By Joan Tupponce

Since her youth, Kate Ogden has seen science and art in everything she does.

“I always see the full picture,” said Ogden, who graduates in May with a degree in art education from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts.

Ogden was exposed to art at an early age through her mother’s early interior design career. She carried that interest through high school, taking several courses in art and visual design.

Her enthusiasm for science also started in her youth when she acquired a penchant for the outdoors.

“I liked collecting things like rocks and then learning about them,” said Ogden, who grew up in Chesterfield County not far from VCU. “I was also inspired by my teachers in middle and high school.”

At VCU, she has had a strong interest in integrating science into art.

“I have realized that a lot of things I do in science are done through an artistic view,” she said.

Meshing the two has proved valuable to Ogden, who has been working with Oscar Keyes, Ph.D., multimedia teaching and learning librarian in VCU Libraries, on the project “What’s Really Real: AI and Photography.” The K-16 curricular resource examines the intersection of artificial intelligence and photography.

The curriculum is aimed at helping students gain an understanding of the camera’s relationship with reality, and supporting them as they navigate an increasingly confusing media landscape of misinformation.

“Kate really took the lead on this project over the summer” last year, Keyes said. “As she was the one facilitating the workshops with the middle-schoolers, her firsthand knowledge was essential to getting a sense of what worked when talking about some of these deeper ethical, philosophical and conceptual questions about synthetic media. It gave me a lot of hope that this generation of teachers can tackle these big questions and concerns related to AI. ”

Ogden admits she didn’t have much interest in AI and wasn’t well-versed in photography before taking one of Keyes’ classes, but she was eager to learn more about AI models.

“Kate is delightfully curious about the world around her and cares deeply about how young people encounter the world around them,” Keyes said.

Ogden, whose research project was supported with a grant from VCU’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, was a little apprehensive about teaching kids to use AI, but she also realizes that teaching students the context around AI is crucial.

“As a teacher, we have to teach them what AI is and how to use it correctly,” she said. “If you don’t teach them the proper way, they will use it in a negative way because they don’t know any better.”

Ogden answered some quick additional questions about her experience as an undergraduate researcher.

What led you to this research?

My mentor, Oscar Keys, truly led me to the research. However, I would say that it was something we discovered together during his Photography in Education class. It was in his class that I created a project focused on the narrative behind deep fakes.  

Beyond the research itself, what skills or connections have you developed through this project?

I’ve been able to gain a lot of networking experience by being able to attend conferences with fellow educators who are research-based, while also improving my public speaking skills. I have also now become a seasonal worker at the Smithsonian.

What did you enjoy most about this project?

Being able to teach my curriculum to students and watch how our resource functioned in a classroom. I also loved the support from the UROP staff — they truly made me feel like I belonged, even when I was nervous I wouldn’t fit in as an art student!

What advice do you have for other undergrads on how to get involved in research?

Never be afraid to try something new in class and to talk to your professors about things you’d like to try.