Lalita Suwatee, ICS Graudate Student, is the recipient of the inaugural Dibie ICS Summer Fellowship award! Congratulations, Lalita!
ICS is thrilled to announce the recipient of the inaugural Dibie ICS Summer Fellowship award - Lalita Suwatee, 3rd year PhD student in Computer Science. Lalita is supervised by Dr. Tammy Sumner and her current research lies at the intersection of Data Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and the Learning Sciences. She is collaborating closely with a team of scholars working with rural school districts in Colorado to develop engaging, place-based learning opportunities in computing and artificial intelligence for middle school students. Community-oriented, place-based learning opportunities have been shown to promote interest, engagement, and persistence in STEM for rural students. She completed her first co-design workshop with middle school teachers in the summer of 2025. During that weeklong workshop, she and teachers developed a series of learning experiences enabling students to use programmable sensors to study growing conditions in high altitude mountain towns with the aim of increasing food yields from community gardens that are providing produce to local food banks. Congratulations, Lalita!