AI innovation accelerator

[Ayham Boucher <>]

Dear Colleagues,

We’re thrilled to announce our inaugural AI Innovation Accelerator in-person meeting. We have been planning this event for a while, and we believe that, in collaboration with Entrepreneurship at Cornell, we are providing a unique opportunity for hands-on learning and upskilling in AI while exploring how AI can address many challenges within the higher education community. Please see the details below and register for the event to reserve your spot.

WHO

AI builders and decision makers, those tasked with envisioning, implementing, and leading the frontier of AI for Education

WHAT

Three days of inspiration, education, and impact [knowledge sharing, best-practices, and a hackathon to address your biggest challenges]

WHEN

Thursday, February 6th evening: Networking, Entertainment, Big Apple hospitality

Friday, February 7th Day: Roundtables, workshops, your interest/your choice

    Afternoon: AI Resources + student hackers

    Evening: Teams address AI challenges

Saturday, February 8th: Teams work alongside university professionals to create solutions (aka Proof-of-Concepts) utilizing data, LLMs, with feedback, coaching, and mentoring from the users [academia], subject matter experts, and ai ninjas

Sunday, February 9th: Presentations, Awards and closing activities.

WHERE

Three floors of optimal collaboration space in the heart of Chelsea [Venue: 512 W. 22nd St]

Lodging within walking distance: HYATT PLACE New York City 140 W. 24th St

Booking Link

• February 6 - 9, 2025

• Wifi, Breakfast, Fitness Center

• $159.00/night Standard King Room (single-double occupancy) 

• $239.00/night Standard Double/Double Room (single-quad occupancy)

  
  

WHY

Whether your goal is to gain hands-on experience or to bring your domain expertise and collaborate with AI experts to experiment with new possibilities, this is the place to be.

HOW

Facilitation, support, resources, knowledge sharing, imagination, and tech skills

The fine print:

Please limit the participation from your school to no more than 3-4 individuals. All meals, snacks, coffee are provided Thursday evening through Sunday lunch. A fee of $400 is requested to help subsidize costs.

The Hackathon weekend will include 100+ students eager to utilize their tech skills to prototype and implement solutions for challenges in Higher-Ed. There is no cost to students. Students from your institution are welcome to apply to the event, more information will be shared in early January for your student body.

Please indicate your interest no later than January 15th.

If you would like to propose a challenge for inclusion in the event, please take a look at this sample, and provide yours no later than January 8th.

Organizing Committee

Ayham Boucher, AI Assistant Program Director, Cornell à

Sean Cleveland, Director of Cyber Infrastructure, U of Hawaii à

Curt Cole, VP & Global CIO, Cornell à

Judy Gabeskira Sr Web App Developer, Weill Medical à

Jevonia Harrris, Sr Softwar Engineer, U of Delaware à

Rebecca Joffery, Director of IT Strategy and Innovation à  

David LaPorte, Sr Director, Integration & Innovation, Harvard à

Ben Maddox, CIO, Cornell à

Ami Stuart, Director-Hackathons, Cornell à

Brandon Rich, Director of AI Enablement, Notre Dame à

Thorsten Joachims, Assoc. Dean for Research, Cornell CIS à

In Collaboration with: Cornell AI Initiative and Entrepreneurship at Cornell

With support from: Cornell CIS, Cornell Tech, Weill Cornell Medicine Clinical & Translational Science Center, Cornell Engineering, Artificial Intelligence Club at Cornell, Next Jump, Wolfram, IBM, Amazon