William Romine, Ph.D.
Dr. Romine is co-Director of the Data Science for Healthcare (DASH) Lab. Dr. Romine's research focuses on measurement of human performance in the context of the learning and health sciences. Dr. Romine and his students employ Rasch models, wearable sensors, and text mining to understand how we learn and make decisions about science-related topics. Dr. Romine’s current research focuses on development of a sensor-based application for automated monitoring of cognitive flow, mental effort, and fatigue which is derived from consumer off the shelf wearables. Dr. Romine also works with teams around the world to develop strategies for measuring higher-order thinking constructs, including argumentation and socioscientific reasoning, within innovative science education contexts. Dr. Romine’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Education, and the Institute of Educational Sciences. He is currently serving as Associate Editor for the Journal of Research in Science Teaching. Dr. Romine's research program supports diverse experiences for students at all academic levels. These experiences prepare students for data science positions in both academic and industry.
Education History
- University of Missouri, 2008-2011, PhD Curriculum and Instruction, Adviser: Lloyd Barrow
- University of Missouri, 2006-2008, MS Geology, Adviser: Alan Whittington
- Truman State University, 2003-2005, MA Science Education, Adviser: John Hoffmann
- Truman State University, 1999-2003, BA Physics
Teaching
UH 4000: Philosophy of Science Inquiry
BIO 1120: Cells and Genes
BIO 7000: Principles of Instruction in the Biological Sciences
BIO 3700: Bioethics
PTX 7000: Biostatistics for Health Professionals
BIO 1070: Human Health and Disease
BIO 6020/CS 6900: Empirical Analysis
BIO 6920: Senior Seminar: Science and Fake News
Research Statement
Dr. Romine's research focuses on measurement of human performance in the context of the learning and health sciences. Dr. Romine and his students employ Rasch models, wearable sensors, and text mining to understand how we learn and make decisions about topics in the biological and health sciences. Dr. Romine's lab supports diverse research experiences for students at all academic levels. These experiences prepare students for data science positions in both academic and industry.
Publications
JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS:
(Students and myself are in bold)
J66: Anumula, C. V., Banerjee, T., & Romine, W. L. (2025). Understanding Physiological Responses for Intelligent Posture and Autonomic Response Detection Using Wearable Technology. Algorithms, 18(9), 570.
J65: Romine, W., Reed, E., Mahajan, R., & Todd, A. (2025). What is the Inventory of Student Evolution Acceptance (I-SEA) Measuring? A Factor Analytic Comparison of Multiple Competing Hypotheses in Practicing Science Teachers and Undergraduate Science Non-Majors. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 1-21.
J64: Teed, R., Hughett, W., & Romine, W. (2025). An effective hands-on active-learning plate tectonics curriculum. Journal of College Science Teaching, 1-10.
J63: Singer, N.R., Lannin, A., Kareem, M., Romine, W., and Kline, K. (2024). Promoting literacy-based instruction and assessment in STEM classrooms. Phi Delta Kappan.
J62: Kareem, M., Lannin, A., Romine, W., Singer, N., Tyson, M., Kline, K., Kendrick, M., Otten, S., & Apple, S. (2024). Using scenarios to assess student learning. The Science Teacher, 91(2), 61-65.
J61: Barnes, M. E., Aini, R. Q., Collins, J. P., Dunk, R. D., Holt, E. A., Jensen, J., …Romine, W.,…. & Brownell, S. E. (2024). Evaluating the current state of evolution acceptance instruments: a research coordination network meeting report. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 17(1), 1.
J60: Kirk, E. A., Romine, W., Sadler, T. D., Elsner, J. N., Zangori, L. A., & Ke, L. (2023). Interest and effort: exploring the relationship between students Covid-19 interest and information-seeking behavior. International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 1-20.
J58: Agarwal, A., Patel, D., Burwell, E., Romine, W., & Banerjee, T. (2023). Dynamic Topic Modeling to Mine Themes and Evolution During the Initial COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout. Health Behavior and Policy Review, 10(3), 1267-1278.
J57: Lannin, A., van Garderen, D., Abdelnaby, H. Z., Smith, C. M., Juergensen, R. L., Folk, W., Palmer, T., & Romine, W. (2023). Scaffolding learning via multimodal STEM text sets for students with learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 1-13.
J56: Romine, W., van Garderen, D., Folk, W., Lannin, A., Juergensen, R., Smith, C., Abedelnaby, H., & Milarsky, T. (2023). Science literacy: Using multimodal STEM text sets to help students with disabilities engage in argumentation. Learning Disability Quarterly, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/07319487231209505
J54: Burwell, E., Agarwal, A., & Romine, W. (2023). Understanding Communication about the COVID-19 Vaccines: Analysis of Emergent Sentiments and Topics of Discussion on Twitter During the Initial Phase of the Vaccine Rollout. International Journal of Science Education, Part B. 1-29.
J53: Romine, W., Schroeder, N., Banerjee, T., & Graft, J. (2022). Toward Mental Effort Measurement Using Electrodermal Activity Features. Sensors, 22(19), 7363.
J52: Todd, A., Romine, W., Sadeghi, R., Cook Whitt, K., & Banerjee, T. (2022). How do high school students' genetics progression networks change due to genetics instruction and how do they stabilize years after instruction? Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21744
- NARST/NSTA Research Worth Reading Nomination
J51: Yang, Y., Romine, W., Oyesanya, T. O., Park, H. K., & Hendrix, C. C. (2021). The Association of Self-esteem with Caregiving Demands, Coping, Burden, and Health Among Caregivers of Breast Cancer Patients: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach. Cancer Nursing, DOI: 10.1097/ncc.0000000000001011. PMID: 34483283.
J50: Agarwal, A., Graft, J., Schroeder, N., & Romine, W. (2021). Sensor-based prediction of mental effort during learning from physiological data: A longitudinal case study. Signals, 2, 886-901.
J49: Romine, W., Mahajan, R., & Todd, A. (2021). Measuring science teachers' emotional experiences with evolution using real world scenarios. Eurasian Journal of Science and Environmental Education, 10(1), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejhbe.10.1.1
J48: Fryman, S. & Romine, W. (2021). Measuring smartphone dependency and exploration of consequences and comorbidities. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 4, 100108.
J47: Miller, M., Romine, W., & Oroszi, T. (2021). Public Discussion of Anthrax on Twitter: Using Machine Learning to Identify Relevant Topics and Events. JMIR Public Health Surveillance, 7(6):e27976, URL: https://publichealth.jmir.org/2021/6/e27976, DOI: 10.2196/27976.
J46: Visweswaraiah, V., Banerjee, T., Romine, W., & Fryman, S. (2021). Nomophobia before and after the COVID-19 pandemic—Can social media be used to understand mobile phone dependency? International Journal of Clinical and Medical Informatics, 4(1), 31-42.
J45: Romine, W., Sadler, T. D., Dauer, J. M., & Kinslow, A. (2020). Measurement of socio-scientific reasoning (SSR) and exploration of SSR as a progression of competencies. International Journal of Science Education, 1-22.
J44: Romine, W.., Schroeder, N. L., Graft, J., Yang, F., Sadeghi, R., Zabihimayvan, M., ... & Banerjee, T. (2020). Using Machine Learning to Train a Wearable Device for Measuring Students’ Cognitive Load during Problem-Solving Activities Based on Electrodermal Activity, Body Temperature, and Heart Rate: Development of a Cognitive Load Tracker for Both Personal and Classroom Use. Sensors, 20(17), 4833.
J43: Hughes, J., Romine, W., Banerjee, T., Goodman, G., Edwards, A., Hughes, J.G., & Lawhorne, L. (2020). Development of a Daily Use Caregiver Sleep Survey (DUCSS). A mixed-method design. GeroPsych, DOI: 10.1024/1662-9647/a000240
J42: Yazdavar, A. H., Mahdavinejad, M. S., Bajaj, G., Romine, W., Sheth, A., Monadjemi, A. H., ... & Hitzler, P. (2020). Multimodal mental health analysis in social media. PLOS ONE, 15(4), e0226248.
J41: Miller, M., & Romine, W. (2020). Assessing college students’ knowledge and misconceptions concerning the Ebola virus. European Journal of Educational Research, 9(2), 579-602. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.9.2.579
J40: Romine, W., Tsai, C., Miller, M., Tang, N., & Folk, W. (2019). Evaluation of a process by which individual interest supports learning within a formal middle school classroom context. International Journal of Mathematics and Science Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-019-10032-1.
J39: Miller, M., Oroszi, T., Romine, W., & Williams, K. (2019). Does machine learning have some answers to agent exposure? CBRNe World, 19-22.
J38: Mamidi, R.*, Miller, M.*, Banerjee, T., Romine, W., & Sheth, A. (2019). A study to identify key topics bearing negative sentiment on Twitter concerning the 2015/2016 Zika epidemic. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance. *Equal contribution by Mamidi and Miller
J36: Romine, W., Todd, A. N., & Walter, E. M. (2018). A closer look at the items within three measures of evolution acceptance: analysis of the MATE, I-SEA, and GAENE as a single corpus of items. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 11(1), 17.
J35: Romine, W. (2018). A web-based socioscientific inquiry unit to help college students learn about fracking. The Earth Scientist.
J34: Tang, N. E., Tsai, C. L., Barrow, L., & Romine, W. (2018). Impacts of enquiry-based science teaching on achievement gap between high-and-low SES students: findings from PISA 2015. International Journal of Science Education, 1-23.
J33: Todd, A., & Romine, W. (2018). The Learning Loss Effect in Genetics: What Ideas Do Students Retain or Lose after Instruction? CBE—Life Sciences Education, 17(4), ar55.
J32: Sadeghi, R., Banerjee, T., & Romine, W. (2018). Early hospital mortality prediction using vital signals. Smart Health. Online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smhl.2018.07.001.
J31: Schroeder, N. L., Yang, F., Banerjee, T., Romine, W., & Craig, S. D. (2018). The influence of learners' perceptions of virtual humans on learning transfer. Computers & Education, 126, 170-182.
J30: Khedraki, A., Reed, E. J., Romer, S. H., Wang, Q., Romine, W., Rich, M. M., ... & Voss, A. A. (2017). Depressed Synaptic Transmission and Reduced Vesicle Release Sites in Huntington's Disease Neuromuscular Junctions. Journal of Neuroscience, 0313-17.
J29: Odom, A. L., Barrow, L. H., & Romine, W. (2017). Teaching Osmosis to Biology Students. The American Biology Teacher, 79(6), 473-479.
J28: Romine, W., Sadler, T. D., & Wulff, E. P. (2017). Conceptualizing Student Affect for Science and Technology at the Middle School Level: Development and Implementation of a Measure of Affect in Science and Technology (MAST). Journal of Science Education and Technology, 1-12.
J27: Jaimini, U., Banerjee, T., Romine, W., Thirunarayan, K., Sheth, A., & Kalra, M. (2017). Investigation of an indoor air quality sensor for asthma management in children. IEEE Sensors Letters, 1(2), 1-4.
J26: Miller, M., Banerjee, T., Muppalla, R., Romine, W., & Sheth, A. (2017). What are people tweeting about Zika? An exploratory study concerning symptoms, treatment, transmission, and prevention. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 3(2), e38.
J25: Todd, A., Romine, W., & Correa-Menendez, J. (2017). Modeling the Transition from a Phenotypic to Genotypic Conceptualization of Genetics in a University-Level Introductory Biology Context. Research in Science Education, 1-21.
J24: Romine, W., Folk, W. R., & Barrow, L. H. (2017). How Does Knowledge of Influenza Reduce Flu-like Illness in High Schools? Health Behavior & Policy Review, 4(3), 224-234.
J23: Schroeder, N., Romine, W. & Craig, S. (2017). Measuring Pedagogical Agent Persona and the Influence of Agent Persona on Learning. Computers and Education, 109, 176-186.
J22: Todd, A., & Romine, W. (2017). Empirical validation of a modern genetics progression web for college biology students. International Journal of Science Education, 39(4), 488-505.
J21: Todd, A., Romine, W., & Cook-Whitt, K. (2017). Development and Validation of the Learning Progression-based Assessment of Molecular Genetics (LPA-MG) in a High School Context. Science Education, 101(1), 32-65.
J20: Romine, W., & Todd, A. (2017). Valuing Evidence over Authority: The Impact of a Short Course for Middle-Level Students Exploring the Evidence for Evolution. The American Biology Teacher, 79(2), 112-119.
- Received the NABT BioClub recommendation.
J19: Romine, W., Walter, E. M., Bosse, E., & Todd, A. N. (2017). Understanding patterns of evolution acceptance—A new implementation of the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) with Midwestern university students. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 54(5), 642-671.
J18: Romine, W., Sadler, T. D., & Kinslow, A. T. (2017). Assessment of scientific literacy: Development and validation of the Quantitative Assessment of Socio‐Scientific Reasoning (QuASSR). Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 54(2), 274-295.
- Selected as the NAGT Geoscience Education Research (GER) feature article for February 2017.
J17: Todd, A., & Romine, W. (2016). Validation of the Learning Progression-based Assessment of Modern Genetics in a college context. International Journal of Science Education, 38(10), 1673-1698.
J16: Sadler, T. D., Romine, W., & Topçu, M. S. (2016). Learning science content through socio-scientific issues-based instruction: a multi-level assessment study. International Journal of Science Education, 1-14.
J15: Romine, W., Todd, A., & Clark, C. (2016). How do undergraduate students conceptualize acid-base chemistry? Validation of a concept progression. Science Education, 100(6), 1150-1183.
J14: Romine, W., Miller, M. Knese, S. & Folk, W. (2016). Multi-level assessment of middle school students’ interest in the health sciences: Development and validation of a new measurement tool. CBE: Life Sciences Education, 15, 1-13.
J13: Romine, W., & Whittington, A. G. (2015). A simple model for the viscosity of rhyolites as a function of temperature, pressure and water content. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 170, 281-300.
J12: Romine, W., Schaffer, D. L., & Barrow, L. (2015). Development and application of a novel Rasch-based methodology for evaluating multi-tiered assessment instruments: Validation and utilization of an undergraduate diagnostic test of the water cycle. International Journal of Science Education, 37(16), 2740-2768.
J11: Sadler, T., Romine, W., Menon, D., Ferdig, R., & Annetta, L. (2015). Learning biology through innovative curricula: A comparison of game- and nongame-based approaches. Science Education, 99(4), 696-720.
J10: Kingsley, L. & Romine, W. (2014). Measuring teaching best practice in the induction years: Development and validation of an item-level assessment. European Journal of Educational Research, 3(2), 87-109.
J9: Romine, W., & Sadler, T. D. (2014). Measuring changes in interest in science and technology at the college level in response to two instructional interventions. Research in Science Education, 1-19.
J8: Romine, W., Barnett, E., Friedrichsen, P. J., & Sickel, A. J. (2014). Development and evaluation of a model for secondary evolution educators’ professional development needs. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 7(1), 1-10.
J7: Romine, W. & Walter, E. M. (2014). Assessing the efficacy of the Measure of Understanding of Macroevolution as a valid tool for undergraduate non-science majors. International Journal of Science Education, 36(17), 2872-2891.
J6: Romine, W., Sadler, T. D., Presley, M., & Klosterman, M. L. (2014). Student Interest in Technology and Science (SITS) Survey: Development, Validation, and Use of a New Instrument. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 12(2), 261-283.
J5: Romine, W., Barrow, L., & Folk, W. (2013). Exploring secondary science students’ knowledge and misconceptions about influenza: Development, validation, and implementation of a multiple choice influenza knowledge scale. International Journal of Science Education, 35(11), 1874-1901.
J4: Sadler, T., Romine, W. Stewart, P., & Merle, D. (2013). Game-based curricula in biology classes: Differential effects among varying academic levels. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 50(4), 479-499.
J3: Romine, W., Banerjee, T., Barrow, L., & Folk, W. (2012). Exploring the impact of knowledge and social environment on influenza prevention and transmission in Midwestern United States high school students. Eurasian Journal of Science and Environmental Education, 1, 75-115.
J2: Romine, W., Whittington, A., Hofmeister, A., & Nabelek, P. (2012). Thermal diffusivity of rhyolitic glasses and melts: effects of temperature, crystals and dissolved water. Bulletin of Volcanology, 74, 2273-2287.
J1: Romine, W. & Banerjee, T. (2012). Customization of curriculum materials in science: Motives, challenges, and opportunities. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 21(1), 38-45.
PUBLISHED PROCEEDINGS:
PR16: Viswesaraiah, V., Banerjee, T., & Romine, W. (2025). Handling Extreme Class Imbalance: Using GANs in Data Augmentation for Suicide Prediction. In IJCAI-25 Diversity and Inclusion Program: Empowering Women of Colour in AI-Driven Mental Health Research Workshop, August 18th, 2025. IJCAI.
PR15: Agarwal, A., Banerjee, T., Romine, W., & Cajita, M. (2024). Debias-CLR: A contrastive learning based debiasing method for algorithmic fairness in healthcare applications. In 2024 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data). IEEE.
PR14: Romine, W., Banerjee, T., & Schroeder, N. (2024). Measuring Skin Temperature as an Indicator of Cognitive Flow Using a Wrist-worn Wearable. In 46th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE.
PR12: Agarwal, A., Thirunarayan, K., Romine, W., Alambo, A., Cajita, M., & Banerjee, T. (2022). Leveraging Machine Learning to Mine Themes in Clinical Notes of Patients Admitted for Heart Failure. In 2022 44th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC). IEEE
PR11: Romine, W., Schroeder, N., Edwards, A., & Banerjee, T. (2021). Longitudinal Classification of Mental Effort Using Electrodermal Activity, Heart Rate, and Skin Temperature Data from a Wearable Sensor. In 2020 International Conference on Pattern Recognition. Springer Open.
PR10: Agarwal, A., Salehundam, P., Padhee, S., Romine, W., & Banerjee, T. (2020). Leveraging Natural Language Processing to Mine Issues on Twitter During the COVID-19 Pandemic. In 2020 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data). IEEE.
PR9: Agarwal, A., Romine, W., & Banerjee, T. (2020). Leveraging Natural Language Processing to Understand Public Outlook Towards the Influenza Vaccination. In 2020 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data). IEEE.
PR8: Padhee, S., Sadler, M., Shalin, V., Banerjee, T., Thirunarayan, K., & Romine, W. (2020). Predicting Early Indicators of Cognitive Decline Using Verbal Utterances. In 2020 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine. IEEE.
PR7: Mahajan, R., Romine, W., Miller, M., & Banerjee, T. (2019). Analyzing Public Outlook towards Vaccination using Twitter. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data) (pp. 2763-2772). IEEE.
PR6: Goodman, G., Banerjee, T., Romine, W., Shimizu, C., & Hughes, J. (2019). Caregiver assessment using smart gaming technology: a feasibility study. Proceeding from the IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE). New Orleans, LA.
PR5: Castro-Faix, M., Todd, A., Romine, W., & Duncan, R. (June, 2018). Do alternative instructional approaches result in different learning progressions? Proceeding from the International Conference on the Learning Sciences, London.
PR4: Miller, M., Romine, W., & Rua, M. (July, 2017). What do undergraduates know about Zika, and what precautions are they willing to take to prevent its spread? Proceeding from the International Conference on Health Informatics and Medical Systems, Las Vegas, NV, USA.
PR3: Muppalla, R., Miller, M., Banerjee, T., & Romine, W. (2017, July). Discovering explanatory models to identify relevant tweets on Zika. In 2017 39th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) (pp. 1194-1197). IEEE.
PR2: Romine, W., Banerjee, T., Folk, W., & Barrow, L. (July, 2016). What motivates high school students to take precautions against the spread of influenza? A data science approach to latent modeling of compliance with preventative practice. Proceeding from the International Conference on Health Informatics and Medical Systems, Las Vegas, NV. (http://worldcomp.ucmss.com/cr/main/papersNew/LFSCSREApapers/HIM3290.pdf)
PR1: Banerjee, T., Anantharam, P., Romine, W., Sheth, A., & Lawhorne, L. (July, 2015). Evaluating a potential commercial tool for healthcare application for people with dementia. Proceeding from the International Conference on Health Informatics and Medical Systems, Las Vegas, NV. (http://works.bepress.com/william_romine/19/)
BOOK CHAPTERS:
BC7: van Garderen, D., Romine, W., Abdelnaby, H., Smith, C., & Juergensen, R. (2023). Science education for students with learning disabilities. In C. Okolo, N Patton Terry, and L. Cutting (Eds.) Handbook of Learning Disabilities (3rd ed.). Guildford.
BC4: Romine, W., Lannin, A., Palmer, T. van Garderen, D., Juergensen, R., Smith, C., & Folk, W. (2021). Complex multimodal text sets to support science literacy. In Short, P, Hensen, H. & J.R. McConnell. Age of Inference: Cultivating a Scientific Mindset. Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, NC.
BC3: Kenyon, L., Walter, E., & Romine, W. (2019). Transforming a college biology course to engage students in science and engineering practices: Exploring shifts in knowledge and mechanistic reasoning. In Reiss, M. & U. Harms, p. 84-93. Evolution Education Reconsidered: Understanding What Works. Springer, London.
BC2: Romine, W. & Sadler, T. (2016). Engaging learners in the analysis of scientific literature: A practical strategy for enhancing gifted students’ interest in science. In Taber, K. & S. Manabu, p. 84-93. International Perspectives on Science Education for the Gifted: Key issues and challenges. Routledge, New York.
BC1: Sadler, T. D., Eastwood, J. L., Romine, W. & Annetta, L. (2014). Mission Biotech: Using Technology to Support Learner Engagement in STEM. In Yager R. E. & Brunkhorst, H. Exemplary STEM Programs: Designs for Success. NSTA Press: Arlington, VA.
