--- title: Ila Kumar: Innovating with communities | daily.dev description: An MIT PhD student in the Lifelong Kindergarten group describes her research approach of designing technology alongside communities rather than for them,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/ila-kumar-innovating-with-communities-ux0cahqd3 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Ila Kumar: Innovating with communities | daily.dev og:description: An MIT PhD student in the Lifelong Kindergarten group describes her research approach of designing technology alongside communities rather than for them,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/ila-kumar-innovating-with-communities-ux0cahqd3 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/UX0CAhqD3.png og:image:alt: Ila Kumar: Innovating with communities og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Ila Kumar: Innovating with communities **[MIT News](https://daily.dev/sources/mit)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary An MIT PhD student in the Lifelong Kindergarten group describes her research approach of designing technology alongside communities rather than for them, focusing on young people who have experienced trauma and involvement in the child welfare system. Her projects include a visual collage app built with Stepping Forward LA to help youth express emotions, and a mobile app with the Justice Resource Institute supporting active participation in treatment planning. She also runs training workshops helping care providers talk with youth about AI use, co-facilitated a technology leadership circle with Foster America, and co-teaches a course on community-driven innovation at MIT. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [“Wait, we have the tech skills to build that”](https://daily.dev/posts/wait-we-have-the-tech-skills-to-build-that--pjwxk7wuh) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [From technical solution to systems change: Tackling the problem of plastic waste](https://daily.dev/posts/from-technical-solution-to-systems-change-tackling-the-problem-of-plastic-waste-c4ae4fdip) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Celebrating dorm-to-market social entrepreneurship at MIT](https://daily.dev/posts/celebrating-dorm-to-market-social-entrepreneurship-at-mit-ir0rary7s) · MIT News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Evolving Role of the ML Engineer](https://daily.dev/posts/the-evolving-role-of-the-ml-engineer-vz4jhhvn8) · Towards Data Science · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [MIT in the media: Innovating and educating for the next 250 years of America](https://daily.dev/posts/mit-in-the-media-innovating-and-educating-for-the-next-250-years-of-america-uuul4ipnh) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#mit](https://daily.dev/tags/mit), [#human-computer-interaction](https://daily.dev/tags/human-computer-interaction) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/ila-kumar-innovating-with-communities-ux0cahqd3) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Ila Kumar: Innovating with communities","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ila-kumar-innovating-with-communities-ux0cahqd3","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/ila-kumar-innovating-with-communities-ux0cahqd3"},"datePublished":"2026-09-01T04:04:04.924Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:35:10.596Z","description":"An MIT PhD student in the Lifelong Kindergarten group describes her research approach of designing technology alongside communities rather than for them,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/ac5582248effda772e1ed96346a59aeb?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/ac5582248effda772e1ed96346a59aeb?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"MIT News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"MIT News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/881e20a40aa44b12ba4bd27f5c14289d","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/mit"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/ila-kumar-innovating-with-communities-ux0cahqd3","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai,mit,human-computer-interaction","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MIT News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/mit"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Ila Kumar: Innovating with communities"}]} ```