What has the AI Center been up to?

Have you ever wondered what the room across the math study area is? Perhaps you pass by the room every day on your way to math—curiously peering inside as you pass to snag a glimpse. Well, wonder no more! A148 is home to IMSA’s official Center for Artificial Intelligence (AI Center). Run by Tami Armstrong and her trusty AI center interns, the AI center is filled with a plethora of resources and opportunities for any IMSA student interested in AI to take advantage of! I had the lovely opportunity to interview Neev Patel (’25), student director for the AI center, and Kavya Uppal (’25), a student researcher working through the Student Inquiry and Research (SIR) department with the AI center. Here’s what they had to say!

What has the AI center been up to recently? (projects, ideas, etc.) 

Neev: The main thing that has been going on recently is that we’ve been trying to make the AI center more student-focused and student-oriented. So we started off with our weekly AI bytes sessions, which are every Tuesday during S&E. During those sessions, we host guest speakers, alumni, and industry experts. We also do sessions on how to use AI and an introduction to generative AI. December 17th, during S&E, is the next AI bytes session. There, we will have a hot seat discussion with Dr. Campbell about his software engineering career and experience in AI. It’s a hot seat with the teachers, so anybody can ask the teachers any questions, and it’s really meant to be a space where students can get a perspective from their teachers/instructors about using AI in the classroom. We also have several other student opportunities that have been released.

The first student opportunity is the AI student mentorship program—students can be connected with expert mentors who are alumnus or industry experts in the fields of healthcare AI, robotics AI, finance and AI, business and AI—a lot of those interdisciplinary fields, so you can connect whatever you’re interested in with AI, or if you’re interested in AI development and research, you can be connected with a mentor there. 

We also have the AI student innovation cohort, which is where you partner with CS faculty as well as the outreach department to study implementation of AI curriculum and AI development at IMSA. Studying AI curriculum, piloting that curriculum, learning about AI, and also learning about how those AI applications at IMSA can impact the lives of students.

The third opportunity is the Student Advisory Committee, which is a group of students that represent the interests of the students at the AI center who will really help us better get a perspective on what the students want and help us better serve student needs.

Where did you get the money from?

Neev: Rachel, who was the previous AI center intern and co-founder, and I did the AI bytes program last year. It was biweekly Wednesdays and one-hour-long programming, which engaged primarily with staff and faculty and a certain group of students. When designing the next iteration of AI bytes, we realized we wanted a little bit more funding, a little bit more support. And that became AI bytes for all. It’s a program for students, at IMSA first, and then across the state to gain access to technologies, resources, and instruction on how to create AI models, how to be an AI-engaged student and an engaged learner, and how to be actively involved in the AI revolution. That’s the first part of AI bytes for all. It also goes into AI ethics and being an ethically good and ethically forward AI user, AI entrepreneurship, and AI research. Once we proposed that, that was the bulk of the proposal to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) grant, which is where we secured the funding. However, the funding is still up in the air, and we do not have any definitive funding right now. But the AI center is primarily self-funded. We have recently acquired other grant funding in order to start creating this space as a tools and technologies space as a hub for research and learning. We also allocate that funding to make the AI center a welcoming space for students. As highlighted in our initiatives, we prioritize being student-oriented, actively seeking their feedback and input in the design and development of the AI center. That’s a little bit about where our AI center funding comes from.

What do you plan on doing with the money?

Neev: Most of the money is going into the curriculum pilot for AI bytes. A lot of the funding is also going to professional development for teachers, resources for instructors, and researchers. Then there’s three levels of that funding that go to students. The first level is tools and technologies, the second is partnerships with higher education and with industry, and the third one is physical space. Right now we are working on tools and technologies.

Kavya: Also, when it comes to developing the AI center, the amount of resources we’ve already gotten is really amazing. One thing that I think is definitely important to note is that every time the AI center is open on a non-I day, there is going to be a member of the CS faculty here. I don’t think that should be overlooked because we don’t think as much about how much experience a lot of our computer science teachers have. As a result, the AI center’s resources and funding are being directed toward supporting students in developing their own projects and, in turn, helping better the computer science curriculum. 

Neev: Additionally, there are AI courses that will be unveiled, such as AI courses for machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing, sort of giving students those opportunities in a curricular environment. The AI center is open even on non-I days, and it’s meant to be a study space and a collaborative space, and it’s meant to be a space where you can interact with C faculty. We’d love to see students utilizing this space for CS as well as AI. It’s a multi-faceted space, so it’s been designed to be an innovative space that’s not necessarily for only AI.

Kavya: Another thing to note is that there are quite a few intersessions that the AI center is connecting—especially with computer science curriculum. Not only is it a collaborative space for students, it’s also a collaborative space for faculty. It’s really interesting because you can just make those connections by just lingering around the center. I know a lot of students who got access to many opportunities through alumni that you wouldn’t have known had you not interacted with the members of administration. We had a guest speaker from Avantore, and he talked about the overlap with medicine and AI and how AI is used to minimize losses financially and medically. So, that’s just one example of the guest speakers and people that the AI center is able to bring in.

Have you received the first chunk of the money, and if so, what have you used it on so far? 

Neev: The pilot of the curriculum is going to be during intersession, which is being implemented right now. Another portion of the money is going to be used to buy tools and technologies. For students who don’t know, we also have a Jupyter server that is for AI development and machine learning that has been a very powerful tool that students have taken advantage of. A significant portion of the funding is currently directed toward the AI Bytes for All program, which is set to be piloted during intersession. AI tools and technology has opened 21 AI-related internships and over 40 AI-related SIRs. The AI center was also presented at national conferences and has been at national conferences.

Kavya: In early September, the show The Balancing Act, a national show, also came to the IMSA campus, and they interviewed Dr. Glazer. Then they interviewed two students that conducted AI research, including myself. It was to gauge the amount of exposure that IMSA gives students to AI. The connections you build and IMSA’s ability to help you thrive when you’re passionate about something reflect the core mission and model of IMSA, which was successfully exemplified through the program. It was a really amazing opportunity for IMSA.

Will there be grants similar to this coming to the AI center soon? 

Neev: The ISBE grant was primarily for designing that curriculum, hiring staff, paying teachers, that kind of thing. It’s been used for professional development. However, we have gotten sizable funding from a separate grant source that is also working on helping us design a better physical space and more tools, technologies, and resources. That’s another donor-funded private grant source that we’ve been awarded. We’re looking forward to that funding and the ability the center has to sort of create a space and also to provide students with resources.

How did you get the money? 

Neev: Primarily applying to grants and receiving that funding. So a lot of it is privately funded.

So, if you’re a student interested in computer science, AI research, or even a field unrelated to AI/CS, the AI center offers a wide variety of opportunities for all fields of research! Thank you so much to Neev and Kavya for letting me interview them! And finally, stay on the lookout for the opportunities mentioned in the interview.