Futures Atlanta (NordiCHI’24, SIGCSE’26, TEI’26)

February 8, 2026February 8, 2026
project
by nhowell8

Children are growing up in a world shaped by AI. New educational approaches are needed, not only on how AI works, but also and especially for children to develop their own creative agency and voice in how they choose to respond to AI and engage technology to support their own aspirations and communities.

We develop and host workshops where children age 10-12 use AI tools to create visual artistic narratives to reflect on their hopes and concerns for local issues in Atlanta. The visualizations are a way to help express and engage in dialogue around civic futures in Atlanta; e.g., how can Atlanta rethink its MARTA train stations, playgrounds, pedestrian traffic safety, or public art?

Process of workshops. 1. Pick a place (children chose Piedmont Park, Clarkston Library, Fernbank Museum). 2. Form Councils (children formed Piku Niku Council, Cat Lovers Council, and Oogy Woogy Council). 3. Reimagine Places (shows images made with generative AI showing a cleaner, larger pond at the park, a library with outdoor bean bags, and the natural history museum with dinosaurs come to life)

Partners

Supratim Pait is the lead PhD student researcher.

Professor Michael Nitsche, director of the Digital World & Image Group, is the co-PI and day-to-day collaborator.

Decatur Makers, an all-ages community makerspace.

Dr. Sumita Sharma and the PAIZ (Participatory AI for Schoolchildren).

The Center for Puppetry Arts graciously advised on puppet designs and provided puppet designs.

Funding

Into the Maker-Verse: Atlanta Edition. 2024. PI: Lorraine Kowalski from Decatur Makers. Grant from the Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI Network. (Note: Georgia Tech researchers were unfunded collaborators on this since we already had the IDEaS grant listed next.)

Applying Generative AI for STEAM Education: Supporting AI Literacy and Community Engagement with Marginalized Youth. PI: Noura Howell, Co-PI: Michael Nitsche, Community Partner: Kalia Morrison from Decatur Makers. Grant from the Georgia Tech Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS).

FuturesAtlanta: Creative Engagement with Generative AI Art as a Method for Designing Local Community Futures with Children in Atlanta. 2023. PI: Noura Howell. Lead PhD student: Supratim Pait. Lead Community Partner: Decatur Makers. Grant from the Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI Network.

Papers

Supratim Pait, Sylvia Janicki, Yuhan Hou, Crystal Byrd Farmer, Lorraine LaGasse Kowalski, Jeremiah Long, Thaís Alvarenga Medina, Xingyu Li, Vyshnavi Namani, Lefton Lew, Michael Nitsche, Noura Howell. 2026. Into the Makerverse: Communal Tangible Making and Place-Based Futuring with AI. Tangible Embedded Embodied Interaction (TEI).

Supratim Pait, Sumita Sharma, Ashley Frith, Michael Nitsche, Noura Howell. 2026. PlayFutures: Imagining Civic Futures with AI and Puppets. Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) Technical Symposium Posters.

Sumita Sharma, Noura Howell, Leena Ventä-Olkkonen, Netta Iivari, Grace Eden, Heidi Hartikainen, Marianne Kinnula, Eva Durall, Michael Nitsche, Jussi Okkonen, Supratim Pait @supratimpait , Elisa Rubegni, Wouter Sluis-Thiescheffer, Lonneke van der Velden, Uttishta Sreerama Varanasi. 2024. Promoting Criticality with Design Futuring with Young Children. Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (NordiCHI).

Supratim Pait, Noura Howell, Michael Nitsche. 2024. PlayFutures: Imagining Civic Futures with AI and Puppets. Position paper at the workshop Child-Centred AI at CHI 2024.