School of Information Studies students returned from the Tapia conference with new connections, fresh perspectives on computing and recognition for their contributions to the conference community.
Accompanied by Assistant Professor Jasmina Tacheva, students participated in conversations and activities spanning human-centered artificial intelligence, race and gender in data science, large language models and AI-driven music discovery.
“Attending Tapia with our students was a genuinely transformative experience,” Tacheva said. “No matter what our individual interests were … we each found a place for ourselves and people who shared those interests.”
For Tacheva, the experience stood out for its emphasis on the people behind the technology. The conference offered a community where participants’ cultures, genders, sexualities and abilities were valued alongside their computing skills and expertise. That environment gave students opportunities to explore their interests while connecting with people who brought different experiences and perspectives to computing.
“Those differences were not flattened or pushed aside, but rather celebrated as a source of knowledge and innovation,” she said.
That connection between identity and innovation was central to a keynote address by Dr. Omar Florez, who discussed Latam GPT, a large language model developed by and for people in Latin America.
Florez opened with the history of Machu Picchu, highlighting how local Indigenous communities had long known and valued the site and how Peruvian explorer Agustín Lizárraga had documented it before Hiram Bingham’s 1911 expedition. His account challenged the familiar narrative that credits the American historian with its discovery.
For Tacheva, the example illustrated how historical perspectives shape the stories AI systems tell, even when those systems communicate fluently in a community’s language. It also connected technical decisions about generative AI to questions of whose knowledge is recognized and whose experiences are represented.
“The conference was incredibly eye-opening in showing both why it matters that we tell our own stories and how we might do so through code and beyond,” she said.
Another highlight was meeting Dr. Kamau Bobb, who presented his forthcoming book, The Bullwhip’s Algorithm: Artificial Intelligence and America’s Racial Caste System. His work examines connections between technology and history, including how algorithms can reproduce longstanding systems of racist violence and how collective action might disrupt those patterns.
Beyond the presentations, the iSchool students connected with peers and mentors who reinforced the value of their work and encouraged them to imagine new possibilities for computing.
Students also earned recognition for their participation. Shahaan placed second on the conference’s community engagement leaderboard. Atharva joined students from other universities on a team that was among the winners of the conference hackathon.
“I’m incredibly proud of our undergraduate students Itzel, Ben, and Charles, as well as our graduate students Atharva, Ahmad, Prasad, and Shahaan,” Tacheva said.
The group’s experience offered opportunities to explore technical interests while considering the broader human questions that shape computing. They returned ready to share those perspectives with fellow students and faculty.
“We all came back from Tapia enriched and inspired, and we’re excited to bring what we learned back to the iSchool community,” she said.