UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
“ A few years ago, we had a housing shortage, which is something we will not repeat,” Bharath says.“ The year after that, we had too much housing. I believe having high-quality, reliable data to run complex formulas will help us predict accurate housing needs moving forward.”
AI and the student experience UC has built a mobile app called BearCat Portal, which allows students to have a single view of the more than 25 different university systems, such as housing, financial aid and registration.
“ Students can log in one time and then see different titles to access information,” Bharath goes on.“ This streamlines their experience and gives them a favourable impression of campus, especially when they’ re new.
“ One cool feature is the built-in wayfinding so, if you’ re new to campus, you can use the map to get directions to your building. This works inside too to help find lecture theatres, disabled access, seminar rooms, labs, and information on public areas like the closest toilets or elevators.”
In addition, UC has launched its Bearcats AI Ready initiative to ensure that all Bearcats are AI enabled and have access to the tools and platforms needed to ensure their success.
Foundational to this effort is the AI Community of Practice( COP), which has committees focused on Teaching & Learning, Research, Enablement, Ethical and Responsible AI, and Policies & Guidelines. The work is showcased in the new AI Hub.
“ Innovation cannot be driven from the centre but has to come from the edge,” Bharath says.
Towards this end, a call went out to the university community to submit use cases that resulted in over 100 submissions. The COP helped prioritise these and resulted in around 20 that are in active development. These span the gamut from academic and research use cases to operational efficiencies.
One of the cornerstones of the AI strategy has been the enterprise-wide rollout of UC’ s own private AI platform, BearcatGPT. This provides secure access to a variety of AI tools to all faculty, students and staff, and UC is the first university in Ohio and one of the first few in the country to accomplish this.
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