Oxford Summer Program provides insights into AI and LLM research for ADM+S PhD students
Author ADM+S Centre
Date 28 September 2026
Four researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) recently participated in the Oxford Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Program 2026 (OIISDP26), hosted by the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and the UC Berkeley School of Information.
ADM+S PhD students Samantha Floreani from Monash University, Meg Thomas from the University of Queensland and Sadia Sharmin and Jiaru Tang from QUT were among 27 PhD researchers from around the world who attended OIISDP26. The researchers came together for two weeks of lectures, workshops, research presentations and more.
The program explored topics aligned with ADM+S research, including AI, computational methods, socio-technical research and AI regulation. This year featured a focus on generative and agentic AI, with faculty presenting research involving large language models (LLM’s).
“Most of the lectures were interdisciplinary and mostly focused on computational methods, for example, how we can use AI for socio-technical research and network theory.” said Sadia.
During the program, the researchers spent time analysing the work of established scholars across internet studies, quantitative social science and social informatics. Samantha said they were given a valuable opportunity to view how researchers across disciplines were exploring technologies like generative and agentic AI.
“It was interesting to see how researchers from different institutions, backgrounds and disciplines are approaching emerging technologies,” Samantha said.
The program also provided an opportunity for the ADM+S researchers to present their respective PhD work and receive feedback from faculty and other attendees. Sadia Sharmin mentioned this was a particular highlight for her.
“We had the opportunity to present part of our PhD thesis to faculty and fellow participants, their feedback helped us feel more confident in our work,” she said.
When they weren’t in seminars or workshops, the researchers spent time networking and developing relationships with other PhD students and scholars. Samantha said these connections were one of the most valuable outcomes of the experience.
“For me, the biggest takeaway from this experience were the relationships that I developed with the people I met over the course of the programme,” she said.
“I finished the two weeks with some great new friends and future collaborators who share a passion for similar research questions and socio-political challenges all over the world, at all kinds of research institutions.”
Sadia says the experience provided new motivation for her research.
“The highlight for me was sharing my work with world-leading faculty whose work I really admire, getting their feedback, and building relationships with other PhD students.
“I came back inspired and with fresh ideas for my research,” she said.
