For students and youth across the South who think the way we build technology matters.
Get InvolvedAlabama Digital Civil Society is a student and youth group based at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. We bring together CS students, humanists, policy thinkers, and anyone engaged in critical inquiry into the social dimensions of technology.
At Auburn, we maintain formal connections with the Department of Political Science and the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, operating within the broader communities of the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Engineering.
ADCS is currently pending registered student organization status at Auburn University. We maintain no political party affiliations.
ADCS advances critical, optimistic discussion and civil engagement around the role of digital technologies in society. We emphasize the responsible, ethical, and community-centered development of technology through interdisciplinary collaboration between the humanities and technology, connecting individuals to conversations about the future and their place in shaping it.
These conversations are especially urgent in the South, where data centers extract wealth without local benefit, information ecosystems are actively destabilized, communities face expanding policing and surveillance infrastructure, and critical public discourse about technology remains scarce.
While our work is centered on students at Auburn University from all backgrounds — CS, political science, philosophy, engineering, history, and beyond — we welcome all people, especially youth across the South, who are ready to engage.
A leading organization in digital rights law and advocacy. Covers surveillance, free speech, privacy law, and civil liberties in technology. Their Deeplinks blog tracks emerging legal and policy developments.
Visit eff.org →Nonprofit working on tech policy from a civil liberties perspective. Strong on privacy, AI governance, and platform regulation. A useful entry point for understanding how technology policy is developed and contested.
Visit cdt.org →A curated directory of responsible tech organizations working across AI, trust and safety, democracy, and youth and technology. Useful for identifying organizations to engage with, research, or pursue for internships.
Visit alltechishuman.org →A youth-led organization advocating for safer, more accountable platform design. Focuses on how algorithmic systems and product decisions affect young people, and pushes for structural policy reform rather than individual behavioral fixes.
Visit designitforus.org →A directory of open source projects organized by cause area: environment, health, accessibility, humanitarian, and more. A practical resource for students looking to apply technical skills toward civic and social ends.
Visit meaningfulcode.org →An independent nonprofit research institute studying the social implications of data-centric technologies. Publishes rigorous academic and policy-relevant work on automation, AI, platform governance, and the labor and civil rights dimensions of emerging tech.
Visit datasociety.net →Auburn University Mesh Club is a student-led organization building decentralized, off-grid communication infrastructure using LoRa radio and Meshtastic. They run workshops on soldering and antenna design, deploy mesh nodes in the field, and are working toward a community-supported regional mesh network. They also cover digital privacy and surveillance-awareness through educational sessions and hands-on projects. Open to all majors and all experience levels.
andrewsuggs465.github.io/AU-Meshtastic →Society for Responsible AI is an inclusive, cross-disciplinary community for AI researchers, engineers, hobbyists, and anyone concerned about how AI gets built and deployed. SRAI centers ethical practice in AI discourse and partners with campus and community organizations to make AI more accessible and equitable. They are a recognized partner of Auburn's new Center for Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity Engineering.
auburn.campuslabs.com/engage/organization/srai →
Mallory Whitt is a computer science student at Auburn University and an exchange student at THWS in Würzburg, Germany. A former intern in the U.S. House of Representatives and cybersecurity researcher at Auburn University, her interests center on the democratic health of information systems, digital society, algorithmic bias and online radicalization, and technology policy. She is committed to the development of digital platforms that are safer, more accountable, and oriented toward the public good.
Dylan Freeman is a computer science student at Auburn University with a concentration in artificial intelligence engineering. His interests center on algorithmic bias in social systems, examining how algorithms in government and private institutions rely on historical datasets that can encode and replicate systemic inequities in policing, credit, housing, and employment. He is also committed to expanding computer science education in underserved communities, drawing on his experience growing up in Dothan, Alabama.
Chris Armstrong is a computer science and political science student at Auburn University pursuing the "Cyber Defense" and "National Security and Intelligence" certificates, and works as a web developer at Auburn's Office of Information Technology improving websites' accessibility and UX. His interests center on how cybersecurity will be integrated into the United States' national security posture, with a focus on protecting critical operational technology systems. He is committed to bridging computer science and government to ensure technological developments are properly regulated and serve the public good.
Andrew Abercrombie is a software engineering student at Auburn University pursuing Auburn's AI certification. His interests center on AI's applications across industries, particularly in the arts, and on how technology can be used to serve clear public benefit. He is drawn to questions of online culture and social networks, and what healthier relationships with technology could look like. That curiosity carries into his life off-screen as well. He has been deeply involved in community outreach and engagement, and brings that same passion for bringing people together to his role in ADCS.
Camden Awtrey is an applied mathematics student at Auburn University with concentrations in data science and discrete mathematics. His interests center on how data infrastructure shapes geopolitical power, from undersea cable networks and data centers to the trade policies and surveillance systems that control information flow between countries. He is especially concerned with how institutions define metrics behind global governance and what happens when those go unchecked. He believes data science students deserve more than narrow corporate pipelines, and hopes to help build avenues where analytically minded people can do work that matters.
David Wheeler is a computer science student at Auburn University pursuing a bachelor's in computer science, a master's in cyber security, and certificates in artificial intelligence and cyber defense. His interests center on administrative misuse of AI, its rapid and increasingly unregulated growth, and its impact on public discourse and security. Growing up in an increasingly polarized Alabama, he has witnessed how AI amplifies misinformation and is used to keep the public angry and afraid. He seeks a future where technology serves the public good rather than those who control it.
We are building this from scratch. If you want to be part of that process, come talk to us. We welcome members, collaborators, and anyone with a perspective to contribute.