The people who are closest to the most important problems facing our society ought to be the ones to drive change and inform solutions. To make sure the voices of those most affected are always heard, our teams collaborate with a variety of educators, families, researchers, scientists, and others. At the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, we therefore mean it when we advise people to “stay close to the work.”
Learn more about Dan Quine, senior director of AI and engineering for our work in education, in this edition of Stay Close to the Work. Quine is an enthusiastic railway historian who brings a wealth of AI expertise and a love of learning. He is incredibly enthusiastic about creating AI systems that enable students to reach their full potential and making sure that these systems are rooted in and improving science for teaching and learning.
Tell us a little bit about what you do at CZI.
I am the senior director of education-related AI and engineering. My job is to investigate how AI can help instructors and students in the classroom. I support close collaborations with researchers and educators. We can design truly effective smart systems by using learning science to guide their development.
How did you get into the engineering space?
When I was thirteen, I developed an interest in engineering. One of the earliest personal computers, the ZX81, was purchased for our family by my mother with her very first salary. I was hooked right away. After learning how to program on my own, I chose to major in computer science at university. I then went on to do my Ph.D. in machine learning, which is currently the main area of artificial intelligence, and found that I truly like creating things, especially computer programs.
We were using a new software tool from Apple when I joined a small firm in the U.K. to lead their engineering team because of this newfound interest. The tool was so new in the 1990s that no instruction manuals had even been written for it! I asked a coworker on the Apple team there if I could create a documentation for the programming language after I had cracked it.
For the project, I took a plane to Cupertino, California. We flew over the Golden Gate Bridge as the sun was sinking after an amazing journey, and it was a genuinely breathtaking sight. I recall thinking, “I must be present.” The rest is history!
