AI-assistant tutor in the subject of general topology for undergraduate students

Problem

The subject of general topology is often taught rather late in undergraduate mathematics courses, despite its extreme usefulness in the study of virtually every other field in mathematics. In fact, being such a fundamental part of modern mathematics, many topological principles are often used by individuals in other scientific fields or even engineering without their realizing. Thus, it is not surprising that even students from such fields might have some interest in learning the fundamentals of topology.

Yet, and the same is true for undergraduate mathematics students early in their course, they are likely to struggle with how abstract general topology may be in comparison to anything they've studied before.

Solution

In an effort to help students through the inicial hurdle of studying highly abstract concepts that require a high degree of mathematical rigor, we've developed via a carefully designed prompt an AI-tutor assistant in ChatGPT that can answer the students about any concepts in general topology that they may be struggling to properly grasp. This tool can be interacted with via the following link: https://chatgpt.com/share/671946a1-8fc0-8004-b1b4-9f16b77e5fea

Impact

After testing and evaluation by the members of the team, we've determined the tool to be potentially helpful for students of the target audience, but possessed of the fundamental flaw of being inconsistent in generating examples that are logically sound and correct.

Team

• Leonardo Domingues do Amaral - Prompt Design

  • Developed the AI-tutor assistant tool

• Caio Diniz Santana, Matheus Felipe Santos da Penha - Testing

  • Provided testing and feedback