The University of Utah hosted the Inaugural Student-led AI Symposium at the Marriott Library on Friday, Nov. 21. In collaboration with Digital Learning Technologies (DLT), students pioneered the event to provide industry and university professionals insight into how AI is reshaping their educational experiences, according to the flyer.
Tony Sams, a manager for Learning Experience in DLT, initially pitched the idea of the event and collaborated with the Associate Vice President for Research Integrity and Compliance, Caren Frost. They worked with student co-chairs Logan Bogesvang, Nicholas Pardon, Diya Mandot and Jebediah Dean to organize the symposium, which attracted more than 120 attendees throughout the day.
AI in higher education
NVIDIA Vice President of Product Management Warren Barkley, who played a part in creating WiFi and Google’s Gemini, was the symposium’s keynote speaker. He discussed the industry’s future and gave advice on using it successfully. “Treat AI as a skill, not a spectacle,” he said during his speech.
Barkley emphasized the importance of ethics, trust and humanity in shaping AI’s role in the real world. “Getting stuff done is all about people,” he said.
Barkley also mentioned AI developments as an important part of the conversation. He described multimodal AI, which uses audio, visuals and written words when generating information, as a “tool” that users must “figure out how to apply.”
Later in the symposium, students discussed their positive experiences, as well as their ethical concerns, with AI. At one point, Mandot and U student Rishabh Saini presented how they perceive AI’s role in education and society. “AI is an amplifier … it reveals who you already are,” Manot said. According to her, using AI in school should not be considered as cheating, but as “co-thinking.”
Other students presented how several industries — nutrition, finance, renewable energy and medicine included — use AI on the daily. Some students designed their own AI products to complete tasks, like dietary planning and stock market forecasting.
The university panel
The symposium also hosted a panel discussion about the university’s responsibilities surrounding AI. Panelists included Chief AI Officer Manish Parashar, Digital Matters Director Rebekah Cummings, Associate Professor of Architecture Jim Agutter and Director of Research and Science at the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute (SCI) Penny Atkins.
Parashar said he feels positive about the use of AI in higher education because it expands the capabilities of students and faculty. “It’s the responsibility of our university to equip students with the skills to understand how to use AI and when to use it,” he said.
According to Parashar, the university values promoting accessibility to AI across the world. “We want everybody to have access to this technology,” while also being “aware of the AI tools that we use,” he said.
Cummings said the university’s responsibility is “to prepare students for life in the work force,” which includes teaching students how to effectively use AI. She said she thinks the U is underperforming in regards to this goal.
Agutter said it is the U’s responsibility to “give students a variety of viewpoints.” He said his main goal is to teach students to think critically about how and when to use artificial intelligence.
The panel later discussed AI’s ethical and practical use in higher education. Atkins said professors must use AI “to amplify ourselves, not substitute ourselves.” To her, the best thing the university can do to improve AI literacy is to “engage with anyone and everyone about AI.”
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the College of Engineering Sneha Kasera said he wants to implement AI education across all undergraduate studies, including basic machine learning and ethics courses specific to each discipline. “This has to be a university-wide effort,” he said in the event’s closing speech.
Students’ role
Dean, one of the symposium co-chairs, said students must involve themselves in the AI conversation, especially within higher education. “Students are native to this; they’re growing up inside it, and so they actually have a lot of experience that is great to share with faculty,” he said.
He said he hopes students who participated in the symposium will continue to help lead university or government policy. Hearing student voices will help guide AI’s development in the best way possible, since “they’re the ones that’ll be living with [it].”
In an interview with The Daily Utah Chronicle, Barkley said events like the symposium are important because AI is “moving so quickly [that people] have to be talking about it.” He added that he values the students’ perspectives because of their energy and generational perspective.
Jon Thomas, director of DLT, said “there’s going to need to be this ongoing conversation [about using AI] as higher education evolves.” He said he sees this annual symposium “as the cornerstone” of that conversation.
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