#SCAI2026 Schedule

Click or tap the boxes below to see the schedule for the day.

9:00–9:15 AM — Opening Remarks

9:15–10:00 AM — Keynote: Arvind Narayanan

10:00–10:15 AM — Break

10:15–11:45 AM — Society‑Centered AI Panel (Research Spotlight Talks and Panel)
Moderated by: Neil Gaikwad

Research Spotlight Talks:

  • 10:15a — Shaozhe Cheng
     Testing Collaborative Behaviors in Humans, AIs, and their Interactions Using a Minimal Coordination Game
  • 10:25a — Frederick Coleman
     Governing Against Dependency: Institutional DNA and AI Policy in the Global South
  • 10:35a — Breanna Nguyen
     Beyond Advance Directives: A Machine Learning Tool to Aid End‑of‑Life Decisions in Dementia Care
  • 10:45a — Tiffany Degbotse
     EchoML: Conversational Explainability via Retrieval over Model Reasoning Traces
  • 10:55a — Rose Ansari
     From Mechanized Vision to Algorithmic Perception: The Evolution of Computer Vision in Art, Science, and Society
  • 11:05a — Jiaxun Cao
     How Does Perceived Empathy From AI Chatbots Influence Users’ Privacy Attitudes, Behaviors, and Needs?
  • 11:15a — Panel Discussion with All Authors

 

11:45 AM–1:00 PM — Break for Lunch (lunch on your own)

1:00–4:00 PM — New Faculty Research Talks (9 × 20 mins)

  • 1:00p — Richard So
     Talking to the Dead: The Social Case for AI Hallucinations
  • 1:20p — Shuyan Zhou
     Building the Playgrounds for AI Agent
  • 1:40p — Daniel Scott Smith
     How AI is Helping Us Discover the Nature and Impact of Human Judgment in Science
  • 2:00p — Alessio Brini
     AI in Finance and Economics: From Data to Decisions that Matter
  • 2:20p — Rich Eva
     Technology & Suffering
  • 2:40p — Tong Qiu
     AI for Ecology: Harnessing Remote Sensing to Understand Ecosystem Functions in Natural and Built Environments
  • 3:00p — Brandon Fain
     Fairness in the Alignment Problem
  • 3:20p — Wenhao Jiang
     Interaction‑Level Segregation: An Image‑Driven Approach
  • 3:40p — Anne L. Washington
     Fragile Foundations: Hidden Risks in AI Infrastructure

4:00–5:30 PM — Poster Session & Art Demos (light snacks, drinks)

9:00–9:45 AM — Keynote: Reggie Townsend

9:45–10:00 AM — Break

10:00–11:30 AM — Talk and Student-Led “reverse” Panel: How Are People Using AI?
Ronnie Chatterji (Moderator), Lindsay Gross, Neha Shukla, Peter Banyas

11:30–11:45 AM — SCAI Hackathon Winners Talk

11:45 AM–1:00 PM — Break for Lunch (lunch on your own)

1:00–1:45 PM — Keynote: Nicholas Christakis

1:45–2:15 PM — Fireside Chat: Nicholas Christakis and Chris Bail

2:15–2:30 PM — Break

2:30–4:00 PM — AI Companionship & Intimacy Panel
Walter Sinnott‑Armstrong (moderator), Kaamna Bhojwani, Jana Schaich Borg, Timothy J. Strauman

4:00–5:30 PM — Poster Session & Art Demos & Drink Responsibly Mocktails
with light snacks/mocktails

5:30–6:00 PM — Meet and Greet with SCAI Faculty and Graduate Students

10:00–11:30 AM — AI and the Creative Economy Panel
David Hoffman (moderator), Tift Merritt, Ted Kalo, Chris Buccafusco

11:30 AM–1:00 PM — Networking Lunch (Lunch Provided)

1:00–2:30 PM — Panel: AI in the Community
Sanyin Siang (moderator), Siobahn Day Grady, Henry C. McKoy, Jr., Natalia Summerville

2:30–2:45 PM — Break

2:45–3:30 PM — Research Rapid Fire (8 talks, 5 mins each)

  • 2:45 — Ateba Whitaker (Virginia Tech)
     Algorithmic Belonging: Rethinking Human Agency in Society‑Centered AI Systems
  • 2:50 — Gaurav Rajesh Parikh (Duke University)
     Rashomon Effect for Visualizing High‑Dimensional Data
  • 2:55 — Margaret Traeger (University of Notre Dame)
     Artificial Influence: Robot Gender, Role, and Their Spillover Effects on Human Team Behavior
  • 3:00 — Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi (UNC Chapel Hill)
     Interviewing AI: Using Qualitative Methods to Explore and Capture Machines’ Characteristics and Behaviors
  • 3:05 — Delaney McLaughlin (Duke University)
     Simulated Empathy and the Ethics of Artificial Companionship in High‑Vulnerability Contexts
  • 3:10 — Jiechen Li (Duke University)
     Aligned Machine
  • 3:15 — Jae Yeon Kim (UNC Chapel Hill)
     Contracting for Fair AI: A Computational Text Analysis of State AI Procurement Contracts
  • 3:20 — Yunxi Kong (Duke University)
     Can LLMs Approximate Real Student Performance Patterns in High School History Exams?

3:30–5:00 PM — Poster Session, Art Demos, Mix and Mingle
light snacks and mocktails