Eric Stokan receives USM professorship to promote AI equity for students and faculty

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 12:26:09 -0400
ai, award, llm, social-science, stokan

UMBC Professor Eric Stokan, director of the Center for Social Science Scholarship, has been awarded the Elkins Professorship for Academic Transformation to address the significant barrier that prevents many in the social sciences from using powerful tools like AI and open-source software. Although these technologies have revolutionary potential, they often require advanced skills or expensive software, limiting their impact.

Stokan's work, supported by the University System of Maryland award, aims to bridge this gap by creating scalable, modular training in computational social science and generative AI, making the tools more accessible for faculty and students in teaching, research, and public impact projects.

The funding also supports the design and implementation of five hands-on training modules and workshops tailored for faculty, students, and community organizations. Participants will learn to use generative AI systems like ChatGPT with simple programs written in R. The goal is to help them answer novel and important research questions, develop marketable technical skills, work more effectively with data, and better communicate the results of their analyses with the broader community.

Read more about Professor Stokan's work and award in this UMBC News article.