On Thursday 21st of May, the Computer Laboratory and the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge jointly hosted The Human in the Loop: Human–AI Collaboration in Language Assessment, a symposium bringing together researchers, practitioners, and industry experts to examine the evolving role of AI in language assessment and what it means to keep humans meaningfully involved.
The event drew 219 registrants from over 30 countries, both in person and online, and featured 16 poster presentations alongside four invited talks from leading voices across the field: Dr. Mark Brenchley (Cambridge University Press & Assessment), Dr. Sha Liu (British Council), Dr. Chanjin Zheng (East China Normal University), and Dr. Carla Pastorino (Cambridge University Press & Assessment). Together, they offered perspectives spanning psychometrics, applied linguistics, industry practice, and international assessment, reflecting the genuinely cross-disciplinary spirit the organisers set out to foster.
The afternoon closed with a collaborative contribution from the Cambridge University EdTech Society, who transformed a research presentation into an interactive 3D demo — a creative glimpse at new possibilities for academic knowledge exchange.
The symposium was organised by Hongyi Yang (Faculty of Education) and Gabrielle Gaudeau (Department of Computer Science and Technology), with support from publicity, social, and session chairs, and the guidance of Dr. Andrew Caines.
A selection of materials from the symposium, including the poster presentations, is available on the event webpage.
We are grateful to the Cambridge Language Sciences Workshop Fund and ai@cam, through the project Improving Language Equity and Inclusion through AI (EQUILL), whose support made this event possible.