MIRA Lab

MIRA Lab is a research group at the University of North Texas studying how humans think, learn, and perform in an age of intelligent machines. We don't just study AI. We study what happens to people when they use it, and we build systems that ensure the answer is: they get stronger.

As intelligent systems grow more capable, the risk isn't that they fail. It's that humans stop trying. We design AI agents that push back: systems that track how learners think in real time, adapt to where they struggle, and refuse to short-circuit the effort that drives genuine growth. Our work spans metacognitive modeling, epistemic simulation, adversarial AI training, and learning analytics, all oriented toward one goal: augmenting human performance, not replacing it.

Cognitive offloading is the quiet crisis of our time. When AI handles the thinking, humans lose the practice. We are building the tools and evidence base to reverse that: in classrooms, in training environments, and beyond.

MIRA-Agent monitors metacognitive engagement in real time as students learn to code. MIRA-Sim puts learners in high-stakes policy scenarios where they must out-reason an AI adversary. Both are active in UNT classrooms, generating real data, informing real design.

This is just the beginning. We are in active conversations to expand MIRA systems into mathematics education, cybersecurity training, and workforce development, building a new generation of human performance tools across domains where the stakes of cognitive offloading are highest.

We build, deploy, and measure.