Hi to the Laidlaw Community! This is Emily and I’m a rising senior at Barnard College studying Political Science and Education. For my first summer as a Laidlaw Scholar, I did a deep dive into Taiwanese education policies over the last 40 years with a focus on Indigenous education and language learning programs. Building off of my interests in education policy and research, I’ve become increasingly interested in the role that artificial intelligence can play in education systems. Most recently, I was interning at a healthcare technology company that is very open to the proliferation of AI into healthcare systems and processes to promote efficiency and improve the physician-patient relationship. But while I was working there, I kept thinking about the potential harm that AI can play in children’s cognitive development and critical thinking skills in the classroom. 

To explore this newfound interest in AI and education, I’m excited to be spending my summer working with Professor Knox at the Education Department, University of Oxford. One of the projects I’m assisting with includes amplifying student voices through the design, testing, and evaluation of collaborative methodologies that better understand how students use and value AI. Other projects that I will be working on include doing a policy analysis of Britain's education and AI priorities looking into institutional governance that is critical of artificial intelligence. I’m really looking forward to spending a summer in Oxford and working alongside forward thinkers in education! 

Here's a photo of me in Oxford!