AI + Hector Education Future Fund

The ELLIS Institute Tübingen and the Hector Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology are delighted to announce the initiation of the Hector AI + Education Future Fund, a transformative initiative uniting artificial intelligence (AI) and educational research to develop practical, ethical, and accessible solutions for schools and learners. The Fund is supported by a €6.2 million grant from the H.W. & J. Hector Foundation. This project is supported by the Tübingen AI Center as well as the Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems.

The ELLIS Institute Tübingen is involved with the following projects, all lead by Principal Investigator Wieland Brendel:

1. Compass – The Comprehensive Open Math Platform with Adaptive Self-Regulation Support reimagines the popular “MatheBattle” platform. As an open-source, adaptive learning tool, it integrates self-regulation prompts and AI-driven tutoring features to bolster autonomous learning in mathematics.
    
2. VOILA – A voice-operated, open-source intelligent tutor for gifted primary-aged children. Designed to spark curiosity and support discovery learning across scientific topics, VOILA tailors interactions with prompts, hints, and scaffolded guidance.
    

Supporting Research: Ethics, Rights, and Implementation

To ensure responsible deployment and sustainable impact, three integrated research strands accompany these innovation projects:

• Ethics – Developing guidelines for transparent and consent-based use of AI chatbots in educational settings.

• Rights – Evaluating AI in education through fundamental rights under EU law, including data protection, non-discrimination, and human dignity.

• Implementation – Investigating barriers and enablers of deploying AI innovations in real educational environments.

Local and Collaborative Synergies

The initiative is deeply embedded in Tübingen’s broader research ecosystem, involving:

• University of Tübingen
  • Tübingen AI Center
  • Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology and LEAD network
• Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media (IWM)
• Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems
• Computational Health Center at Helmholtz Munich
• Pädagogische Hochschule Ludwigsburg
• ELLIS Institute Tübingen

 

Members