Public Scholarship

Writing, Art, and Provocation

Op-eds, essays, keynotes, and artistic collaborations that sit outside the formal publication record — where sustainable computing meets culture and community.

Art & Provocation

Artist / Technologist Pairing · 2026

Machine Unlearning Through Small Language Models

with Caleb Rimtobaye (AfrotroniX) · Rhizome's 7x7 2026: Containment, New Museum, NYC — closing artist/technologist pair, 30th anniversary (re)opening

Rather than handing data and language over to platforms, we envisioned small models as tools for preservation and rehearsal of our respective languages — "a machine that does not know English, it does not know French, it does not know the language of the colonizers." Read Rhizome's recap →

Panel discussion at Rhizome's 7x7 2026, featuring the AfrotroniX collaboration on stage at the New Museum.
Keynote & Collaboration · 2026

AI is the Next Plantation: Unless We Rethink It

Eahou Fest, Honolulu — Keynote Speaker

Delivered alongside ongoing work with Keolu Fox on Ahupuaʻa-grounded approaches to AI and data infrastructure in Hawaiʻi — including our co-authored Civil Beat op-ed and the lab's ongoing Purple Maiʻa collaboration on KILO: The Ahupuaʻa Dashboard, which applies traditional ahupuaʻa land-division and resource-management logic to environmental data governance.

The talk argues that Indigenous systems of stewardship offer a fundamentally different design and operational paradigm for AI infrastructure. We propose stewardship as a first principle for AI systems: one that prioritizes reciprocity, community governance, cultural continuity, place-based responsibility, and accountability to future generations. Drawing inspiration from Indigenous knowledge systems—including the Native Hawaiian Ahupuaʻa, which organizes shared rights and responsibilities across interconnected social and ecological systems (especially around fresh water access)—we argue that AI infrastructure will not achieve true sustainability unless it is grounded in these stewardship principles, aligning technological development with our shared goals of resilient communities and thriving ecosystems.

Josiah Hester speaking on stage at Eahou Fest in Honolulu, delivering the keynote 'AI is the Next Plantation: Unless We Rethink It.'
Provocation · 2020

Battery-Free Game Boy

A fully playable handheld console with no battery — a provocation about what "necessary" e-waste and power consumption really are.

Powered only by solar and kinetic (button-mash) harvesting, it pauses and resumes across hundreds of power failures a second — asking why every device we own assumes it needs a battery at all. Read more on CNET → · Watch the Seeker video →

Op-Eds & Public Essays

Op-Ed · 2026

AI Data Centers Are the New Plantations—Unless Hawaiʻi Builds Them Differently

with Keolu Fox, Kelsey Amos, Keoni DeFranco · Honolulu Civil Beat — Community Voices
Op-Ed · 2026

Georgia's Data Center Boom Requires a Strategy, Not Just Hoping for the Best

Policy Brief · 2026

The Future of Data Center Development in Georgia

Essay · 2026

Mālama ʻĀina: Coding to Restore Land and Identity in Hawaii

Essay · 2021

The World Needs Native Scientists Now

Blog · 2022

An Inclusive Vision of Computing Will Help Us Accelerate Progress on the SDGs

Communications of the ACM

Viewpoint · 2026

Who Owns the Wai (Water)? AI, Power, and the Public Trust

Communications of the ACM
Research Feature · 2024

The Internet of Batteryless Things

Technical Perspective · 2021

eBP Rides the Third Wave of Mobile Health

Communications of the ACM, Vol. 64 No. 8
Viewpoint · 2020

How to Curtail Oversensing in the Home

with Connor Bolton, Kevin Fu, Jun Han · Communications of the ACM, Vol. 63 No. 6

Magazine Features & Research Highlights

GetMobile · 2023

Community-Driven Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing

with Blaine Rothrock, Eric Greenlee · GetMobile: Mobile Computing and Communications 27(3)
GetMobile Research Highlight · 2023

Protean: Adaptive Hardware-Accelerated Intermittent Computing

GetMobile 27(1), pp. 5-10
GetMobile · 2022

Arms Length: The Future of Clean Computing May Be Dirty

with Colleen Josephson, Weitao Shuai, Gabriel Marcano, Pat Pannuto, George Wells · GetMobile 26(3)
Make Magazine · 2022

Perpetual Computing with CircuitPython

with Vito Kortbeek, Przemysław Pawełczak · Make Magazine, Vol. 82
GetMobile Research Highlight · 2022

Heuristic Adaptation for Intermittently Powered Batteryless Sensors

GetMobile 26(2), pp. 20-24
XRDS · 2019

Batteries Not Included

with Jacob Sorber · XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students, 26(1)

Selected Keynotes & Distinguished Talks

2025

Batteries Not Included: Reimagining Computing for the Next Trillion Devices

Florida Atlantic University, I-SENSE Distinguished Lecture Series
2025

ʻĀina and Academia: Cultivating Curiosity by Connecting Place, Culture, and STEAM Research

STEAM Leadership Conference — Keynote Speaker
2024

Reimagining Personalized Health with Biosensors, Biologics, and Behavioral Sensing

Keynote, AI in Health Conference, Ken Kennedy Institute
2023

An Inclusive Vision of Computing is Key to a Sustainable Future for All

Keynote, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine DEI Speaker Series
2023

Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Management

Keynote Speaker, Great Lakes Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance Workshop, hosted by Trent University
2022

Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing

2021

Reflecting on the 30th Anniversary of Weiser's Famous Article

Plenary Speaker, ACM UbiComp 2021