Lorena A Barba
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labarba.bsky.social
Lorena A Barba
@labarba.bsky.social
Engineering professor, computational scientist, jazz buff, techie, academic writer & font geek. Faculty director of the GW Open Source Program Office.
https://lorenabarba.com
www.linkedin.com/in/lorenabarba
As Brian Granger said in his keynote: "The Jupyter notebook format is the ideal document for AI."

And if we're going to add AI to computational workflows, we need to preserve the transparency that makes science trustworthy.

Full analysis on LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
#jupytercon #artificialintelligence #multiagentsystems | Lorena A. Barba
𝗝𝘂𝗽𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗜: 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄 𝘈𝘵 𝘑𝘶𝘱𝘺𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘊𝘰𝘯, 𝘐 𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯-𝘈𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. The talk of Abigayle Mercer and Zach Sailer blew my mind. Having re-watched thei...
www.linkedin.com
November 30, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Current multi-agent frameworks (LangChain, AutoGen) orchestrate agents in the background.
User prompts → agents debate invisibly → result appears.
Jupyter AI makes agent coordination transparent. Human-in-the-loop, all the way down.
November 30, 2025 at 6:36 PM
This respects what #Jupyter actually is: a medium for dialogue. Not a REPL with a GUI. Not an IDE with a chatbot bolted on. A conversational space where humans negotiate truth through computing.
November 30, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Here's the genius: they're using @jupyter.org's Real-Time Collaboration (RTC) protocol—originally designed for humans—as the rail for AI interaction.

AI agents get cursors and chat privileges, just like human collaborators. They just "enter the chat" when needed.
November 30, 2025 at 6:35 PM
In the demo: a Code-Cell-Editor agent encountered a statistics problem. It knows its limitations, so it @-mentioned a Statistician persona. The handoff happened visibly in the notebook—not in some hidden backend.

The model is agents are teammates, not black boxes.
November 30, 2025 at 6:35 PM
If you use AI daily, you know "chat fatigue":
prompt ➡ wait ➡ read ➡ re-prompt ➡ repeat

Constantly context-switching between your work and a chat sidebar. Jupyter AI's new direction avoids this entirely.
November 30, 2025 at 6:34 PM
The serious conversations about pedagogical approaches that harness AI productively rather than making human learning obsolete 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘺𝘦𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨! How are other educators navigating this?

🎥 Check out this short video demo—and I'm curious to hear your thoughts:
youtu.be/6q5CtXD5koY
Comet Assistant in Jupyter: First Impression of the Agentic Browser
YouTube video by Lorena Barba
youtu.be
September 26, 2025 at 8:51 PM
We're facing a 𝘄𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲: motivating genuine learning when the tools have become this capable. Assignments should help critical thinking rather than just testing procedural knowledge. But the pace and the scale of the changes required are 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴.
September 26, 2025 at 8:50 PM
What I witnessed:

– The AI assistant analyzed the entire Jupyter notebook
– Executed code cells autonomously
– Wrote proper NumPy functions
– Solved exercises completely
– Even explained its reasoning

All faster than students could read the problem statement.
September 26, 2025 at 8:49 PM
This raises a critical question: Are certain genres of scholarly work—especially simple literature reviews or trend summaries—no longer valuable as original scholarship? It's time for academia to rethink what we consider "original."

What do you think? #PeerReview
September 13, 2025 at 9:29 PM
The paper's abstract promised a "review of key trends" in AI for engineering education.
My reasoning for immediate rejection: anyone can generate this with a single, well-crafted prompt. I tested it in Gemini 2.5 Pro, and the results were stunningly good and likely similar to the submitted article.
September 13, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Bonus:
In support of my statement in highlight 1), above, you need to see this video by Prof. Giordano Scarciotti of Imperial College London (posted May 10, 2025):
youtu.be/lSbnMBb6INA
Can ChatGPT Pass a Top-Tier Engineering Coursework?
YouTube video by Prof. Giordano Scarciotti
youtu.be
August 14, 2025 at 7:03 PM
7) Beware wearables: Smart glasses can photograph exam questions and get live AI answers. Your syllabus needs wearables policies NOW.

Bottom line: Students will use AI anyway. Let's redesign courses to help them thrive with it.

Full piece: doi.org/10.6084/m9.f...
8/8
Colleagues: what to know about AI as you plan your Fall 2025 courses
This is an incomplete list of major developments and items to consider about the state of generative artificial intelligence, as we approach the Fall 2025 semester. My goal is simply to bring to your ...
doi.org
August 14, 2025 at 6:53 PM
6) The AI polarity: It can amplify learning OR create cognitive laziness. The difference is in how we design assignments and teach usage. How might you design for active AI use and promote user patterns that result in positive outcomes?
7/8
August 14, 2025 at 6:53 PM
5) AI is much more than chat. It's autonomous agents doing research, filling forms, completing coursework. One prompt = entire literature review. Will you change expectations of what students do in your class?
6/8
August 14, 2025 at 6:53 PM
4) Entry-level jobs were down 15% in 2024, and unemployment for new grads hit 4-year high this year. Meanwhile, companies now require AI use in their teams, and are conducting AI-enabled job interviews. Are we preparing students for this?
5/8
August 14, 2025 at 6:52 PM
3) Students perceive that they know AI better than faculty (they're probably right). This gap is creating stress and missed opportunities for everyone. What are you going to do about this?
4/8
August 14, 2025 at 6:52 PM
2) ChatGPT now has "Study Mode" and Gemini has "Guided Learning"—both promise Socratic tutoring versus immediate answers. But will students choose the hard path when instant answers are a click away? (They can turn Study mode on/off!) 🤔
3/8
August 14, 2025 at 6:52 PM
1) Google just gave all US college students free access to Gemini Pro. They just need an .edu email for verification. This means validity of your take-home assignments is cooked: Gemini can do complex work for students and they don't need to think…
2/8
August 14, 2025 at 6:51 PM