Hi, I'm Randi

In a nutshell, I love to make things – playful, purposeful, and beautiful things.

About Me

I am a proud daughter of Prince George’s County, Maryland, a strong community that inspired my love of engineering and social change. I am passionate about using technology and education as uplifting forces in society.
I am currently the Program Manager at the Algorithmic Justice League, a non-profit working toward algorithmic justice and a spin-off from the MIT Media Lab where I completed my PhD. I earned my PhD at the MIT Media Lab in the Personal Robots Group .
In 2026, I will join the illustrious faculty of the HCII at Carnegie Mellon University as an Assistant Research Professor.

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research portfolio

My research aim is to create sustaining bridges between communities and technology to drive innovation.

Leveraging AI, robotics, and HCI I design and explore technologies that positively impact society according to the following research themes:

AI education

inclusive AI

human-ai
interaction

view publications on Google Scholar jump to leadership and outreach

ai education

Empowering the next generation of tech change-makers

The Impact.AI Framework

Personal Robots Group

The Impact.AI literacy framework covers the AI knowledge and perspectives that align with a technosocial change agent identity.

How to Train Your Robot

Personal Robots Group & I2 Learning

How to Train Your Robot is a curriculum for middle school students to explore AI and ethics, then build projects with real-world impact.

AI for Wellbeing (Dr. R.O. Bott)

Personal Robots Group

AI for Wellbeing is a middle school curriculum exploring conversational AI, equity in healthcare, and design justice through hands-on activities.

The Raise AI Playground

Personal Robots Group & MIT RAISE

The Raise AI Playground suite of block-based programming tools allows anyone to use and create machine learning, robotics, and AI projects.

Doodlebot

Personal Robots Group

Doodlebot is a mobile, social, drawing robot designed for K-12 AI curricula. It engages learners and enables hands-on practice.

ML Blocks

Microsoft Research

ML Blocks are a block-based user interface for creating TinyML models. With ML BLocks users can train and deploy microcontroller models.

Primary AI

Personal Robots Group and Parque La Libertad

GenAI K2 and PrimaryAI 35 introduce early learners to robotics and AI through hands-on lessons in engineering, art, and psychology.

Course: MAS.S65

MIT Media Lab, Spring 2019 & 2020

MAS.S65 was a project-based course that explored “how we might empower middle-school students to learn about AI through hands-on lessons?"

Inclusive ai

Responsibly designing AI systems with key stakeholders for real-world impact

S.P.A.R.K.I

Personal Robots Group & AppInventor

S.P.A.R.K.I. is a GPT-powered chatbot that provides programming assistance, gives students feedback on their ideas, and socially mediates creative thinking.

LevelUp

Personal Robots Group, UROP Project

LevelUp is an automatic code analysis tool built into a block-based programming platform that gives users continuous feedback on their machine learning projects.

PopBots

Personal Robots Group

The Preschool-Oriented Programming (POP) Platform is a social robot platform that introduces young children to programming, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

human-AI interaction

Collecting narratives about AI past, present, & future

A is for Artificial Intelligence

Personal Robots Group

We explored young children's perceptions of AI, and how learning about AI influenced their beliefs.

Child-AI Interaction

Personal Robots Group

We studied how children (3-10 years old) interacted with voice personal assistants and smart toys.

Relational AI

Personal Robots Group

We adapted and created assessments to measure young children's long-term relationships with social robots.

leadership & Outreach

Advancing the field of AI through outreach and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Black in Robotics Boston, 2020 - Present

I am a co-director of the Black in Robotics Boston Chapter. We host professional development and social activities for people in the robotics community (undergraduate, academia, industry, etc.) who identify as African-American. Visit the website to join the mailing list and hear about upcoming events.

Women + Tech Week, Mexico, 2020

Women + Majors week was an outreach initiative launched in 2020 by university students from the Monterrey Institutie of Technology. Over the course o f the week, more than 70 women gathered virtually to engage in workshops about different STEM careers. I ran a two-day bilingual workshop introducing participants to Artificial Intelligence and considering how we might use machine learning for meaningful societal impact.

STEM Education in Ghana, 2019

In Summer 2019 I took a trip to Accra, Ghana to visit the Practical Education Network and Ashesi University. While I was there, I met with educators at an orphanage and local school to run AI workshops.

hackUMBC, 2014

In 2014 I co-led UMBC's first hackathon under the banner "Hacking to Improve Campus Life." Although hackathons are popular in some communtiies, one had never happened in any instituion in Baltimore before. We focused our work on creating opportunities for students who don't usually engage in CS to explore it. PuppyHacks continues to this day!
This work inspired hackathons around the city, notably the Protect and Serve hackathon in West Baltimore that brought together community members and law enforcement officers.

Press and features

2023 CS Ed Week CS Hero - CS Teacher's Association
2023 Day of AI with Randi Williams - AVID Open Access
2023 Do scientists have superpowers? (includes coloring page) - BrainsOn
2023 Unleashing Creativity: Blocks and Curricula for K-12 AI Ed - Google Blockly Developer Summit
2021 PopBots Open AI to the Youngest Learners - HelloWorld Raspberry Pi Foundation
2021 Curious Scientist of the Year Award - Cambridge Science Festival
2021 Announcing the 2021 Microsoft Research Fellows - Microsoft Research
2021 Harvard CRCS Rising Stars Lecture - Harvard University
2020 Celebrating Teaching Assistants in MAS - MIT Media Lab
2020 Bringing artificial intelligence into the classroom, research lab, and beyond - MIT News
2020 LEGO and MIT Partner on Ethics in AI - ASUGSV
2020 A lesson in machine learning with Randi Williams! - Raspberry Pi Foundation
2020 Introducing Role Model Randi Williams, Robotics Researcher - Career Girls
2020 How to Train Your Robot Teacher Training - YouTube channel
2020 Introduction to PopBots - YouTube channel
2019 PopBots, the MIT platform teaching AI to kids - Education 3.0
2019 PopBots: A Hands-on STEAM platform for the AI generation - Medium
2019 Announcing the 2019 LEGO Papert Fellows - MIT Media Lab
2019 Bringing artificial intelligence and MIT to middle school classrooms - MIT News
2019 Teaching AI to Preschoolers - TWIML AI Podcast
2018 What was the first robot? - BrainsOn
2017 Should Children Form Emotional Bonds With Robots? - The Atlantic
2017 Kids and AI Devices - Medium
2017 Growing Up With Alexa - MIT Technology Review
2014 Connecting Kids From Diverse Backgrounds to Tech - White House Archives
2014 In tech, some minorities are too minor. This group wants to change that - Fortune

Dr. Randi
Williams

empowers communities to shape technology

Hi, I'm Randi

About Me

research portfolio

ai education

The Impact.AI Framework

How to Train Your Robot

AI for Wellbeing (Dr. R.O. Bott)

The Raise AI Playground

Doodlebot

ML Blocks

Primary AI

Course: MAS.S65

Inclusive ai

S.P.A.R.K.I

LevelUp

PopBots

human-AI interaction

A is for Artificial Intelligence

Child-AI Interaction

Relational AI

leadership & Outreach

Black in Robotics Boston, 2020 - Present

Women + Tech Week, Mexico, 2020

STEM Education in Ghana, 2019

hackUMBC, 2014

Press and features

Dr. RandiWil​liams

empowers communities to shape technology

Hi, I'm Randi

About Me

research portfolio

ai education

The Impact.AI Framework

How to Train Your Robot

AI for Wellbeing (Dr. R.O. Bott)

The Raise AI Playground

Doodlebot

ML Blocks

Primary AI

Course: MAS.S65

Inclusive ai

S.P.A.R.K.I

LevelUp

PopBots

human-AI interaction

A is for Artificial Intelligence

Child-AI Interaction

Relational AI

leadership & Outreach

Black in Robotics Boston, 2020 - Present

Women + Tech Week, Mexico, 2020

STEM Education in Ghana, 2019

hackUMBC, 2014

Press and features

Dr. Randi
Williams