Listen to my voice message.

Dr. Yoshii received her Ph.D. Degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Before she joined the Department, she was a project leader at Rockwell and a research staff member for the Northrop Research and Technology Center, and then returned to UCI as a researcher for the Educational Technology Center and a lecturer for the ICS department. She joined the Computer Science Department at CSUSM in 1993. She is a U.S. citizen. And she is a proud graduate of the local Point Loma High School (Go Pointers!!)

• She is the Student-Industry and Alumni Event Coordinator for CS.
• She is a BLP co-chair (Meetings Tuesdays 1-2:15pm).
• She is on the University's Space Advisory Group.
• She is a co-Chair of Long Range Academic Master Planning group.
• She is on the Strategic Enrollment Planning Steering group.
• Current projects she is passionate about:
  • Removing math anxiety, improving math preparation.
  • Solving social/emotional problems among young people via Cognitive and Brain Science
  • Promoting awareness of the effects of technology in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution!

All lectures, notes, and assignments are available in Canvas.

Use my Visualizers to learn C++.

Email me anytime about anything! 

I do not write recommendation letters unless you did a special project with me!

Goal: Create intelligent tutoring systems that make use of visual reasoning models

Current projects:

• Develop an intelligent tutor to help people with Asperger's.
• INTEGRATE the Visualizers into A TUTOR TO LEAN PROGRAMMING.

Completed systems:

• Authoring Tools for Creating Conversational Tutoring Systems (Tutor Writer and TWIGy)
• Reasoning Tool for Helping ESL students Learn Non-Countable Noun (DeCEN)
• Diagrammatic Reasoning Tool for Helping ESL Students Learn Articles (DaRT and ItsLEADR)
• Web-based Tutorial Software (For CSIS: Visualizers and LLV Tutor; ESL Verb Tutor, Japanese Tutor) available at my personal page on research interest and system demos.
• Emotion Detection Training Systems for ASD using Machine Learning (facial, voice, text)

My past and present graduate students:

•    Wu and Miao - Script Editor authoring tool for PC
•    Rosenthal - Script Editor authoring tool with student data on a server
•    Li - Semantic Reasoning Model for Learning Programming
•    Slott - Tutor Writer authoring tool for Java-applet based tutors
•    Pasrija - TWIGy10 GUI front-end to the Tutor Writer (Java Swing)
•    Jongsuksawas - TWIGy11 GUI front-end to the Tutor Writer (Java)
•    Bruck and Hernadez - ItsLEADR Student Modeling for ESL tutors (C++)
•    Castillo - Visualizing C++ effect on linked lists (C++)
•    Kale - LLV Tutor for visualizing C++ effect on linked lists (PHP+MySQL+C++)
•    Pandian - Enhanced version of the LLV tutor for C++
•    Anton - Machine Learning to build a Student Model for ITS - Asperger's (facial)
•    Thirukkonda - Machine Learning to build a Student Model for ITS - Asperger's (sentiment)
•    Gupta - Machine Learning to Build a Student Model for ITS - Asperger's (voice)
•    Bernabe - ITS for Asperger's (facial expression)
•   Omyanbu - ITS for Asperger's (sentiment analysis)
•   Ho (undergraduate) -  as part of the Cal-Bridge program - ITS for Asperger's
•   Mehkarkar - Machine Learning to produce appropriate responses - ITS for Asperger's
•   Yuki Tagawa - ITS for Mob Programming
•   Chris Martin - ITS for Mob Programming

Undergraduate Resarch 

• Visualizers (Vu, Ocampo, Tang, Evans, Gullickson)
• Japanese (Mutuc, Nguyen)
• Animation (Kim, Uva, Zubaidi)
• Programming Tutor (Lopez, Diettle,Wei, Kinney, Ferrel)

Publications

• 8 publications in Natural Language Processing.
• 22 papers in Tutoring Systems; 3 others in Tutoring Systems.

• Developed and taught at CSUSM: CS441 Software Engineering, CS513 Analysis of Algorithms, CS553 Compilers, CS421 Theory of Computing, CS577 Intelligent Tutoring Systems, CS579 Software Engineering Techniques for Computer Aided Instruction, CS303 Social and Organizational Impacts of Computing (GE/DD), CS590 Research and Publishing in CS (GWAR class), CS307 Useful Computer Algorithms for Problem Solving (GE/BB), CS500 Research Preparation in Computer Science (new), CS310 Social Issues and Professional Practices in Computing (new).

  Re-designed and taught at CSUSM: CS311 Data Structures and Algorithms, CS471 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, CS571 Artificial Intelligence (online), CS542 Design Patterns (online), CS551 Advanced Programming Languages, CS301 Computer Mastery, CS111 Computer Science I and labs, CS211 Computer Science II and labs, CS112 Introduction to Computing I, CS212 Introduction to Computing II, CS101 Critical Thinking with Computers (CT/CCR).

Fall23: teaching  CS471, CS311.      Summers:  CS311 or CS310.  Coordinating CS310 sections.

When I was in high school, I used to write 3 songs a day, mostly pop and soft rock. I was influenced greatly by the Beatles and Elton John. It was very difficult and time consuming to write music (I mean the notation). Then, one day, I read in the LA Times about a computer program that could help us compose music. Without knowing much about Computer Science, I decided to be a CS major. I worked for a short period of time with a professor at UC Irvine, who had a project to generate simple songs. It was just too simple. I have not given up on writing a program to generate the top 10 hits!!! But as a graduate student, I became more interested in the computer's power to undertand natural languages. I wanted to see if the machine could help solve international communication problems by automatically translating one language into another. Thus, I chose this topic for my Ph.D. dissertation. I feel that you don't have to be a hack or a technical genius to be in Computer Science. We can utilize the power of this fascinating machine to make human lives better through Arts, Humanities, Sociology, and Medicine.

Why I am a Teacher:
I had one wonderful teacher in elementary school Ms. Mizugami who truly believed in my talents, encouraged me and gave me confidence. When I wrote to her upon receiving my college degree, she still remembered me. Then in this country, so many teachers (Ms. Woodward is one of them) in junior high and high school gave me support and encouragement to a girl who arrived here without knowing a word of English. They never said one word of criticism. All I heard were compliments and support. This was completely different from Japan. Even in college, teachers such as Dr. Standish and Dr. Bork gave me unconditional support and guidance. They have changed my life forever. Without them I could not have made it here today. That's why I am a teacher today. And so many students here and at UCI have made me very glad that I chose to be a teacher. Being able to touch their lives and seeing them become successful and happy - that is the greatest reward. It is much much more important than money. I have only one advice for my students and other young people. Believe in yourself and find something you truly want to do. Then you will be able to attain that goal as long as you are willing to keep on working at it and wanting it more than anything else. Don't ever doubt yourself!

Lifetime Goals

• Improve Educational Systems
• Help People Learn a Second Language (ESL)
• Improve Communication with Dogs