Thinking with Machines: An AI Institute

Everything you need to know to work/play/create with impact in this rapidly evolving new technology space.

Saturday, September 13, 10:00 am–5:00 pm

CETI Lab at PSU. FMH 218.

Ameeta Agrawal, Richard Coffey, Douglas Hanes, Matthew Sottile, K.S. Venkatraman, Peter Vickery

Thinking with Machines is a day of inspiring collaborative dialogue led by experts to discover everything you need to know to research/create/work with AI with imagination and impact. Come learn from and engage with an incredible panel of experts and each other.

Learn more about the current state and future of “AI,” about the promise and potential of these powerful technologies. What are applications and implications. What does it mean for the future of learning, work, and innovation? And should we worry?

Part symposium, part unconference, and part conversation with experts, come away with a fluency, confidence, and understanding to engage with agency (critically and creatively) with this rapidly evolving and increasingly prevalent technology.

This introductory convening—a collaborative conversation—will lead to more advanced skill-building and topically-focussed workshops and collaborative research experiments and projects in 2026. We hope to build an interdisciplinary cross-sector community to wield these powerful tools with imagination and impact and a focus on humanity.

Who is it For: Anybody who wants to use these powerful tools in their work (professionals, technologists, business, creatives, health, civic, writers), in research (environment, health, science …), and in learning (educators). From beginners to experts.

Panelists:

Matt Sottile is a senior computer scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who works in programming languages and scientific computing. He has been exploring the use of generative AI for assisting in mathematical proofs, code development and program analysis. Previously he has used non-generative AI/ML tools for image analysis problems from biological and medical research.

Ameeta Agrawal is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Portland State University, where she explores the fascinating intersection of language and technology. Her research and teaching focus on natural language processing (NLP), with a particular interest in building systems that can understand, generate, and reason with human language.

Douglas Hanes is a Senior Biostatistician and machine learning expert focussed on oncology research at the Earle A Chiles Research Institute and across the Providence system. Dr. Hanes works with microbiologists, bioinformaticists, and clinicians to understand genetic, cellular, clinical, and sociological factors contributing to diagnostic and treatment effectiveness and patient outcomes.

K S Venkatraman is the Vice-Chair of the Workforce and Talent Development advisory board to the Governor of Oregon. Venkat chairs the STEM investment council and co-chairs the Technology Industry Consortium for Future Ready Oregon. As Sr. Director of AI computing at NVIDIA, his engineering teams developed GPU computing products and platforms enabling generative, reasoning, agentic, and physical AI applications. Venkat moved to Oregon in 1997 and has since hired, mentored, and trained hundreds of STEM students in high-performance computing. Prior to NVIDIA and a brief stint at a startup company building systems-on-a-chip for digital televisions, he was a computer architect at Intel Corporation, responsible for developing innovative technologies on Pentium®4 and subsequent processors.

Rich Coffey has over 25 years of experience working in mission-based organizations focused on the advancement of human ingenuity. At Argonne National Laboratory he built Leadership-class supercomputers and supported scientists worldwide. He worked at the forefront of scientific computer, computational science, and visualization at the University of Washington and the University of Utah. In addition Rich worked at startups in healthcare, visualization, and internet service. His most recent startup was a mission-based organization delivering low-cost healthcare to populations at the highest risk of sexually transmitted diseases. Today, Rich works for Amazon Web Service developing internally tooling for the Enterprise Support organization. Rich also enjoys exploring the creative intersection of art and technology and contributes to CETI shows. His areas of expertise are high performance computing, visualization, cloud operational excellence and technical management.

Peter Vickery is a creative technologist with 2 decades of award-winning experience specializing in aligning cutting-edge visual technologies with the design needs of clients. He has led creative technical teams on world-renowned feature films, global advertising campaigns, and innovative immersive experiences. His driving passion is a heartfelt curiosity about the human experience and how storytelling can expand collective consciousness to help us understand ourselves and each other. Over the last 6 years he has delved deeper into the world of generative AI and machine learning assisted workflows as an extension of his traditional visual effects toolset. These transformative technologies have allowed him to create visual stories that would have been previously cost prohibitive and unfeasible while maintaining the integrity of the source material and creative vision.

Agenda

Morning Session: What is AI: Concepts, Tools, Applications, Implications, And Trends

9:45 Doors Open. settle in.

10:00 Introduction, Goals and Plan for the Day,

10:20 Unpacking AI:

Ameeta Agrawal (Demystifying LLMs)

Matthew Sottile (AI/ML Beyond LLMs: The Plethora of AI Tools)

11:00am Expert Panel: The Potential and Perils of AI.

Ameeta Agrawal, Richard Coffey, Douglas Hanes, Martin Smith, Matthew Sottile, K.S. Venkatraman, Peter Vickery

12:45pm –1:45pm Lunch will be provided so that you can carry on discussions and populate the unconference board

Afternoon Session: What can we do with AI? Power of Computation and Collaboration

2:00pm - 3:45pm expert presentations and demos: Keynote: KS Venkatraman: Future of Education, Economic, and Workforce Development; Douglas Hanes: Future of Health and Medicine; Ameeta Agrawal: Future of Research + Science; Matt Sottile: Future of Computation; Peter Vickery: Future of Creativity; Rich Coffey: Future of the Classroom

4:15pm Conclusion and Next Steps: Capture potential projects, programs, convenings, and workshops for 2026

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