AI innovation accelerator

["Mulhern III, John J" <>]

Dear Colleagues,

 

First, my apologies for the premature send earlier this afternoon—I promise that this is the email with all the up-to-date information.

 

Thank you to all who attended the kickoff meeting of our new AI Developer Community last month. We were delighted with the attendance, participation, and feedback. The video link is here for those who couldn’t attend or wish to review. Of course there's a code link.

 

Two follow-up items

 

1. Our second virtual meeting will be on Thursday, September 5, at 2:00 PM EDT. ASU’s Zohair Zaidi will present on Architecture Considerations for AI at Scale. The calendar invite is here.
2. If you have not already done so, please complete our short survey. This survey will help us understand where we are as a group with respect to AI and AI development experience and will help shape future content. The survey link is here.

 

Goal, vision, and one more ask

 

Our goal for each of these meetings is that participants will learn something and go away with tangible links, ideas, and resources to apply at their institution. We plan many virtual meetings and a spring 2025 in-person meetup—David LaPorte from Harvard will present in October.

 

Our vision is to establish a thriving community where AI leaders and practitioners in higher ed can connect, collaborate, and enhance their skills through regular virtual and in-person gatherings. This initiative will also generate a valuable repository of shared training resources, use cases, and video content to benefit all involved. Internet2 has graciously provided us with a wiki space for this initiative, which is now live. Uniting the broader higher ed developer community allows us to leverage a wide range of talent, knowledge, and interest, providing more opportunities for learning and collaboration than any single university can achieve alone.

 

Finally, please let us know if you have any suggestions or ideas that you would like to see incorporated in this community. Your input is vital as we move forward.

 

Sincerely,

 

The Internet2 / RUCC AI Innovation Acceleration Working Group

Kemal Badur, U Chicago

Ayham Boucher, Cornell

Sean Cleveland, U Hawaii

Becky Joffrey, Cornell

John Mulhern III, U Penn

Dale Pike, Virginia Tech

Brandon Rich, Notre Dame

Vinay Varughese, Cornell Weill