Building inclusive futures now: IndigiGenius' Indigenous CS and AI initiatives

Andrea Delgado-Olson and Michelle Lee Brown will present on IndigiGenius: an Indigenous-focused tech nonprofit shaping inclusive tech futures today for Indigenous youth and educators across the US and Canada. They will highlight one program, the Lakota AI Code Camp (LAICC) which was supported by NeurIPS in 2024. The Lakota AI Code Camp is a three-week summer camp for Lakota high school youth to learn about artificial intelligence. This program offers a culturally relevant curriculum created by an all-Indigenous team of AI/computing professionals and educators, half of whom are Lakota. All materials, equipment, food, and lodging are provided at no cost to the students, weekly stipends and travel assistance are also provided. Andrea and Michelle will then illustrate how LAICC connects with IndigiGenius' other three programs: Teach the Teacher Professional Development (T3PD), Indigenous in AI/ML, and First Languages AI Reality (FLAIR), and how all four of these programs support each other now and into the future.