Diego Zapata-Rivera is distinguished presidential appointee in the ETS Research Institute. He earned a Ph.D. in computer science, with a focus on AI in education, from the University of Saskatchewan in 2003. His research at ETS has focused on the areas of innovations in reporting assessment results and technology-enhanced assessment including work on personalized learning and assessment environments, conversation-based assessment, caring assessment, and game-based assessment.
Diego has produced over 150 publications including edited volumes, journal articles, book chapters, and technical papers. He has served as a reviewer for several international conferences and journals. He has been a committee member and organizer of international conferences and workshops in his research areas. He was elected as a member of the International AI in Education Society Executive Committee (2022–2027). He is a co-PI and research co-director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) AI INVITE Institute, was the PI of the methods and measurement project funded by EF+Math (2019–2023), and was an IEEE Education Society distinguished lecturer (2024–2025).
He is a member of the Editorial Board of User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, an associate editor for the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, AI for Human Learning and Behavior Change, and a former associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies Journal. He has been invited to contribute his expertise to projects sponsored by the National Research Council, the NSF, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the US Army Research Laboratory.
Last updated: 2/5/2026