BLOOMINGTON, IN – The Intelligent Cyberinfrastructure with Computational Learning in the Environment (ICICLE) Educational Fellowship Program is pleased to announce its 2023 cohort, highlighting its continuous efforts to democratize artificial intelligence (AI) by making it more accessible and beneficial to all. The inaugural cohort — Ashish Hingle, Chinasa T. Okolo, Brandon Alston, Collin Lucken, and Tim Elmo Feiten — showcases an impressive array of academic scholars and researchers committed to enhancing knowledge in AI and cyberinfrastructure.
“The 2023 program theme is all about democratizing artificial intelligence and making it more accessible to a wider range of potential users,” said Dr. Beth Plale, Executive Director of IU’s Pervasive Technology Institute and Michael A and Laurie Burns McRobbie Bicentennial Professor of Computer Engineering at Indiana University, Bloomington. “Through the ICICLE Educational Fellows Program we want to enable an environment that incentivizes a diverse range of people, with different expertise, to get involved in the design of AI, something that we expect will translate into potential benefits for everyone down the line.”
The Fellows will undertake a range of activities throughout the course of the nine-month fellowship experience.
Hingle, a PhD student from George Mason University, will create a set of narratives to highlight the complexities of the interconnected systems within ICICLE.
Okolo, a Ph.D. Candidate at Cornell University who will be a post-doctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall, will conduct a mixed-methods study to construct an AI literacy framework to upskill secondary school students, making AI more understandable and accessible to younger populations.
Alston, a Ph.D. candidate at Northwestern University who will be an assistant professor at Ohio State University in the fall, plans to delve into privacy and accountability, leveraging his expertise in sociology and social intervention strategies.
The ICICLE Educational Fellowship is devoted to furthering the educational and outreach objectives of the institute by providing successful fellows with real-world, high-impact projects and the opportunity to participate in a nine-month fellowship under the guidance of the collective action working group within ICICLE, called the Broader Impacts Network.
The program will kick off with a June cohort-building orientation workshop at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, followed by the presentation of results at the annual ICICLE All-Hands Meeting held in the fall. Fellows receive a stipend of $6000, along with expense-paid travel to key ICICLE events where they will interact with ICICLE principals and subject matter experts. Fellows submit a final report following the conclusion of their fellowship.
Lucken and Feiten, both PhD candidates at the University of Cincinnati, will initiate a dialogue between ICICLE members and the Center for Public Engagements with Science to devise strategies for deepening stakeholder involvement in agricultural and ecological AI systems.
Led by The Ohio State University, ICICLE is dedicated to fostering diversity and inclusion, welcoming applications from all backgrounds and encouraging applications from underrepresented populations that reflects its strong commitment to pushing the boundaries of AI research and ensuring its benefits are accessible to all. Committed to advancing AI, cyberinfrastructure, and education through innovative research and training programs, its annual Educational Fellowship Program provides early-career educators and researchers with unique opportunities to shape the future of AI. For more information, please visit the ICICLE Educational Fellowship Program website.
