The AI CoLab
A decade of undergraduates doing real, original AI research on the questions that matter — open to every division of the liberal arts.
A curriculum built in 2016
Jon and Katherine Elkins co-founded the AI CoLab and an early human-centered AI curriculum at Kenyon in 2016. Students bring the integrated humane-studies tradition to AI from the inside, building and testing systems rather than only studying them.
The courses
- IPHS 200 — Programming Humanity
- IPHS 300 — AI for Humanity
- IPHS 391 — Frontiers of AI: GenAI Multi-Agent Networks: one of the first interdisciplinary, project-based agentic-AI courses, open to every division of the liberal arts. Approved 2023; first taught Fall 2024; last taught Fall 2025; more than half the content is rewritten each year as the field moves. Course materials:
- IPHS 484 — Senior Seminar
Reach
Student and faculty research from the program has been downloaded 95,336 times from 4,760 institutions across 198 countries (as of May 2026, per Digital Kenyon). Adopting institutions include Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and Princeton. Browse the work on Digital Kenyon →
On the road
Co-founder Katherine Elkins has presented the program widely — including at Carleton College's Day of Digital Humanities, the Kahn Institute at Smith College, Washington University, Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar, and the OpenAI Forum.
What is the AI CoLab?
The lab Jon co-founded with Katherine Elkins at Kenyon College in 2016, home to an early human-centered AI curriculum.
What is IPHS 391?
One of the first interdisciplinary, project-based agentic-AI courses, open to every division of the liberal arts; approved in 2023 and first taught in Fall 2024.
How widely is the student work used?
Student and faculty research from the program has been downloaded 95,336 times from 4,760 institutions across 198 countries (per Digital Kenyon).