Over the course of eight weeks during the spring, participants in the NSF-funded ExLENT Data Crossings program transformed ideas drawn from their academic interests, professional experiences, and community concerns into applied capstone projects. Working individually and in teams, they used artificial intelligence (AI) and data tools to explore questions, analyze information, and develop solutions grounded in real-world contexts.
The resulting projects demonstrated the breadth of challenges participants chose to explore. Projects ranged from optimizing production for a family-owned bakery to visualizing international peace-building funding networks and developing workplace safety resources for manufacturing environments. Other projects examined manufacturing procurement, RV demand forecasting, community development disparities, and education policy through dashboards, optimization models, forecasting tools, chatbots, and interactive visualizations.
Participants presented their work during the ExLENT Capstone Showcase on April 20, 2026. Phillip Whelan, Chief Data Officer in Residence, and Rick Johnson, associate professor and co-principal investigator of ExLENT Data Crossings, evaluated each presentation based on responsible AI use, real-world relevance, ethical considerations, reasoning, and application of program concepts. Team A.H.A. (Aidan Gibson, Heather Winrotte, and Aina Muça) earned first-place recognition for its Manufacturing Knowledge Governance Chatbot.
For many participants, the capstone experience highlighted the power of using data and AI tools to better understand complex questions. Reflecting on his project examining community development disparities in St. Joseph County, participant Jackson Powell noted, “I was amazed at the impact of seeing the numbers converted into visuals.”
Reflecting on the inaugural cohort, Valya Kuskova, principal investigator of ExLENT Data Crossings and professor of the practice at the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society, said: “What stood out most was the range of problems participants chose to tackle. No two projects looked alike: one team mapped international peace-building funding while another optimized a family bakery’s output, yet each reflected the same instinct to point these tools at something that mattered to them personally. That willingness to bring their own questions, rather than reach for the obvious ones, is what made this inaugural cohort’s work so compelling.
This same spirit of inquiry extended beyond the participants and into fruitful research on the program itself. Early results from the first year of ExLENT project implementation were accepted for presentation and publication at two major education conferences – the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and AI for Education (AIED).”
Continue exploring the 2025-2026 ExLENT Data Crossings Capstone Projects to learn more about each project and the participant reflections that capture the journey from curiosity to application.
Contact:
Martha Aikiriza
ExLENT Data Crossings Program
Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society / University of Notre Dame
exlentdc@nd.edu
lucyinstitute.nd.edu / @lucy_institute
About the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society
Guided by Notre Dame’s Mission, the Lucy Family Institute adventurously collaborates on advancing data-driven and artificial intelligence (AI) convergence research, translational solutions, and education to ethically address society’s vexing problems. As an innovative nexus of academia, industry, and the public, the Institute also fosters data science and AI access to strengthen diverse and inclusive capacity building within communities.