AI Aura is co-led by three scholars exploring GenAI’s impact on cognition, education, culture, and society.

How to contact the team? Email us at: aiaura@grinnell.edu

Eliott, Fernanda – Co-Founder, Cognitive and Computational AI Scientist 

Dr. Eliott is a cognitive and computational AI scientist specializing in reinforcement learning (RL), bio-inspired computational architectures, and philosophical investigation. As the ELBICA lab’s (Grinnell College, CS dept) founder and principal investigator, her team’s research reimagines the role of AI in cognition by integrating emotional mechanisms and moral decision making into multi-agent systems (MAS). At AI Aura, she leads initiatives that treat GenAI systems as provocations, using them to conduct thought experiments and explore epistemic fragilities and ambiguity. Her approach reclaims space for deep systemic reflection, cognition, and ethically motivated contradictions.

Rodriguez, Shanshan – Co-Founder, Black Hole Physicist

Shanshan is a theoretical physicist specializing in gravitation, black hole thermodynamics, and emergent phenomena at the intersection of high-energy and condensed matter physics. At Grinnell College, she co-leads the Black Hole Thermodynamics and Phenomenology (BHTP) Group, advancing models that connect gravitational entropy, horizon dynamics, and observational signatures of black holes. Rodriguez’s work challenges the classical boundaries of general relativity, positioning black holes as laboratories for bridging quantum theory, astrophysical data, and condensed matter analogs. She is also enthusiastic about integrating AI meaningfully into scholarship, pedagogy, and curricula, exploring its potential as both a conceptual tool and a transformative force in higher education. 

Purcell, Sarah J. Co-founder, Historian 

Sarah Purcell is the L.F. Parker Professor of History at Grinnell College and a former chair of Grinnell’s Digital Studies interdisciplinary concentration.  She is a specialist in the political, cultural, and military history of the United States, focusing mostly on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Purcell is the author of over six books including Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in Civil War America (2022); Sealed with Blood: War, Sacrifice, and Memory in Revolutionary America (2002); and co-author of American Horizons (5th edition, 2025), the first U.S. history survey textbook to put American history in a global context.  Among her other interests, Purcell teaches courses on digital history.  She is interested in considering whether AI presents new opportunities that break from the past, or in what ways AI might repeat historical mistakes (in part, by learning from past human experiences and texts).