Graduate returns to Clemson to shape the future of AI

Kwame André watched a robotic dog whir to life and walk across a carpeted floor in McAdams Hall. It was just another day in the lab for André, but for much of the rest of the world it was a vision of the future he is starting to shape.

André is graduating in May with a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Clemson University, but he won’t be going far after collecting his diploma.

He’s staying at Clemson to pursue a Ph.D., focusing on how human beings and artificial intelligence can best work together.

André, who is from Greer, entered Clemson four years ago in the first cohort of Breakthrough Scholars. The program, still going strong, is aimed at a select group of in-state undergraduates who choose STEM majors and have shown an interest in pursuing graduate degrees.

As part of the program, André and his group had a chance to stay on campus in the summer before most other freshmen arrived.

They toured labs, heard what it takes to pursue graduate-level research, took classes on calculus and Clemson’s history and visited two of the university’s enterprise campuses.

In Breakthrough Scholars, he met Sherece Smith, the program’s associate director who he credits among his most influential mentors at Clemson.

André said that he could swing by Cribb Hall and talk to Smith about anything. When he was deciding between going into industry or pursuing a graduate degree, she was there for him.

“You can go in there and she would tell you to you straight and give you honest advice,” André said. “You could really tell she’s out there fighting for you.”

Smith said that as a member of the first Breakthrough Scholars cohort, André has been instrumental in shaping the program. He has mentored three students and shared what he has learned as an undergraduate, including how to be professional and to land internships.

“He has constantly shown up when I’ve asked,” Smith said. “That has been instrumental in showing the cohorts behind him what it looks like to be a leader in the program and what kind of impact they can all have.”

André, who is an Honors student, has consistently taken opportunities to learn more and gain experience, even in the summers. He interned for Deloitte as a solutions engineering summer scholar and worked as a student researcher at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Andre has also started conducting research at Clemson, working in the TRACE Research Group, led by Nathan McNeese, McQueen Quattlebaum Endowed Associate Professor of Human-Centered Computing. André has also conducted research with Chris Flathmann, an assistant professor in the School of Computing who will serve as his Ph.D. advisor.

But André’s undergraduate years weren’t all work. What he said he will remember most are playing games and late-night conversations with his roommates.

Christian Scott, one of his former roommates who now works at Deloitte, said one of André’s strongest assets is his intelligence.

“He is down to earth– kind of a calm, chilled, almost serene sort of personality,” Scott said. “He is very, very thoughtful in how he talks and explains things. We would start talking at 7 and all of a sudden it’s 2 a.m., and we’ve gone through five different conversations– all super thoughtful, but just having fun.”

André plans to have some fun after graduation, including a siblings’ trip to Washington, D.C., where he and his sister, Mya, plan to attend a performance of Japanese recording artist Ichiko Aoba.

Also on the trip will be their brother, Dante, who received a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering from Clemson in 2021, works in Atlanta and is pursuing an MBA from Clemson.

The three are the children of Herby and Margarette André, of Greer.

After the trip, Kwame plans to head back to the lab to help shape the future of AI as a tool to serve humans.

“I don’t think it’s capable of replacing us, not in the next four or five years, especially in creative disciplines as well as more technical disciplines like computing,” he said. “I’ve heard it said the calculator didn’t displace mathematicians, it just helped them do their job more efficiently. So that’s how AI should come into our scenarios.”