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Students from the Vanderbilt Cloud Innovation Lab for Libraries and Applied Digital Preservation, powered by AWS, represented Vanderbilt University through technical demonstrations, professional networking, and award-winning innovation at the 2026 AWS Summit Washington, D.C.
Rithika Thambireddy, Wasi Hussain and Brian Viner, guided by Vanderbilt Libraries Cloud Innovation Lead Erin Geier, attended the summit June 30–July 1 as representatives of VCIL, joining cloud professionals, public-sector leaders, technology teams and university innovation centers from across the country.
With relatively few students participating in the professional event, the Vanderbilt team had a distinctive opportunity to demonstrate that student-developed technology can address challenges extending beyond the classroom.
Presenting a production-ready video tool
At a Cloud Innovation Center station, Viner presented the team’s video auto-labeling work alongside Amazon Solutions Architect Maciej Zukowski. The tool is designed to improve the segmentation and labeling of audiovisual content, helping transform lengthy recordings into organized and searchable material. The demonstration allowed attendees to see not only the technical capabilities of the system, but also its potential applications in research, media, industry and government environments.
The presentation generated conversations with professionals interested in how the approach might be adapted to real organizational needs. It also gave the students experience explaining their technical decisions and demonstrating their work to audiences outside the university.
Turning an unexpected opportunity into a hackathon win
While attending the summit, Hussain learned that the AWS Global Government Hackathon was taking place nearby at the Marriott Marquis. Although he had traveled to Washington to represent VCIL, not specifically to compete, he decided to participate. It was Hussain’s first hackathon involving both students and professionals from a range of industries.
Entering without expectations, Hussain developed Aegis-Edge, a counter-uncrewed aircraft system designed to keep a large language model outside the operational “kill chain” while enabling communication between two convoys through Link 16. The project earned fifth place and received the hackathon’s Best Collaboration Award.
The achievement was especially notable because Hussain chose to take on the challenge while already participating in an intensive professional conference. His decision reflects the initiative encouraged within VCIL: identifying an unexpected opportunity, building under time constraints, collaborating with new people, and applying technical knowledge to a complex problem.
Building connections beyond Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt representatives also connected with other university cloud innovation centers to exchange best practices and explore possible collaborations. The discussions included potential partnerships related to AI-supported learning environments, graph databases, research-discovery tools, and cloud-based systems that could be adapted to academic and public-sector needs. One possible future collaboration involves Vanderbilt’s AI-supported Learning Hub and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh.
Together, the station demonstration and hackathon achievement showed two sides of the VCIL student experience—developing technologies through sustained project work and responding creatively to new challenges in real time.
“The AWS Summit was a fantastic experiential learning opportunity for our students,” said Jon Shaw, dean of libraries and letters and Connie Vinita Dowell University Librarian. “By presenting to and receiving feedback from industry professionals, building new relationships, and competing successfully alongside their peers, Rithika, Wasi and Brian demonstrated how student-led innovation can contribute meaningfully to professional technology communities.”