top of page

Mark Dranias

CEO
Asheville Institute for Memory and Longevity
Ted-Abernathy.jpeg

Mark Dranias, PhD is CEO of the Asheville Institute for Memory and Longevity (AIML), a nonprofit advancing human-centered technologies that enhance cognition, resilience, and long-term wellbeing. Dr. Dranias brings a cross-disciplinary background spanning biology, data science, and health systems, with over six years of postdoctoral research at institutions including Duke-NUS Medical School and Harvard Medical School, and experience teaching biology and mathematics. His current focus integrates artificial intelligence, biosensing, and systems engineering to develop educational and technological frameworks that promote stability, control, and responsible AI use.

Session from the Speaker

Structuring Computer Science Education Around the Limits of LLMs

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM, June 5

Room 411

Category

Education

Abstract

As AI coding tools become more common, their limitations are becoming clearer. They can generate useful code, but often lose track of goals, drift from requirements, and struggle with complex, multi-step planning. This talk identifies some of the failure modes of large language models and argues that these limitations are likely to remain stable over the next several years. Rather than assuming rapid technical solutions, we focus on teaching strategic and systems-level thinking when working with AI, including how to structure coding sessions and define clear objectives. We propose teaching the engineering of project artifacts that define objectives, constraints, and evaluation criteria as a practical way to guide AI behavior. Drawing on a pilot course being developed at UNC Asheville, the talk outlines how computer science education can be redesigned to prepare students for an AI-assisted, but not fully autonomous, development environment.

Presenters


  • Mark Dranias CEO, Asheville Institute for Memory and Longevity

  • Adam Whitley Assistant Professor of Computer Science, UNCA

bottom of page