ArticleMay 2, 2026

Student Projects May Be the Harbinger of AI Adoption in Public Health

Closing out UC Berkeley's Emerging Technologies for Public Health course left me with one clear thought: the students already get it, and there is a seismic shift towards citizen science.

By Saugat Karki· Also on LinkedIn

Closing keynote at UC Berkeley's Emerging Technologies for Public Health course

Just closed out UC Berkeley’s Emerging Technologies for Public Health course. Left with one clear thought: student projects may be the harbinger of successful AI adoption in public health, and there is a seismic shift towards citizen science.

AI is ubiquitous. What matters now is who’s shaping it.

I was especially impressed with student projects that used real-time drone-based pictures for geotagging pollution, tracking water quality in real time, linking environmental data to One Health frameworks, and ultimately assessing policy impact through projects like OneAquatics.

The institutions will catch up. The students already get it.

public-healthaicitizen-scienceone-healthuc-berkeleyhealth-informaticsemerging-technologies

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