Jeannette M. Wing is Executive Vice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. Previously, she served as Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Research, held faculty and leadership positions at Carnegie Mellon University, and served as Assistant Director of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering and the MIT Corporation, Wing is widely recognized for her contributions to computer science and for her influential work advancing the concept of computational thinking. Her current research focuses on trustworthy AI.

Qin Gao is a leading authority on social policy, inequality and the well-being of Chinese and Asian American communities. She is the Maurice V. Russell Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice and Associate Dean for Doctoral Education at Columbia University's School of Social Work, as well as Founding Director of Columbia's China Center for Social Policy.

Her research examines poverty, inequality, social policy and population well-being in China and among Asian Americans. She led the State of Chinese Americans Survey in 2022, providing an important empirical foundation for understanding the experiences of Chinese Americans in the United States.

Columbia profile | LinkedIn

Dr. Ngoc Cindy Pham is Founder and Principal Investigator of BRIDGE AI Lab, an independent research and workforce initiative focused on equitable AI literacy and professional readiness. She is an Associate Professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY; Visiting Research Professor at NYU Tandon School of Engineering; and Fulbright Specialist.

She founded the CUNY AI Literacy & Professional Readiness Series and created the BRIDGE Framework for Equitable AI Literacy. Her work examines how individuals and institutions can move beyond simply accessing AI toward developing responsible, practical capabilities for education and the workplace.

BRIDGE AI Lab | LinkedIn | CUNY AI Series

Shelly Xu is the founder of zero-waste design-AI startup SXD and has spent more than 15 years specializing in zero-fabric-waste design. An alumna of Instagram, Prada and McKinsey and a graduate of Harvard Business School, Xu combines design and technology to address the environmental impact of material waste.

Through SXD, she has developed patented AI technology designed to scale zero-waste approaches for partners ranging from global luxury brands to performers. Her work has received recognition including SXSW's Top Innovative World Technology and the Global Change Award.

Xin Ying is a choreographer, interdisciplinary artist, dancer and mother exploring the intersection of movement, technology and digital legacy. Her work across performance, artificial intelligence, immersive media and archival research reimagines choreography as a living system connecting bodies, archives and machines.

A principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company since 2011, she is also the creator of projects including MarthaBot, Lamentation: Dancing the Archive, Letter to Nobody, and In the Folds of Her Purple. Her interdisciplinary practice offers a particularly human lens into questions of authorship, memory and what happens when technology becomes part of our cultural archive. Her Martha Graham biography confirms her work developing MarthaBot and technology-enabled archival projects.

Instagram: @xin_ying_dance

First-generation Kalmyk-American poet and language artist whose work explores what it means to be human in a more-than-human world. Her interdisciplinary practice reimagines poetry as both an ancient technology and a living computational medium, advancing "poetic intelligence"—the synthesis of emotion and algorithm—as a philosophy for the generative age.

Her work has been honored with the Prix Ars Electronica and Lumen Prize and exhibited internationally, including at MoMA and Art Basel. A recent Monument Lab Fellow and Google Arts & Culture Artist-in-Residence, Stiles has been co-evolving with her AI alter ego, Technelegy, since 2018.

Website | Social: @sashastiles

Former startup founder turned ecosystem builder, Lily is passionate about helping entrepreneurs scale transformative companies. After existing her startup, she joined Sephora to build its accelerator program for beauty founders before moving to AWS Startups, where she lead startup and AI ecosystem initiatives globally. Her work focuses on building founder programs, partnerships, corporate accelerators, and high-impact communities that help founders and investors access opportunities, visibility, and growth.