When Renee Ricketts of Gaithersburg, Maryland, heard about the Amazon Web Service (AWS) Summit Washington, DC 2025 (June 10-11), she became curious.
Ricketts, 25, heard the conference was focusing on educating and informing its participants on the benefits of cloud computing and the various uses of artificial intelligence (AI), so it piqued her interest. Thus, she took time away from her graduate studies in data science at the University of Maryland in College Park to attend the conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Northwest, D.C.
“I wanted to learn more about AI,” she said to The Informer. “It is a burgeoning technology that I don’t know much about. I really want to see how it is implemented. I came here to learn.”
The graduate student was among thousands of people who participated in the summit by attending workshops in subject areas such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing in the fields of security, health care, policy, education and community/economic development.
The summit featured speakers on such topics as how to help students with their homework using artificial intelligence, updating technological knowledge and skills to meet the demands of the 21st century and how the nonprofit can interact and utilize the new technology.
Though Ricketts spoke about having an open mind to the conference and all she could learn about AI, she still had a particular learning goal.
“I am interested specifically,” she said, “in what ways artificial intelligence will be subject to regulation.”
Speaking about artificial intelligence and its impact on Black life was Geoff DeLizzio, the chief advancement officer for the Lieber Institute for Brain Development in Baltimore, Maryland and a partner with AWS.
The Lieber Institute is a nonprofit biomedical research organization devoted to discovering the biological mechanism behind mental health conditions and age-related diseases such as schizophrenia, mood disorders and Alzheimer’s.
“The Institute has a repository of more than 5,000 donated brains, including about 500 from people of African ancestry,” said DeLizzo.
The chief advancement officer said part of his nonprofit’s charge is to mentor young scientists and work with local historically Black colleges and institutions (HBCUs).
“Only 4% of neuroscience research PhDs go to Black scientists,” he said. “We seek to correct the disparity through programs at HBCUs like Morgan State University. We have been proud to welcome Morgan State students to our labs to learn about neuroscience, and some of them have gone on to pursue PhD programs. Now, all these students and scientists who are just starting out will have access to our tools.”
Additionally, DeLizzo noted the work of the Lieber Institute is important to African Americans because they are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those of European descent but less likely than their white counterparts to get Parkinson’s.
Like Ricketts, District resident Jayrick Hayes came to the summit to learn more about what was taking place in the technology space and beyond.
“I have an interest in recruiting and retaining Blacks in the STEM field,” said Hayes, 30. “I am an electrical engineer, and we need more Blacks in engineering and understanding what artificial intelligence is about.”