Ascend Learning is pleased to announce the recipient of the first Graduate Student Research Award, provided to Saed Qunbar from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

“We are proud to co-sponsor the ATP conference student scholarship. We believe in the learning and assessment sciences profession and continue to advocate for adult education and continuous learning while opening doors to help people achieve their career goals,” said Ascend Learning Chief Measurement Officer and Co-chair of the ATP, Jerry Gorham. We found students were not easily able to attend the conference due to cost and location. This scholarship was established to empower a student pursuing cutting-edge technology to showcase their research at the conference and to open doors for young talent to pursue this profession,” said Gorham.

Saed received a paid trip and registration to the ATP Innovations in Testing conference. In addition, he also received a mentoring session with the Ascend Learning research and development director, Chris Mills, who provided him with professional support in navigating the conference, presentation coaching and career networking opportunities.

Saed will present on Tuesday, March 19 from 4:15-5:15 pm at the ATP conference in Orlando, Florida. He will present his topic titled, “Building Personalized High-stakes Assessments with Recommender Systems” which discusses the advancements in recommender system technology and the opportunity it creates in the testing industry to personalize a wide range of assessment and learning instruments.

This new scholarship, which will also be announced at this year’s conference, kicks off an effort within ATP to recognize the importance of educating, caring for and lifting up future professionals, interns and students in testing.

For more information on the conference or the recipient’s research, visit www.innovationsintesting.org.