AI and EU-U.S. Joint Initiatives: UIUC Students Participate in 2025 Schuman Challenge

l-r: Ethan Bello, Giulia Pauli, Tamana Ramkumar

On April 10, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Tamana Ramkumar (Political Science, Information Science, Spanish), Giulia Pauli (Political Science, History, German) and Ethan Bello (Political Science, Italian) competed in Schuman Challenge in Washington, D.C., alongside 27 other teams from colleges and universities across the U.S. The UIUC delegation was coached by Professor Kostas Kourtikakis (Political Science) and sponsored by the European Union Center and the Department of Political Science.

Schuman Challenge is an annual competition funded by the EU Delegation to the U.S. Teams of undergraduate students present proposals of a joint EU-U.S. initiative related to a specific topic and then participate in a Q&A session with a panel of judges. The topic for the 2025 competition was “Artificial Intelligence as a Key Technology: A Shared Initiative for the EU and U.S. vis-à-vis China,” and the panel of judges came from the German Marshall Fund, the Department of Defense, and the European Union Delegation. The team from American University won first place.

Tamana Ramkumar described the overall experience as both challenging and rewarding: “The atmosphere of the event was intense but inspiring. I walked away having learned more about policy making, a deeper appreciation for collaboration, and applying creative problem-solving to create a joint initiative between the European Union and the United States for artificial intelligence.” Ethan Bello enjoyed the immersive learning aspect of the experience, saying that the competition felt like a chance to act on what he had learned in the classroom regarding EU policy.

Preparing for the competition came with a varied set of challenges, from sticking to a research plan to keeping up with current events related to the competition topic. Giulia Pauli also noted the pressure of being at the competition itself: “After putting in so much effort, while still being a student, it’s easy to start measuring yourself against everyone else. But once I met the other teams at the receptions and got to know them, I realized we were all in the same boat. From that point on, I stopped comparing and simply enjoyed chatting with others who care about diplomacy and global cooperation.” Indeed, the experience of working on a team was something that all three students mentioned as one of their favorite aspects of participating in Schuman Challenge.

Reflecting upon the experience, the three students cited a number of reasons they found Schuman Challenge to be rewarding. For Ethan, the biggest benefit was gaining practical experience in policy planning. “It’s not every day that we as college students get to apply what we learn in the classroom into a real-life scenario,” he said. Tamana discovered a newfound passion for policymaking and international relations, and in addition the competition allowed her to bridge her academic interests in technology and politics. Giulia valued the knowledge she gained about the EU and recommended Schuman Challenge to anyone who is solution-oriented. In an increasingly interconnected world, she noted, collaboration skills and an understand of transatlantic issues are key — precisely what Schuman Challenge offers.

To learn more about Schuman Challenge and other immersive learning opportunities related to European Union studies, see here. If you are a student interested in participating in a future year, contact eucenter@illinois.edu.