The Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida (ASEMFL) has named two Florida State University faculty members part of its 2024 class of “Rising Stars.”

The Rising Star Awards honor researchers whose contributions to their field show great potential for meeting future challenges. Ken Hanson, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, and Daniel Hallinan, associate professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, were recognized at the organization’s annual meeting on Nov. 1-2 in Orlando.

Hanson studies the design, synthesis and characterization of molecules that absorb and emit light. His research group develops these new molecules for use in specific applications, such as solar cells, photomechanical polymers, photocatalysis and sensors. Recent work includes research into the impact and control of structures at organic-inorganic interfaces and the detection of artificial intelligence use on multiple-choice chemistry exams.

“It is an honor to be included on a list with such outstanding researchers from Florida universities,” Hanson said. “I also really appreciate the efforts of the ASEMFL to increase the visibility and impact of the research being conducted in Florida and I can only hope to continue to impact and support such efforts.”

Hallinan researches polymers at the nanoscale and electrolytes — substances that conduct electricity through the movement of ions, but not through the movement of electrons. His work has applications in developing new materials for lithium-ion batteries, advancing polymer membranes for sustainable energy technologies and other uses.

“It is quite an honor to have my research recognized by National Academy Members, who are the greatest minds in science, engineering and medicine,” Hallinan said. “This award is a motivational boost to redouble my efforts to answer novel questions, to discover new materials for greater energy sustainability and to continue training the next generation of engineers in research excellence.”

Hanson and Hallinan are among 19 faculty members honored this year by ASEMFL as rising stars. Other faculty come from Palm Beach Atlantic University, University of Florida, University of Miami, University of North Florida, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida International University, University of Central Florida and University of South Florida.

“ASEMFL recognizes the importance of new investigators whose work shows great promise in addressing critical issues towards ensuring the growth and success in its mission,” says Angela Laird, the ASEMFL secretary and a Distinguished University Professor at Florida International University. “These Rising Stars have made significant contributions to science, engineering and medicine and are on the cusp of consideration for full membership in ASEMFL. Through the Rising Stars program, ASEMFL hopes to engage with mid-career researchers more actively throughout the State of Florida, anticipating that these individuals will provide valuable insight for how to grow the society and ensure its continued relevance for current and future generations.”

The academy also inducted Professor of Nursing Lisa Hightow-Weidman, Professor of Physics Stephen Hill and Professor of Physics Laura Reina into this year’s class of ASEMFL members.

ASEMFL was established in 2018 to support science, engineering and medical research in Florida. The organization works to inform Floridians of current and future science, engineering and medicine issues and address associated challenges. The organization provides unbiased expertise for issues that concern the state and helps facilitate scientific interactions.

To be selected for membership, faculty must live or work in Florida and be a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, or be nominated by an ASEMFL member and have an outstanding record of accomplishments and recognition.

Visit asemfl.org for more information about the organization.

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As use of generative artificial intelligence continues to extend into all reaches of education, much of the concern related to its impact on cheating has focused on essays, essay exam questions and other narrative assignments. Use of AI tools such as ChatGPT to cheat on multiple-choice exams has largely gone ignored.

A Florida State University chemist is half of a research partnership whose latest work is changing what we know about this type of cheating, and their findings have revealed how the use of ChatGPT to cheat on general chemistry multiple-choice exams can be detected through specific statistical methods. The work was published in Journal of Chemical Education.

“While many educators and researchers try to detect AI assisted cheating in essays and open-ended responses, such as Turnitin AI detection, as far as we know, this is the first time anyone has proposed detecting its use on multiple-choice exams,” said Ken Hanson, an associate professor in the FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.  “By evaluating differences in performances between student- and ChatGPT-based multiple-choice chemistry exams, we were able to identify ChatGPT instances across all exams with a false positive rate of almost zero.”

Researchers collected previous FSU student responses from five semesters worth of exams, input nearly 1,000 questions into ChatGPT and compared the outcomes. Average score and raw statistics were not enough to identify ChatGPT-like behavior because there are certain questions that ChatGPT always answered correctly or always answered incorrectly resulting in an overall score that was indistinguishable from students.

“That’s the thing about ChatGPT – it can generate content, but it doesn’t necessarily generate correct content,” Hanson said. “It’s simply an answer generator. It’s trying to look like it knows the answer, and to someone who doesn’t understand the material, it probably does look like a correct answer.”

By using fit statistics, researchers fixed the ability parameters and refit the outcomes, finding ChatGPT’s response pattern was clearly different from that of the students.

On exams, high-performing students frequently answer difficult and easy questions correctly, while average students tend to answer some difficult questions and most easy questions correctly. Low-performing students typically only answer easy questions correctly. But on repeated attempts by ChatGPT to complete an exam, the AI tool sometimes answered every easier question incorrectly and every hard question correctly. Hanson and Sorenson used these behavior differences to detect the use of ChatGPT with almost 100-percent accuracy.

The duo’s strategy of employing a technique known as Rasch modeling and fit statistics can be readily applied to any and all generative AI chat bots, which will exhibit their own unique patterns to help educators identify the use of these chat bots in completing multiple-choice exams.

The research is the latest publication in a seven-year collaboration between Hanson and machine learning engineer Ben Sorenson.

Hanson and Sorenson, who first met in third grade, both attended St. Cloud State University in Minnesota for their undergraduate degrees and stayed in touch after moving into their careers. As a faculty member at FSU, Hanson became curious about measuring how much knowledge his students retained from lectures, courses and lab work.

“This was a conversation that I brought to Ben, who’s great with statistics, computer science and data processing,” said Hanson, who is part of a group of FSU faculty working to improve student success in gateway STEM courses such as general chemistry and college algebra. “He said we could use statistical tools to understand if my exams are good, and in 2017, we started analyzing exams.”

The core of this Rasch model is that a student’s probability of getting any test question correct is a function of two things: how difficult the question is and the student’s ability to answer the question. In this case, a student’s ability refers to how much knowledge they have and how many of the necessary components are needed to answer the question they have. Viewing the outcomes of an exam in this way provides powerful insights, researchers said.

“The collaboration between Ken and I, though remote, has been a really seamless, smooth process,” Sorenson said. “Our work is a great way to provide supporting evidence when educators might already suspect that cheating may be happening. What we didn’t expect was that the patterns of artificial intelligence would be so easy to identify.”

Hanson earned his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Southern California in 2010 and completed a postdoctoral position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before joining FSU’s chemistry faculty in 2013. His lab, the Hanson Research Group, focuses on molecular photochemistry and photophysics, or the study of light — photons — and light’s interaction with molecules. Hanson, a member of the American Chemical Society, has published more than 100 papers and holds over a dozen patents.

To learn more about Hanson’s research and the FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, visit chem.fsu.edu.

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Two Florida State University chemistry doctoral graduates are among the recipients of one of the most prestigious and highly competitive fellowships awarded to postdoctoral researchers studying chemical sciences and instrumentation.

Ashley Arcidiacono and James Law, two recent doctoral graduates from FSU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, part of the College of Arts and Sciences, have received Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowships to continue their respective research.

“The fellowship gives us the freedom to really push the boundaries of scientific knowledge,” Arcidiacono said. “Not only does it celebrate our prior contributions, but it also facilitates the next step in our careers by financially supporting the research costs associated with pursuing high-risk, high-reward scientific endeavors.”

The Beckman Fellowship program — named for Arnold O. Beckman, a revolutionary of the invention and development of chemical instrumentation and founder of Beckman Instruments — provides salary and research support to postdoctoral researchers pursuing groundbreaking areas of study in chemical instrumentation and chemical sciences.

Sixteen fellows were selected from hundreds of applicants, with each fellow receiving $224,000 over two years for salary, benefits and research expenditures. Instrumentation fellows receive an additional one-time amount of up to $200,000 to cover equipment costs. Arcidiacono and Law join 130 others who have received the award since the fellowship program’s inception in 1991 and are the second and third recipients from FSU.

Arcidiacono, who graduated with her doctorate in spring 2023, is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago, where she is using spectroscopic instrumentation to monitor color changes or light emitted from a sample under the mentorship of chemistry professor Sarah King. The goal of the work is to understand and control processes that occur after a material absorbs light, and the resulting insights can be applied to improving the performance of solar energy conversion devices, biosensors and even quantum computing.

“Ashley is relentless in pursuit of her goals,” said Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Ken Hanson, who advised Arcidiacono at FSU. “While many students shy away from work outside of their comfort zone, she takes on every challenge in the lab from making molecules to performing ultrafast measurements that were necessary to pursue her science.”

Arcidiacono worked within the Hanson Research Group, which studies light-absorbing and light-emitting molecules and applies the work to areas including solar energy conversion and photo-assisted catalysis.

Law, who earned his doctorate in 2022, worked in the Frederich Lab, led by Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry James Frederich, studying synthetic chemistry at the intersection of biology, chemistry and medicine.

Law currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where his work involves developing new catalytic methods to selectively build chiral molecules, sometimes called right- or left-handed molecules, using asymmetric catalysis. The goal is to prepare a specific molecular handedness that is difficult or impossible to create using current techniques.

“Controlling the 3-D structure of molecules remains a substantial challenge in synthetic chemistry,” Law said. “My research involves developing highly selective reactions which facilitate the direct generation of chiral molecules using abundant precursors, like alkenes and ketones via reactions with copper catalysts.”

These new reactions can be used to generate specific molecules for use in pharmaceuticals, fragrances, food additives and more.

“James is one of the most enthusiastic young scientists I have had the opportunity to work with,” Frederich said. “He’s deeply curious about all areas of science and especially adept at identifying difficult problems. He’s also an outstanding team player, easy to work with, and one of the most trustworthy individuals I know.”

The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, founded in 1978, supports U.S. institutions and young scientists whose creative, high-risk and interdisciplinary research will lead to innovations and new tools and methods for scientific discovery.

For more information about the 2023 Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship awardees, visit beckman-foundation.org.

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