Sahana Crawford
Spence School Class of 2026
Project: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Workshops
Project Overview
The Foundation’s motto is “saving time, saving lives,” and I saw an opportunity to help save time by teaching everyone how to integrate AI into their workflows. My objective was to equip staff members with foundational AI skills that would boost productivity and efficiency.
Results
Alongside my mentor, I led weekly workshops covering new skills, including customizing generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs), prompt engineering, and creating a Foundation-wide library of custom GPTs that everyone can access and add to. Before the workshops, the Foundation’s library had fewer than 10 custom GPTs, and now, it has more than 30!
My favorite statistic from the weekly ‘challenges’ was that between workshops 2 and 3, more than 140 collective hours were saved across everyone at the Foundation. This was also a week in the middle of July and only accounted for data from fewer than 20 people. Imagine how many more hours could be saved across the entire Foundation at peak work season!
Learn more about Sahana’s project.
Why were you initially interested in working with the Focused Ultrasound Foundation?
The past two summers I’ve had the privilege of learning about focused ultrasound in several research contexts but hadn’t yet experienced how the Foundation itself advances this work. Over the course of two years, I’ve been learning about how this technology works and have been watching the indications that it is used to treat skyrocket. The opportunity to engage directly with the Foundation through their internship program was one that I was really excited to pursue.
What surprised you the most about your internship experience?
Forty-five people attended my first workshop. I was expecting 5-10. The amount of unwavering support and consistent encouragement that I’ve felt from everyone here has been incredible and has truly made all the difference. It’s what has made these workshops possible to begin with.
What was the most important learning point of your internship experience?
I realized how much I love and value teaching people – learning content and passing that knowledge along to help others out has been deeply fulfilling. This summer has also equipped me with leadership skills I’ll use later to mentor and support others I work with.