 – Artificial Intelligence Capstone Project I
University of Prince Mugrin
09.2024 - 12.2024
- Supervised senior undergraduate capstone projects in artificial intelligence.
- Guided students through problem definition, literature review, system design, and project planning.
- Provided technical and methodological mentoring for applied AI projects.
Instructor of Record, AI 305 – Introduction to Machine Learning
University of Prince Mugrin
09.2023 - 12.2024
- Designed and delivered an undergraduate course introducing core machine learning concepts and algorithms.
- Developed course materials, assignments, and assessments aligned with program learning outcomes.
- Taught supervised learning, evaluation methods, and practical applications of machine learning.
Head Teaching Assistant, CS 410 – Text Information Systems
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
01.2019 - 12.2021
- Lead TA for an upper-level undergraduate course enrolling approximately 450 students.
- Managed a team of 7 teaching assistants.
- Led efforts to make course materials and assessments DRES-accessible.
- Contributed to assignment design, grading policies, and final grade cutoffs.
Head Teaching Assistant, CS 510 – Advanced Topics in Information Retrieval
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
01.2021 - 05.2021
- Head TA for a graduate-level course.
- Led the transition of the course platform to Moodle.
- Designed new assignments and exam questions.
- Assisted with grading policies and final grade determinations.
Instructor of Record, CS 598 – Data Mining Capstone
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
01.2020 - 08.2020
- Served as Instructor of Record for a graduate-level capstone course in data mining.
- Selected and curated research papers for student presentations.
- Guided students through end-to-end data mining projects and research-oriented deliverables.
- Designed grading rubrics and determined final grade distributions.
Research Seminar Organizer, TIMAN for Social Applications
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
09.2019 - 12.2019
- Organized and led a weekly research seminar focused on real-world applications of data mining.
- Facilitated research discussions and peer feedback among graduate students.
Researcher, Learning Analytics Lab
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
01.2018 - 12.2018
- Worked on the development of automated systems for generating and improving assignment rubrics.
- Applied machine learning techniques to suggest candidate rubric dimensions from assignment descriptions and student data.
- Integrated expert (instructor) feedback to filter, refine, and label high-quality rubric dimensions.
Head Teaching Assistant, CS 225 – Data Structures
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
09.2017 - 05.2018
- Head TA for a large undergraduate course enrolling approximately 800 students.
- Managed and coordinated a team of 12 graduate TAs and numerous undergraduate course assistants.
- Designed weekly discussion worksheets and led model discussion sections.
- Oversaw staging, testing, and release of programming assignments.
Project Developer, CS 225 Data Structures Guidebook
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
09.2017 - 12.2017
- Collaborated with course staff to design and develop an intelligent textbook (guidebook) for a large undergraduate data structures course.
- Contributed to content organization and adaptive support features aimed at improving student understanding and navigation of course material.
Teaching Assistant, CS 199 – Debug Your Brain
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
01.2015 - 05.2015
- Served as Instructor of Record for a remedial course supporting students struggling in introductory computer science.
- Planned and delivered weekly sessions emphasizing foundational concepts and problem-solving skills.
Teaching Assistant, CS 125 – Introduction to Computer Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
09.2014 - 05.2015
- Lead Discussion/Lab Sections
- Facilitated student discussions and provided academic support during office hours.
- Graded assignments and provided constructive feedback on student work.
Undergraduate Researcher, iLabs Project
MIT Center for Educational Computing Initiatives (CECI)
09.2013 - 05.2014
- Worked with senior developers to integrate iLabs remote laboratory infrastructure with MITx.
- Enabled MITx students to conduct real experiments through remote labs.
- Contributed to migrating the iLabs client to JavaScript for compatibility with MITx infrastructure.
Undergraduate Researcher, Scheller Teacher Education Program
MIT Media Lab
01.2013 - 01.2013
- Contributed to the release of the first version of WebLogo, an online block-based programming language.
- Participated in early-stage design and implementation of educational programming tools.
Languages
- Arabic (Native Speaker)
- English (Native Speaker)
Personal Information
Citizenship: USA