Tuesday Mainstage

C.L.Ai.R.A. is an AI-powered avatar design designed by Create Labs. She’s known as the world’s first bilingual, autonomous, Afro-Latina artificial intelligence. Her mission is simple: Make the world a better place. According to Create Labs, C.L.Ai.R.A, a virtual influencer, wants to meet new people, share ideas and inspire others to learn about AI and its potential impact on their lives. She also showcases the full extent of what's possible with digital human design.

As the associate director of NYC Media Lab and Verizon’s 5G edtech program, Abran Maldonado is instrumental in expanding the program's impact to students and teachers, and scaling solutions to dozens of schools across the nation. Maldonado is a tech entrepreneur, scholar and lifelong advocate for disadvantaged youth. He co-founded Create Labs Ventures, a social venture that creates new opportunities for the underserved community to enter tech and media industries. Maldonado is also a Gates Millennium Scholar, an award given to future community leaders, and holds degrees from St. John’s University and Columbia University’s Teachers College, and reached doctoral candidate status at NYU Steinhardt.

Alie Ward is a Daytime Emmy Award-winning science correspondent for CBS’ “The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation with Mo Rocca,” and host of “Did I Mention Invention?” on the CW. She also appears on Netflix’s science series, “Brainchild,” and Science Channel’s “How to Build Everything.” Ward studied science and film in college, was a staff writer/editor for the Los Angeles Times and an on-air contributor to KTLA.