Tia - Community Corner

Tia Clasen

This month, we’re excited to introduce Tia Clasen, the new Education and Outreach Coordinator for the DSAI Hub and Research Computing. Tia brings a passion for advancing AI and data science literacy, emphasizing the importance of using both effectively to improve student and societal outcomes.

Please join us in welcoming Tia to the DSAI and Research Computing community and read her answers below!

 

  • What are your current interests relating to data science or AI?

Current interests: AI and data science literacy are super important to me. We need to understand how to use both as effectively as possible to improve student and societal outcomes.
 

  • How do you define Data Science?

Data science, to me, is looking at data and theming it out to understand the story it's telling - getting the insights and the knowledge from large amounts of data. Finding patterns and making predictions in order to drive sound decision-making. It empowers AI by providing the infrastructure to process and analyze massive data sets - and in turn, AI can help in the understanding of the story that the data has to tell.
 

  • Can you share an interesting or surprising result you’ve found in your data?

What is interesting is that, in my K-12 career, over and over I have found that districts are data rich, but don't use it to its fullest capacities. That's what I want to change. From the classroom to the state level - the data can help us to change the system.
 

  • Are there any new tools or libraries you or your team have been using?

I personally have been using AI more than I ever have. I've also been reading a lot about the opposite ends of the AI-embracing continuum, in order to help me in the work on which I am embarking!
 

  • What excites you most about the future of data science/AI in the next five years?

What an interesting question! And I say that because we don't even know what AI will look like in the next five years. But my hope is that, in the next five years, the E-16 education system, and our special education structure, will be fully embracing both data science and AI to do what we have said we've been wanting to do for 20 years - to build intervention systems which will provide individualized supports to learners of all ages, breaking down barriers and opening doors to limitless possibilities. I'm a teacher at heart; that's what I signed on to do, and that is still my mission.

Catchup on the Latest News at DSAI HUB

Getting a Head Start on AI in the Classroom: How the University of Minnesota AI Hub is Supporting PK–12 Education

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the way we learn, work, and interact with the world around us. As AI becomes increasingly integrated into everyday life, schools face a critical question: How do we prepare students for a future shaped by technologies that are evolving faster than ever before?

At the University of Minnesota, the AI Hub is helping to answer that question.

Latest news opening image showing data points and numbers connected in a virtual grid See more DSAI HUB News