Introduction
Emerging Technologies & Social Change: Harness the Power of AI and Citizen Science:
Join the Designathon!
This course is open to all early career PhD candidates and postdocs afffiliated with EGSH and the Convergence.
ECTS: 2.5
Number of sessions: 2
Hours per session: 8 and 4
Curious about how your research can make a real-world impact beyond academia? Wondering how your skills connect with others in tackling today’s big challenges?
Join our Design-a-thon and be part of shaping the future of AI-assisted health research, in collaboration with the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI). This hands-on, transdisciplinary event invites you to explore how AI, human expertise, and citizen science can come together to drive meaningful innovation.
Discover what happens when emerging technologies meet community-driven insight - and use your own research skills to make a difference where it truly matters.
Key Facts & Figures
- Type
- Workshop
- Instruction language
- English
Start dates for: Designathon Ai in transdisciplinary research
Session 1 (Designathon including lunch):
April 1 (Wednesday) 2026 | 09.00-17.00 hrs | Offline (Erasmus Education Lab, ground floor Polak building)
Session 2 (Co-creation session):
April 15 (Wednesday) 2026 | 13.00-17.00 hrs | Offline (Erasmus Education Lab, ground floor Polak building)
What will you achieve?
- You will be able to make a tangible impact: contribute to cutting-edge research into immunotherapy and AI.
- You will collaborate across disciplines: work with scientists, designers and pathologists and bring in your expertise to think out-of-box.
- You will gain hands-on AI experience: learn how AI models are trained and used in real-world applications and what role society has in this development.
- You will be able to expand your network: connect with experts from academia, industry (Vodafone/Ziggo), and healthcare
Session 1: design-a-thon
In this hands-on workshop, you’ll work together with researchers, AI experts, and industry partners to design the Cell Lab - a hub where players, patients, pathologists, and scientists unite to map human cells and advance cancer research. Moreover, a hub that visibly increases the learning capacity on all fronts: from algorithms, to doctors and researchers, to patients and players. In short, it makes impact and learning go hand in hand, with the goal to make immunotherapy available and known to as many patients as possible.
(Lunch is included for this session).
Session 2: amplifying the Social Impact of Your Research
This session focuses on enhancing the social impact of your academic work. What difference can your research make in the world? What values and tangible outcomes would you like it to foster? How can you identify or create opportunities for your work to extend beyond academia—into policy, art, medicine, community engagement, education, politics, public discourse, technological innovation, or everyday practices?
Together, we’ll explore the skills you need to develop and the actionable steps you can take to realize this vision. By mapping your research context and crafting a plan for meaningful impact, you will not only hone transdisciplinary collaboration skills but also create a concrete strategy to translate your work into real-world change.
Instructor
- Shailoh PhillipsShailoh Phillips is an artist, writer, community organizer, and action researcher. For over 15 years, she has worked on transdisciplinary projects that create dynamic, participatory spaces addressing urgent social and ecological challenges. Her practice emphasizes playful resistance, identifying pressure points to confront social inequalities and environmental crises. She fosters imaginative responses and cultivates our capacity to perceive, respond, and act in the face of catastrophes. As a fractal systems thinker, she explores how large-scale collective issues appear in daily life and how internal transformation can drive systemic change. Trained in cultural anthropology, cultural analysis, and philosophy, she holds an MA in Education in Arts (Piet Zwart Institute). Her previous roles include coordinating the Media Lab at the Rijksmuseum, contributing to the Tools for Action collective, co-founding Salwa Foundation to support migrant artists and teaching at art academies across the Netherlands. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in narrative psychology and palliative care (University of Twente, Artez, UMC), focusing on art-based learning sessions for individuals with incurable cancer.
Contact
- Enrolment-related questions: enrolment@egsh.eur.nl
- Course-related questions: annemiek@teamkallenbach.com
- Telephone: +31 (0)10 4082607 (Graduate School)
Facts & Figures
- Fee
- free for PhD candidates and postdocs of the Graduate School and the Convergence*
- 575,- for PhD candidates and postdocs of other universities and institutes
- consult our enrolment policy for more information
(within the AI, Data & Digitalisation theme)
- Tax
- Not applicable
- Offered by
- Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities
- Course type
- Workshop
- Instruction language
- English
- Location
Designathon 1 April 2026:
Erasmus Education Lab
Polak building | ground floorCo-creation session 15 April 2026:
Erasmus Education Lab
Polak building | ground floor
- Partner
This workshop is powered by:
AICON lab
Changegamers
Convergence
Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities (EGSH)