Welcome
The CAS AI Umbrella fosters shared experiences, collective knowledge building, and new approaches to the challenges and opportunities AI presents in academic, social, and natural contexts. A college-level coordinating committee supports these goals through the following activities:
- Maintaining a central AI-related website that facilitates connection, resource sharing, and research across CAS.
- Hosting and supporting events on AI-related topics that create dialogue, collaboration, and spark ongoing conversations within CAS.
How We Work
Our work is dialogical and iterative, engaging faculty, students, and staff across CAS. The coordinating committee maintains the website and hosts events, while also encouraging CAS units to initiate their own conversations, experiments, and initiatives. Individuals and units are invited to share insights, lessons learned, and emerging questions with the committee through a shared feedback form. Periodically, the committee synthesizes this input and shares it with the broader CAS community to support collective learning.
Intellectual Commitments
Our approach is grounded in four guiding commitments:
- Playfulness and experimentalism: We value tinkering, testing ideas, learning from failure, and iterating in response to new insights.
- Open-mindedness: We are neither inherently pro-AI nor anti-AI; instead, we welcome diverse perspectives to inform thoughtful engagement.
- Humility: We recognize that no single individual, discipline, or program can anticipate all the challenges or opportunities AI presents.
- Collaborative orientation: We support the co-creation of knowledge by valuing individual and collective contributions from all community members, regardless of role, rank, or perspective.
Upcoming Events
About us
Committee members
The committee was assembled in February 2026 to oversee the overall functioning of CAS AI Umbrella under the initiative of Prof. Jing Deng, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences.
Director: Bhuwan Thapa, Assistant Professor, Geography, Environment & Sustainability
Plaxedes Chitiyo, Academic Professional Associate Professor and Associate Director, Geography, Environment & Sustainability
Cristiane Damasceno, Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Graduate Studies, Communication Studies
Jing Deng, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences & Bank of America Distinguished Professor, Computer Science
Heather Gert, Associate Professor & Department Head, Philosophy
Yingcheng Sun, Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Jennifer Feather, Professor and Head, English
Anita Warfford, Academic Technology Specialist, College of Arts & Sciences