AI Summer School 2025

Registration is closed. We will have limited on-site availability. Please contact us for more information.

Join us for an immersive week-long summer school focused on the cutting-edge advancements and practical applications of deep learning and AI. This program is designed for enthusiasts and professionals with a strong foundation in programming, specifically those familiar with Python and modern development environments. Each day is structured to provide a comprehensive blend of theoretical foundations, practical insights, and hands-on experiences, utilizing Python, PyTorch, and VSCode.Participants will have the opportunity to learn from leading experts, engage in thought-provoking discussions, and explore the latest trends and challenges in the field. The program kicks off with a “Deep Learning Jump Start,” introducing the basics of neural networks and essential optimization techniques. As the week progresses, participants will delve into practical issues with real-world data, including data augmentation, diagnostics, and troubleshooting. Advanced models like transformers and large language models will be explored in depth, along with a dedicated day to visual AI, covering diffusion models and advanced generative techniques. We conclude with critical aspects of AI ethics, including privacy, fairness, transparency, and model robustness. This summer school promises a rich learning experience, combining theoretical knowledge with practical applications, ensuring participants are well-equipped to tackle contemporary challenges in AI.New this year, we’re introducing an AI Workshop Track that runs in parallel with the main lecture series, turning Stevenson Hall into a studio for discovery. Guided by experienced AI coaches-scholars who build and deploy deep-learning systems every day-these sessions replace slides with keyboards, pairing brief concept primers with coding labs, model-building sprints, and code reviews. You’ll iterate through mini-projects that sharpen core skills like data wrangling in pandas, custom layer design in PyTorch, prompt engineering for LLMs, and deployment tips for VSCode + Docker, all while receiving real-time feedback tailored to your current level. Whether you’re eager to solidify fundamentals or push into advanced experimentation, the AI Workshop Track provides a collaborative sandbox where ideas migrate from whiteboard to working prototype before day’s end-ensuring you leave not just inspired, but armed with reproducible notebooks and a toolkit you can drop directly into your own research or product pipeline.What: AI Summer School / 2025Where: Stevenson Hall on Vanderbilt’s Campus. 

• Main Hall: Stevenson 4309
• AI Workshop Track: Stevenson 4327

When: August 11-14, 2025 / 9 am – 4:30 pm Coffee & Food: Of course! 

On Site Logistics

For a full campus map, please see: https://www.vanderbilt.edu/map/

Campus Locations

Detailed View of Room Locations

Keynotes

From Classroom to Boardroom: How Students Delivered $72M in Business Value with AI

This keynote showcases the transformative outcomes of an innovative collaboration between Vanderbilt University’s Data Science Institute and Nissan North America. Over the course of 12 weeks, eight interdisciplinary student teams tackled real-world business challenges-ranging from cost optimization and predictive sourcing to EV charging behavior and app analytics. By leveraging AI, machine learning, and agile methodologies, the teams delivered scalable solutions with a combined estimated value of $72 million. This session highlights the power of academic-industry partnerships, the importance of future-proof data skills, and the impact of empowering emerging talent to drive innovation at scale.  Brief Biography:  Francois Peltier is a transformation leader with over 20 years of global experience in automotive, finance, and mobility. As former Director of Open Innovation for the Renault-Nissan Alliance in Silicon Valley, he helped launch a $400M venture fund, forged strategic partnerships with tech leaders like VISA, and led pioneering initiatives in AI, payments, and smart mobility. At Nissan, he drives enterprise-wide innovation-leading AI-powered programs, data governance, and strategic planning that have delivered over $100M in value. His work spans digital customer experience, SaaS ecosystems, and corporate finance. A seasoned speaker and educator, Francois has presented at global forums including the World Economic Forum and teaches at Vanderbilt DSI and collaborated with several prestigious universities such as UC Berkeley and Stanford. Fluent in multiple languages and passionate about technology and mobility, he brings strategic insight and operational excellence to every stage. 

.max-message { display: block; margin: 0 4px; padding: 10px 0; font-style: italic; }

AI in Practice: Behavioral Design and Feedback from the Drive-Thru Frontier

Most artificial intelligence systems are trained in controlled environments. Ours was deployed in a drive-thru. Over the past two years, FreshAi, a generative AI platform developed for one of the most operationally demanding and behaviorally complex domains in the world, has powered more than 15 million customer interactions across hundreds of restaurants. Rather than functioning in simulated conditions, it operates in real-world settings shaped by environmental noise, overlapping speech, evolving expectations, and live operational pressure. In this keynote, product leader Will Croushorn shares lessons from building and scaling FreshAi at the enterprise level. What began as a conversational interface quickly became a source of continuous learning, surfacing behavioral signals, exposing design gaps, and creating new forms of organizational insight. These signals, once dismissed as background noise, are now informing how Wendy’s understands its customers, trains its teams, and shapes future experiences. This is not simply a story about fast food or automation. It is a case study in how real-world AI can reveal unexpected patterns, foster trust through interaction, and expand accessibility through thoughtful design. The drive-thru has become an unlikely proving ground for applied intelligence at scale. Whether you are developing foundational models, designing human-centered interfaces, or deploying AI across enterprise environments, the lessons from FreshAi offer a glimpse into the future of intelligence that is context-aware, adaptive, and built to serve people in the moments that matter most. Brief Biography:Will Croushorn is the co-creator of FreshAi, Wendy’s generative AI drive-thru platform now serving over 100,000 customers a day across hundreds of locations-with more than 15 million orders to date and expansion to 600+ sites by the end of 2025. As Product Manager, he leads development at the intersection of machine intelligence, crew experience, and behavioral design, helping turn FreshAi into one of the first large-scale, real-world deployments of customer-facing AI. His work has been featured by Fast Company, Forbes, and NBC Nightly News, and was named one of Fast Company’s “Next Big Things in Tech.” Beyond voice, Will is exploring embodied AI through computer vision and projection-based interfaces, focused on how intelligent systems earn trust and adapt in the messy, high-stakes world of physical spaces.

.max-message { display: block; margin: 0 4px; padding: 10px 0; font-style: italic; }

Meet the Speakers

---

Meet the Coaches

---

Program at a Glance

TIME	Monday August 11	TuesdayAugust 12	WednesdayAugust 13	ThursdayAugust 14
8:30 am	Registration and Breakfast
9:00 am	Opening Remarks	Transformers from 0 to 60 – Jesse Spencer-Smith	Keynote:Wendy’s Fresh AI, Will Croushorn, AI Product Leader. AI in Practice: Behavioral Design and Feedback from the Drive-Thru Frontier	Open Research Day, Call to Action – Jeffrey Neul
9:30 am	Keynote: Francois Peltier Transformation Lead, Nissan Motor Company From Classroom to Boardroom: How Students Delivered $72M in Business Value with AI Introduction & QA Chair: Dr. Jesse Spencer-Smith			Beyond Accuracy: Likelihood, Uncertainty, and Statistical Thinking in AI – Bobby Bodenheimer
10:00 am		Vibe Coding for Scientists – Jesse Spencer-Smith	A Crash Course on Optimal Transport and Wasserstein Distances – Soheil Kolouri	Human Tumor Atlasing Data at Scale: A Foundation for AI-driven Precision Medicine – Ken Lao
10:30 am	AI Basic: From Linear Regression to Neural Network – Yuankai Huo			Domain Identification, Integration, and 3D Reconstruction Using Spatial Transcriptomics Data – Mazie Zhou
11:00 am		Diagnostics and Dashboard– Yehyun Suh	The Shape of Data in Noise: Diffusion Models as a Programmable Prior – Lianrui Zuo	AI-guided precision surgery –  Jie Ying Wu
11:30 am				VMAC – Timothy Hohman
12:00  pm	Lunch
12:30 pm
1:00 pm	Neural Network Architectures –  Daniel Moyer	Timeseries Transformers: Basic Concepts and Applications in Neuroscience –Chang Li	ADVANCE, AI-enable EHR phenotyping – Wei-Qi Wei	Segment Anything: Capabilities, Challenges, and Research Directions – Hao Li
1:30 pm				Phenotype Harmonization – Thomas Lasko
2:00 pm	Neural Network Architectures –  Daniel Moyer	One Model, Reasoning Many Worlds: Quantizing the Multi-modal Revolution – Vishwesh Nath	Scaling Intelligence: How Foundation Models Are Redefining AI – Yihao Liu	Safeguarding privacy in AI for health: challenges and opportunities – Luca Bonomi
2:30 pm				AI and Archaeology: Vision Transformers for Feature Detection in Satellite Imagery at Continental Scale– James Zimmer-Dauphinee
3:00 pm	Introduction to Accre – Lindsey Fox & Michael McAllister	Mentor Match	Alumni/IAP Panel	Algorithm Fairness – Melinda Aldrich
3:30 pm				Making the Ethically Right Choices in AI – Susannah Rose
4:00 pm	Networking	Networking	Networking	AI Governance – Mark Williams, Law

Program Details

Final Program PDF

AI Workshop Track

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
9:30	Single track	Single track	Single track	Optimal Transport for Practitioners: A Hands-On Tutorial
10:30	How To Use FLUX AI | ComfyUI Tutorial	Deep learning methods or pipeline for spatial transcriptomics data	Pair Programming with CoPilot: Familiarization with GitHub and AI Tools
11	Resilient Distributed Machine Learning	Political Economy of AI		Spotify AI Recommendations
11:30
Noon	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH
1:00	Eyes on your model: Log everything and anything as you train	Single track	Hello AI World: Your First Steps with environments and IDEs	Art and creativity in an AI-driven world
1:30		Single track	ChatGPT prompting for a personalized professional website with GitHub pages	Sandbox Science: Testing Big AI Ideas on Tiny Datasets
2:00	Containerization for Science: Making Your Work Portable and Reproducible	Single track
2:30		Single track		Single track

---

Academic Sponsors

VALIANT, ADVANCE, ACCRE, CS, DSI, ECE, LIVE, VKC, VINSE, VISE & Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are co-hosting the AI Summer School / 2025 Release.

2025 Industry Sponsors