Skip to main content

NETWORK

Find your people in AI & Data Science at Pitt—and build what’s next.

NETWORK: Cultivating and Connecting the Ecosystem and Scaling Innovations

  • Build and maintain a visible, searchable network of faculty, students, labs, and external partners engaged in AI and data science across Pitt and the region.
  • Develop pathways for individuals to engage with and scale their efforts into sustained programs, courses, or funded initiatives.
  • Strengthen relationships with industry, government, and nonprofit partners to align academic strengths with real-world needs.
The Rol-AI-Dex

The Hub for AI and Data Science Leadership (HAIL) makes the ecosystem visible and usable: a searchable network of faculty, students, labs, and partners, plus clear pathways to collaborate, scale projects, and align with real-world needs. The Rol-AI-Dex is a living map of expertise and activity. AI and data science work is happening everywhere—often in pockets. HAIL makes it easier to navigate the landscape, understand relationships, and build momentum across silos.

  • Searchable directory of faculty, students, labs, and partners
  • Connections view to surface shared interests and collaboration opportunities
HAIL Advisory Board

The HAIL Advisory Board brings together leaders from industry, healthcare, finance, government, and the nonprofit sector to help shape the future of responsible AI and data science leadership at the University of Pittsburgh. This group provides strategic guidance, real-world insight, and critical feedback to ensure that HAIL’s initiatives remain grounded in practice, responsive to emerging challenges, and aligned with workforce and societal needs.

Advisory Board members contribute to defining priorities, identifying emerging opportunities, and connecting HAIL to broader networks across sectors. Their expertise helps bridge the gap between academic innovation and real-world implementation—ensuring that our work prepares students, organizations, and communities to lead in an AI-driven world.

Members

Together, the HAIL Advisory Board plays a critical role in advancing a shared vision: aligning human, statistical, and computational knowledge to drive responsible, impactful innovation across industries.

Participatory Approaches in Data – Community of Practice

Led by Sera Linardi

The Participatory Approaches in Data Community of Practice brings together researchers, practitioners, and students interested in rethinking how data is created, analyzed, and applied—with communities, not just about them. Led by Sera Linardi, this group explores methods that center collaboration, transparency, and shared ownership throughout the data lifecycle.

Participants engage with questions such as: Who defines the problem? Whose data is being used—and who benefits? How can we design data practices that are more inclusive, ethical, and responsive to real-world needs?

Through case discussions, tool-sharing, and collaborative exploration, the community highlights participatory methods such as co-design, community-based data collection, and stakeholder-informed analysis. The goal is to move beyond extractive models of data science toward approaches that build trust, amplify diverse perspectives, and lead to more equitable and impactful outcomes.

This Community of Practice is ideal for anyone interested in responsible AI and data science, community-engaged research, public impact, and designing data systems that reflect and serve the people they affect.

Register for the 2026 Sessions here!

HAIL Graduate Awardee Program

The HAIL Graduate Student Awardee Program is a new interdisciplinary learning opportunity for doctoral and master’s students at the University of Pittsburgh, building on the success of the undergraduate RDS Student Scholars Program. Participants explore responsible data and AI use and development across disciplines, engage with readings and guest speakers on principles like transparency, privacy, and accountability, and work toward identifying Responsible Data Science Opportunities (RDSOs) in their own research and professional contexts. The spring–summer 2026 cohort meets regularly to share insights and in Summer 2026 collaborates on a reflection white paper documenting interdisciplinary learning and responsible practice. Awardees receive a stipend upon completion.

Learn more: HAIL Graduate Student Awardee Program

RDS Scholars Program

The RDS Student Scholars Program is an extracurricular, interdisciplinary initiative led by HAIL that engages undergraduate students in exploring the ethical, societal, and practical dimensions of data science and technology. Through facilitated discussions, readings, and team-based projects, scholars co-develop responsibility-focused frameworks and apply them to real-world contexts, building skills in critical thinking, collaboration, and data storytelling.

Scholars present their work at Data Science and AI Day and receive stipends for participating across the academic year.

Learn more and related highlights:

The program is organized collaboratively by:

DataSci+AI Forum 2026

The DataSci+AI Forum 2026 (March 26–27) brought together over 350 students, faculty, industry, government, and community leaders at the University of Pittsburgh for two days of storytelling, discovery, and collaboration. Centered on how data and AI shape Pittsburgh’s past, present, and future, the Forum highlighted the power of data-driven narratives to spark insight, innovation, and responsible impact.

Across sessions, roundtables, and conversations, participants explored new ideas, built meaningful connections, and contributed to a shared vision for the region—one where data and AI are used thoughtfully to drive real-world change.

Visit the event page to explore highlights, materials, and ongoing opportunities to stay engaged.

Carnegie HERO Platform Research Group

The Carnegie HERO Platform Research Group is a multidisciplinary collaboration advancing the development of the HERO Platform in partnership with the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. This group brings together researchers across behavioral science, data science, medicine, and social science to explore how stories of altruism can be translated into data-driven insights, interactive tools, and public-facing experiences.

The group’s work focuses on structuring and analyzing narratives of heroism by transforming complex, human-centered stories into accessible, ethical, and meaningful data resources. Through this effort, the HERO Platform aims to deepen public understanding of altruism, support research on human behavior, and create new opportunities for engagement with data that reflects real-world courage and decision-making.

Research Group Members

Together, this group is shaping a new model for how storytelling, data, and ethics intersect—building tools that honor human experience while enabling deeper insight into the nature of altruism.

Pathways to Engage

Faculty & Researchers Students External Partners 
You might be asking: Who else is working in my domain? Who has the methods I need? You might be asking: Where can I apply my skills to real problems? You might be asking: How do we connect a real need to Pitt expertise?

HAIL helps you:

  • Find collaborators across departments and regional campuses

  • Identify student talent and applied partners

  • Package work for scaling (course modules, proposals, pilots)

HAIL helps you:

  • Discover labs, projects, and mentors

  • Join interdisciplinary teams

  • Build AI/data science portfolios and relationships

HAIL helps you:

  • Match needs to faculty and student teams

  • Define problem scopes that are realistic and responsible

  • Build sustained collaborations, not one-off conversations

 

Related stories from the HAIL network

Explore recent articles, announcements, and highlights connected to HAIL’s work in cultivating and connecting the AI and data science ecosystem.

View all related Network articles