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Rackham Student AI Working Groups Program

In 2026, Rackham Graduate School launched the Rackham Student AI Working Groups Program to explore and contribute to the dynamic and quickly evolving use of AI in graduate education through collaborative learning in interdisciplinary working groups.

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  • Our Mission

    Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to transform graduate research and education, at the same time that it is transforming personal experience and the social and material environments in which we live. Rackham Graduate School recognizes the need for increased understanding of:

    1. the current and emerging research uses of AI by graduate students;
    2. opportunities and challenges that AI poses to graduate research and education;
    3. the ways AI will reshape graduate students’ future careers; and,
    4. the resources, training, and support in AI that will be necessary to impact the public good through the scholarship, discoveries, and creative production of its students.

  • Rackham Student AI Working Groups Symposium 2026

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    On May 4, Rackham Graduate School hosted a capstone symposium to feature the research of the Rackham Student AI Working Groups Program. Organized during the winter 2026 term, the program was designed to allow students to explore and contribute to the dynamic and quickly evolving use of AI in graduate education through collaborative, interdisciplinary learning.

    More than 100 graduate students and postdocs participated in a total of 12 working groups. Their topics of inquiry ranged from AI’s role in teaching and research to its impact on the workforce; its ramifications for governments, public safety, and mental health; connections between AI and creative practice; and the sustainability implications of data centers, among others. Representatives from each group shared their findings in a series of lightning talks, which are listed here.

  • Symposium Lightning Talks

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    • A man in a suit and glasses speaks at a podium with a laptop and microphone, gesturing with one hand in a wood-paneled room.
      Group 1: Responsible AI in Education and Teaching

      Presenters: Keanu Heydari (History) and Bailey Apollonio (Film, Television, and Media) Other Working Group Members: Eda Bozkurt (Architecture), Elysia Chou (Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics), Soyoung Lee (Information), John Mobley IV (Engineering Education Research Program), Onyinye Nwankwo (Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering), Nolgie Oquendo-Colón (Engineering Education Research Program), Michelle Ratering (English and Education)

    • A man in glasses and a suit stands at a podium with a laptop and microphone, speaking in front of wooden paneling and a light fixture.
      Group 3: Bias, Fairness, and Ethics in AI Systems

      Presenters: Ayushi Gupta (Data Science and Statistics) and Eric Whitmer (Musicology) Other Working Group Members: Em Buten (Engineering Education Research Program), Urvi Mehta (Data Science and Statistics), Kehinde Motunrayo Sowunmi (Germanic Languages and Literatures), Sarah Valdman (Philosophy), Jian Zhang (History)

    • Two people stand at a wooden podium with a laptop and microphone; the person on the left speaks while the person on the right holds a tablet.
      Group 4: Labor and Society Transformations in the Age of AI

      Presenters: Dionisius Andre Kusuma Dewa (Economics) and Joyce Lai (Electrical and Computer Engineering) Other Working Group Members: Nathan Bailey (Germanic Languages and Literatures), Hal Berdichesky (Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering), Isaac Mier (History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society)

    • Two women stand at a podium during a presentation; one is speaking at a microphone while the other stands beside her, listening.
      Group 5: Sustainability Implications of AI-related Data Center Expansion

      Presenters: Wendy Palomino Alvarez (Environment and Sustainability) and María Beusterien Pereira (Romance Languages and Literatures) Other Working Group Members: Andrea Cordova-Cruzatty (Mechanical Engineering), Amelia Clark (Environment and Sustainability), Puspita Kaban (Environment and Sustainability), Tongyao Li (Public Policy), Fernando Pliego Perez (Romance Languages and Literatures), Prakriti Shukla (Urban and Regional Planning), Kaitlynn Vo (Interdepartmental Program and the Digital Studies Institute Graduate Certificate), Chenjun Yu (Higher Education)

    • A person with glasses speaks into a microphone at a podium with a laptop, with another person partially visible beside them.
      Group 6: Multi-Level Institutional Governance, Oversight, Policy, and Evaluation

      Presenters: Jiseon Kim (Public Policy) and Saravuth Vong (Public Policy) Other Working Group Members: Andy Buschmann (Political Science), David Gamba (Information), Austin Hegland (Communication and Media), Firas Ben Hmida (Computer and Information Science), Parker Griffith (Public Policy), Erin Leary (American Culture and Museum Studies), Sambathchatovong Na (Computer and Information Science), Xin Ye (Information)

    • A person stands at a podium with a laptop and a microphone, speaking in a wood-paneled room with beige curtains.
      Group 7: Responsible AI in Education and Research: GenAI in Graduate Research at U-M: Practices, Trust, and Impact

      Presenters: Daniel Santos Perez (Pharmacy) and Sami Hadouaj (Computer and Information Science) Other Working Group Members: Nivedhitha Dondati Purushotham (Computer Science and Engineering), Joshua Ashkinaze (Information), Muttaki Bismoy (Computer and Information Science), Francesca Burkett (Earth and Environmental Science), Avishak Chakroborty (Computer and Information Science), Emmanuella Ejichukwu (Industrial and Systems Engineering), Md Abul Kalam (Computer and Information Science)

    • Two women stand at a podium with laptops; one is speaking into a microphone while the other is clapping and looking at her, with wood paneling and a lit lamp in the background.
      Group 8: Toward Responsible and Equitable AI in Higher Ed: An Environmental Scan of AI Policy Across Health-Related Units at U-M

      Presenters: Izza Ahmed-Ghani (Health Management and Policy and Health Behavior and Health Equity) and Mrinaalika Sivakumar (Public Policy) Other Working Group Members: Zeinab Alghanem (Health Management and Policy), Idman Gabayre (Neural Engineering), Antonia Gitau (Epidemiology), Sophia Kiselova (Health Behavior and Health Equity), Farhia Mohamed (Nutrition), Angelica Previero (Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology), Andrea Valenzuela (Chemical Biology), Cheryl Wang (Nursing)

    • Two women stand at a podium with a laptop and microphone, preparing to speak in a room with wooden paneling in the background.
      Group 10: Artistic and Co-Creative Applications and Challenges

      Presenters: Asa Zhang (English Language and Literature) and Catherine Brist (English Language and Literature) Other Working Group Members: Ambreen Ben-Shmuel (Business and Sustainability), Sam Butcher (Design Science), Kiana Cook (Dance and Performance), Kelly Hoppenjans (Musicology), Yi Liu (Environment and Sustainability), Timothy Tsang (Dance and Performance)

    • Two people stand at a podium, one speaking into a microphone and the other listening, during a presentation in a wood-paneled room.
      Group 11: AI-Expanded Communication Boundaries

      Presenters: Álvaro Vega-Hidalgo (Computer Science and Engineering) and Hengxing Zou (Environment and Sustainability) Other Working Group Members: Colton Adams (Psychology), Ruby Guo (Psychology), Mi Huynh (Survey Methodology), Valentin Lewisch (Germanic Languages and Literatures), Charlotte Probst (Environment and Sustainability)