AI Education Programs

Through Emory’s Center for AI Learning, I run a continuum of experiential AI programs that I designed and built: AI.DataLab, AI.DataProd, and AI.Xperience - or, as I only half-jokingly call them, data science elementary school, middle school, and high school.

The design comes from a conviction about how AI education actually works: it happens over time. Failures drive learning, and mistakes are what make correct answers obvious - but a single compressed semester leaves no room to fail productively. So the continuum gives students that room. In DataLab, anyone from any discipline learns by doing, with partners who put learning first. In DataProd, students who’ve earned their footing turn real project questions into real products for real stakeholders. In Xperience, small teams of genuine data scientists take on research and consulting problems at high expectations on compressed timelines - because by then, they’re ready for timelines like that.

Each semester, the programs work with two to six sponsoring organizations. Multiple teams work the same broad topic - sometimes as many as twenty on a single sponsor’s project - and every one of them lands somewhere different, because the projects are designed to make that happen: different slices of the data in focus, different requested deliverables, different interpretations of the same question. That design is the thing I’m proudest of structurally, because it’s what let the program scale to meet demand - and the demand is massive. Some of that is students recognizing that data science experience matters now regardless of your major. Some of it, I’ll say plainly, is reputation: the student-to-student guidance structure and the community it builds have made this a program people tell each other to join.

And the people who show up are the other thing I brag about. Plenty of CS, data science, applied math, and econ majors, sure. But the students I’m proudest to have worked with major in philosophy, nursing, English, comparative literature, and history - and a steady stream of JD students crosses over from the law school, because they’ve figured out that understanding ML and AI is not optional for the future of law in the U.S. or anywhere else.

Four years in: over 700 participants and 150+ projects, making this Emory’s single largest data science program, with partners including Coca-Cola, UPS, the City of Atlanta, Invest Atlanta, PrizePicks, Emory Healthcare, and the Better Business Bureau.

I’ll describe the output the way I’d describe any distribution: quality centers a bit above average, with a right tail I’m genuinely proud of.

AI.DataLab

Data science elementary school

Anyone can code; anyone can analyze data - and inexperience is sometimes an asset, because it means no adherence to the unnecessary conventions that produce samey solutions. Everyone’s gotta learn somewhere; why not here? These are students from every discipline who have recognized they need quant skills. Partners are chosen for mission fit - learning first, outcome second - though the outcomes tend to be spectacular anyway, once students get this mix of guidance and freedom. What’s actually taught: project management, collaborative data science environments, leveraging AI to improve your work rather than offload it, when style matters more than substance, and why the real world doesn’t care about your tuning-parameter sweeps. You learn by doing. Partners: BBB, Invest Atlanta, PrizePicks, the Woodruff School of Nursing, and Emory Healthcare.

Sample projects

  • Excess transportation demand in Atlanta for the 2026 World Cup - with Invest Atlanta
  • Uncovering Nurse Practitioner shortages in Georgia - with the Woodruff School of Nursing
  • Identifying underrepresented graduating BSN talent pools around the U.S. - with Emory Healthcare staffing
  • Assessing the environmental costs of AI in the rural U.S.

AI.DataProd

Data science middle school

New this year - the first cohort starts in fall 2026. DataProd is the missing rung that turns the two existing programs into a ladder. You can code and you know best practices - now how do you actually build something? This one is about turning a clear project question into a product (the Prod) that is genuinely useful to a stakeholder, and about managing teams of high-skill developers and analysts. Graduates of AI.DataLab move up here to higher-stakes projects; VS Code from day one and enough programming skill to hang is the entry expectation. Less collaborative teaching, more smart students helping organizations answer real questions. The deliverables are real too: software, whitepapers, memos with findings and next steps. Partners: Invest Atlanta, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office, UPS, and Techbridge.

Sample projects

  • Diamonds in the Rough: identifying small-school talents in the NBA Draft
  • Food pantry optimal allocations given donation timing - with Techbridge

AI.Xperience

Data science high school

You’re a bona fide data scientist now - youthful inexperience, but you know enough to do real things. Unlike the semester programs, there are no parallel teams here: these are the rockstars, and each small team of two or three gets its own project, so I can take them personally from conception to delivery. The work is real research and consulting on compressed timelines with high expectations: what does it mean for an LLM to be ethical? why can’t LLMs write good stories? why are generated images of Pokémon cards janky? Students answer authentically and authoritatively from developed technical backgrounds, combining engineering skill with Emory’s humanistic-AI identity. Partners: Invest Atlanta (a collaboration that keeps going because they love the mission), Coca-Cola, and the Government of Fayette County.

Sample projects

  • Generative computer vision for Pokémon card grading (this summer)
  • Effects of small-business grants on small-business longevity in Atlanta - with Invest Atlanta
  • Setting the agenda for the usage of AI in medical devices - with the Emory School of Medicine
  • Identifying dangerous intersections using real-time traffic readings - with the City of Atlanta

In the news

Official program descriptions live at the Center for AI Learning, and ongoing coverage collects here.