Collin Lucken
Hastings Postdoctoral Scholar in AI & Humanity
Bowdoin College
My research investigates scientific epistemology, cognitive science, and public engagement with science and their implications at the intersection of scientific progress and artificial intelligence. In my current role at Bowdoin College, I support students and faculty by helping them decide how and whether to integrate AI into their learning, teaching, and research, while pursing my own. Prior to my current position, I completed a PhD in Philosophy and a Masters in Robotics and Intelligent Autonomous Systems at the University of Cincinnati.
News
- 2025 Recruited a team of undergraduate student ambassadors as part of the Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity.
- 2025 Joined Bowdoin College as Hastings Postdoctoral Scholar in AI and Humanity.
- 2025 Article published in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science: “Leveraging participatory sense-making and public engagement with science for AI democratization.”
- 2025 PhD dissertation completed: Engineering Progress in Science, University of Cincinnati.
- 2024 M.Eng. in Robotics and Intelligent Autonomous Systems completed.
Research Areas
Two primary lines of inquiry. For details and publications, see the research page.
Scientific Progress
My primary research area concerns philosophical issues in scientific progress. More specifically, I examine making, building, and engineering in science by applying concepts from 4E cognition to scientific practice.
AI Methods in Science
In addition to studying how engineers make progress in science as a philosopher, I also conduct research on AI methods in social science and in bio-inspired robotics. Most recently, I've been collaborating with a team of political scientists to analyze international human rights court decisions using LLM-coding methods, and I've been applying agentic AI to the design and analysis of simulations in evolutionary robotics.