Foundation models (FMs) have emerged as a powerful paradigm, enabling a diverse range of data analytics and knowledge discovery tasks across scientific fields. Inspired by the success of FMs, particularly large language models, researchers have recently begun to explore spatio-temporal foundation models (STFMs) to improve adaptability and generalization across a wide spectrum of spatio-temporal (ST) tasks. Despite rapid progress, a systematic investigation of trajectory foundation models (TFMs), a crucial subclass of STFMs, is largely lacking. This tutorial addresses this gap by offering a comprehensive overview of recent advances in TFMs, including a taxonomy of existing methodologies and a critical analysis of their strengths and limitations. In addition, the tutorial highlights open challenges and outlines promising research directions to advance spatio-temporal general intelligence through the development of robust, responsible, and transferable TFMs.

Scientific reasoning through Large Language Models in heliophysics involves more than just recalling facts: it requires incorporating physical assumptions, maintaining consistent units, and providing clear scientific formats through coordinated approaches. To address these challenges, we present Reasoning With a Star, a newly contributed heliophysics dataset applicable to reasoning; we also provide an initial benchmarking approach. Our data are constructed from National Aeronautics and Space Administration & University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Living With a Star summer school problem sets and compiled into a readily consumable question-and-answer structure with question contexts, reasoning steps, expected answer type, ground-truth targets, format hints, and metadata. A programmatic grader checks the predictions using unit-aware numerical tolerance, symbolic equivalence, and schema validation. We benchmark a single-shot baseline and four multi-agent patterns, finding that decomposing workflows through systems engineering principles outperforms direct prompting on problems requiring deductive reasoning rather than pure inductive recall.

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into video lecture production has the potential to transform higher education by streamlining content creation and enhancing accessibility. This paper investigates a semi -automated workflow that combines Google Gemini for script generation, Amazon Polly for voice synthesis, and Microsoft PowerPoint for video assembly. Unlike fully automated text -to -video platforms, this hybrid approach preserves pedagogical intent while ensuring script -slide synchronization, narrative coherence, and customization. Case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of Gemini in generating accurate and context - sensitive scripts for visually rich academic presentations, while Polly provides natural - sounding narration with controllable pac ing. A two-course pilot study was conducted to evaluate AI -generated instructional videos (AIIV) against human instructional videos (HIV). Both qualitative and quantitative results indicate that AIIVs are comparable to HIVs in terms of learning outcomes, w ith students reporting high levels of clarity, coherence, and usability. However, limitations remain, particularly regarding audio quality and the absence of human - like avatars. The findings suggest that AI - assisted video production can reduce instructor workload, improve scalability, and deliver effective learning resources, while future improvements in synthetic voices and avatars may further enhance learner engagement.

The growth of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) presents significant challenges for personalized learning, where concept recommendation is crucial. Existing approaches typically rely on heterogeneous information networks or knowledge graphs to capture conceptual relationships, combined with knowledge tracing models to assess learners' cognitive states. However, these methods face significant limitations due to their dependence on high-quality structured knowledge graphs, which are often scarce in real-world educational scenarios. To address this fundamental challenge, this paper proposes CLLMRec, a novel framework that leverages Large Language Models through two synergistic technical pillars: Semantic Alignment and Prerequisite Knowledge Distillation. The Semantic Alignment component constructs a unified representation space by encoding unstructured textual descriptions of learners and concepts. The Prerequisite Knowledge Distillation paradigm employs a teacher-student architecture, where a large teacher LLM (implemented as the Prior Knowledge Aware Component) extracts conceptual prerequisite relationships from its internalized world knowledge and distills them into soft labels to train an efficient student ranker. Building upon these foundations, our framework incorporates a fine-ranking mechanism that explicitly models learners' real-time cognitive states through deep knowledge tracing, ensuring recommendations are both structurally sound and cognitively appropriate. Extensive experiments on two real-world MOOC datasets demonstrate that CLLMRec significantly outperforms existing baseline methods across multiple evaluation metrics, validating its effectiveness in generating truly cognitive-aware and personalized concept recommendations without relying on explicit structural priors.

Foundation models are transformative in artificial intelligence, but building them from scratch, especially for mobility trajectories, is not yet clear or documented. This tutorial bridges this gap by demonstrating the steps and code of a minimal implementation of a trajectory-focused foundation model starting from GPT-2. Through a concise, step-by-step, code-driven process, we demonstrate adapting GPT-2 for spatiotemporal data. We then review and compare representative trajectory foundation models, such as TrajFM and TrajGPT, highlighting their architectural innovations and differences. Additionally, we introduce complementary techniques from related domains, like TimesFM's patching approach. Targeted at researchers and practitioners, this tutorial aims to explain the concepts and terminology of foundation models, at the implementation level. We find it timely and indispensable to create this educational material in order to support the SIGSPATIAL community in building and evaluating mobility foundation models, enhancing both research clarity and peer-review effectiveness in mobility AI.

Message passing neural networks (MPNNs) have emerged as go-to models for learning on graph-structured data in the past decade. Despite their effectiveness, most of such models still incur severe issues such as over-smoothing and -correlation, due to their underlying objective of minimizing the Dirichlet energy and the derived neighborhood aggregation operations. In this paper, we propose the DDSM, a new MPNN model built on an optimization framework that includes the stress majorization and orthogonal regularization for overcoming the above issues. Further, we introduce the diffusion distances for nodes into the framework to guide the new message passing operations and develop efficient algorithms for distance approximations, both backed by rigorous theoretical analyses. Our comprehensive experiments showcase that DDSM consistently and considerably outperforms 15 strong baselines on both homophilic and heterophilic graphs.

Educational simulations have long been recognized as powerful tools for enhancing learning outcomes, yet their creation has traditionally required substantial resources and technical expertise. This paper introduces MicroSims a novel framework for creating lightweight, interactive educational simulations that can be rapidly generated using artificial intelligence, universally embedded across digital learning platforms, and easily customized without programming knowledge. MicroSims occupy a unique position at the intersection of three key innovations: (1) standardized design patterns that enable AI-assisted generation, (2) iframe-based architecture that provides universal embedding and sandboxed security, and (3) transparent, modifiable code that supports customization and pedagogical transparency. We present a comprehensive framework encompassing design principles, technical architecture, metadata standards, and development workflows. Drawing on empirical research from physics education studies and meta-analyses across STEM disciplines, we demonstrate that interactive simulations can improve conceptual understanding by up to 30-40\% compared to traditional instruction. MicroSims extend these benefits while addressing persistent barriers of cost, technical complexity, and platform dependence. This work has significant implications for educational equity, and low-cost intelligent interactive textbooks that enabling educators worldwide to create customized, curriculum-aligned simulations on demand. We discuss implementation considerations, present evidence of effectiveness, and outline future directions for AI-powered adaptive learning systems built on the MicroSim foundation.

Although CS programs are booming, introductory courses like CS1 still adopt a one-size-fits-all formats that can exacerbate cognitive load and discourage learners with autism, ADHD, dyslexia and other neurological conditions. These call for compassionate pedagogies and Universal Design For Learning (UDL) to create learning environments and materials where cognitive diversity is welcomed. To address this, we introduce DiverseClaire a pilot study, which simulates students including neurodiverse profiles using LLMs and diverse personas. By leveraging Bloom's Taxonomy and UDL, DiverseClaire compared UDL-transformed lecture slides with traditional formats. To evaluate DiverseClaire controlled experiments, we used the evaluation metric the average score. The findings revealed that the simulated neurodiverse students struggled with learning due to lecture slides that were in inaccessible formats. These results highlight the need to provide course materials in multiple formats for diverse learner preferences. Data from our pilot study will be made available to assist future CS1 instructors.

The adaptation of teaching slides to instructors' situated teaching needs, including pedagogical styles and their students' context, is a critical yet time-consuming task for educators. Through a series of educator interviews, we first identify and systematically categorize the key friction points that impede this adaptation process. Grounded in these findings, we introduce a novel multi-agent framework designed to automate slide adaptation based on high-level instructor specifications. An evaluation involving 16 modification requests across 8 real-world courses validates our approach. The framework's output consistently achieved high scores in intent alignment, content coherence and factual accuracy, and performed on par with baseline methods regarding visual clarity, while also demonstrating appropriate timeliness and a high operational agreement with human experts, achieving an F1 score of 0.89. This work heralds a new paradigm where AI agents handle the logistical burdens of instructional design, liberating educators to focus on the creative and strategic aspects of teaching.

Organizations are rapidly adopting Large Language Models (LLMs) to transform their operations, yet they lack clear guidance on key decisions for adoption and implementation. While LLMs offer powerful capabilities in content generation, assisted coding, and process automation, businesses face critical challenges in data security, LLM solution development approach, infrastructure requirements, and deployment strategies. Healthcare providers must protect patient data while leveraging LLMs for medical analysis, financial institutions need to balance automated customer service with regulatory compliance, and software companies seek to enhance development productivity while maintaining code security. This article presents a systematic six-step decision framework for LLM adoption, helping organizations navigate from initial application selection to final deployment. Based on extensive interviews and analysis of successful and failed implementations, our framework provides practical guidance for business leaders to align technological capabilities with business objectives. Through key decision points and real-world examples from both B2B and B2C contexts, organizations can make informed decisions about LLM adoption while ensuring secure and efficient integration across various use cases, from customer service automation to content creation and advanced analytics.