RISE Fellowship
I am honored to have been selected for Boise State University’s competitive, NSF-funded Responsibility in Innovation and Scholarship Experience (RISE) traineeship. I enter the fellowship with an interdisciplinary foundation and practical experience examining responsible technology use empirically, collaboratively, and at the institutional level. Beginning in fall 2026, I am building on that preparation through coursework, stakeholder engagement, and university initiatives that connect AI innovation with human values and human flourishing.
RISE traineeship
Boise State University’s Responsibility in Innovation and Scholarship Experience (RISE) program is supported by a nearly $2 million award from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Research Traineeship program under award no. 2509828.
RISE prepares AI graduate researchers to anticipate the potential social harms of emerging technologies, work with the people those technologies may affect, and adapt their work in response. The program brings researchers in computing, engineering, and other STEM disciplines together with faculty from the humanities and social sciences, industry professionals, and community stakeholders. Its goal is to bridge technical AI training with a broader understanding of social issues and human values so that AI research and innovation can contribute to human flourishing.
The traineeship uses a team-science approach that includes coursework, mentoring, stakeholder workshops, roundtable discussions, professional development, and industry experiences. Twenty-five graduate students are expected to complete the full training experience, including fifteen funded trainees, while at least 200 additional Boise State students will participate in individual elements of the program. Through this structure, RISE seeks to strengthen responsible AI education, broaden participation in technology development, and prepare researchers for collaborative work across academia, government, and industry.
RISE bootcamp
Before beginning my funded traineeship, I attended the two-day RISE Spring Bootcamp on January 7 and 8, 2026 and then again August 17 and 18. The bootcamp introduced RISE applicants to Responsible Research and Innovation and provided opportunities to evaluate the societal impacts of AI-related work, learn how government and industry professionals approach ethical AI development, and connect with other researchers interested in responsible innovation.
As part of the bootcamp, I completed a researcher-values exercise examining how different priorities can shape responsible AI. I identified agency as an essential value because people should be able to understand, question, and meaningfully influence how AI affects their work, education, and communities. I also considered the tension between human-centered values and return on investment, particularly when short-term efficiency is prioritized over autonomy, integrity, or long-term social consequences. Finally, I identified tenacity as an easily overlooked value that can help people use AI without surrendering the persistence, judgment, and accountability necessary for learning and trustworthy work.
The bootcamp culminated in an Individual Development Plan connecting my career, skill-development, and project goals. The plan will serve as a living guide for developing interdisciplinary relationships, strengthening my research and communication skills, and contributing to public conversations about responsible AI. When I return for the fall bootcamp, I will revisit these priorities, connect with the incoming RISE cohort, and refine the plan as my traineeship develops.
COMPUT 502
I am taking COMPUT 502: Societal Impacts of Emerging Technologies as part of the RISE curriculum. The course will provide a structured setting for examining how emerging technologies interact with human values, institutions, communities, and existing social conditions. I expect it to strengthen my ability to anticipate possible consequences, engage with stakeholder perspectives, and communicate about responsible innovation across disciplines. I will expand this section with specific topics and reflections as the course progresses.
Read my mid-semester reflection: A Bicycle, Subject to Approval.
COMPUT 598
Who Does What?
On September 14, 2026, I led Who Does What? as part of RISE Roundtable Seminars. I designed a workflow activity and prepared presentation and worksheet materials in multiple formats to support participation. Faculty and doctoral students from different disciplines compared how they understood and evaluated examples of generative AI use in research. I was surprised by how differently faculty responded to the same example workflows. Their disagreements reinforced for me the importance of discussing expectations about AI use, verification, and responsibility with collaborators. Preparing and facilitating the session also helped me clarify my own developing research direction. Explaining my ideas to an interdisciplinary audience helped me articulate what I wanted to investigate and how the work could benefit participating researchers while contributing to scientific integrity. I left with greater confidence in my direction and practical suggestions to consider as I develop the research. The experience showed me how much I can learn about my own ideas through preparing a conversation and listening to how others respond.
Social Impacts of Computing
Boise State’s Social Impacts of Computing (SioC) community explores and helps shape the evolving relationship between computing and society. Through workshops and transdisciplinary conversations, SioC brings together faculty, students, industry professionals, and community partners to examine how computing affects human flourishing and how competing values can inform responsible innovation.
My involvement has developed across each of the three annual workshops. I attended the inaugural SioC workshop, helped plan and evaluate the second workshop in 2025, and will attend the third workshop in September 2026. SioC conversations have directed my academic and professional interests. I am proud to have to opportunity to experience what the community discusses, values, and learns.
SioC 2025 workshop analysis
The 2025 workshop, Emerging Technologies and Well-Being, brought together 71 participants from education, business, government, healthcare, technology, finance, and other sectors. The program combined panels and demonstrations with participant-directed unconference discussions about extended reality, education, the environment, healthcare, and artificial intelligence.
Following the workshop, I analyzed registration and attendance data, pre-workshop responses, post-workshop feedback, and participant-generated notes from sticky notes and whiteboards. I used thematic analysis to identify recurring concerns and interests, and network analysis to examine how values appeared together in participants’ descriptions of the social impacts of computing. Responsibility, transparency, and integrity formed the most central cluster of values, while the analysis also identified collaboration, curiosity, privacy, inclusivity, equity, and environmental stewardship as important parts of the community’s conversation. I combined these findings with participation patterns and event feedback to develop recommendations for future SioC activities.
Read the SioC 2025 event summary and view the SioC 2025 value network analysis.
SioC 2026 workshop
The Social Impacts of Computing Workshop 2026 will take place September 17 and 18 at Boise State University. Its sessions will address AI hesitance, AI across education, RISE and AI scholarship, and collaborative problem solving through the Tech Kitchen. Each session will combine an introduction, a cross-sector panel, and audience-led roundtable discussions.
RISE community and professional development
Beginning in fall 2026, I will participate in stakeholder meetings, mentoring, cohort activities, and professional-development events. These recurring experiences will provide opportunities to learn from researchers and community partners, contribute to interdisciplinary conversations, and develop relationships across fields and sectors. They will also create a space to reflect on how responsible innovation can be practiced collaboratively and adapted in response to stakeholder perspectives.