03
April
2025
AI Tools as Common Good and Shared Utility: Learn How to Strategize and Create Your Own Structure for AI on Your Campus
By Kenneth Lewis - Communications Specialist
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
A 2025 Internet2 Community Exchange Sneak Peek
Research is forever changing, and what’s an effective model today may not meet all the needs of our technological tomorrow. This means those in the research and education (R&E) community must not only keep up with the latest updates in AI but, in many ways, stay ahead of the technological curve. This also means finding pliable, cost-effective solutions, considering campus professionals who might already be overwhelmed, and developing a system and architecture that works specifically for the needs of those on campus.
“There’s a big rush to keep up with AI on college campuses, and oftentimes, there is a significant cost to rolling it out at scale,” said Saira Hasnain, presenter, associate vice president, and deputy chief information officer (CIO) at the University of Florida. “The trick is to use existing resources and to think strategically, to use a mixture of commercial and local models without breaking the bank.”
In Turning AI Tools into a Common Good and Shared Utility for All Campus Constituents, Hasnain will explain how you can champion the wave and demand for Generative AI tools on your own campus.
This Internet2 Community Exchange session will unpack The University of Florida’s entire journey of building the perfect architecture for their campus. From self-service tools to platforms to governance and service life cycle management, Hasnain and Eldayrie will answer vital questions about their process so you’ll leave teeming with ideas you can implement as you consider how to build an AI infrastructure suitable for your own institution.
“We set up a self-service model,” Hasnain said. “It’s a system that doesn’t require you to submit tickets to IT and wait in a queue. And local models are just as good at catching hallucinations, inappropriate content, and sensitive information as the commercial ones are.”
Learn How to Create a Custom AI Architecture at Your Own Institution
Attendees can expect to gain insight on how to:
- Develop a sustainable AI strategy with the needs of faculty and students in mind.
- Create a governance framework, balancing user needs with institutional requirements.
- Design a platform streamlining the user experience and providing seamless AI tools.
- Manage the service lifecycle to ensure AI tools remain relevant and up-to-date.
- Compete with commercial products while staying within budgetary restrictions and considering the current spending climate.
Attend Turning AI tools into a common good and shared utility for all campus constituents on Thursday, May 1, from 10:00 to 10:50 a.m. PT to learn to shape the right AI architecture for faculty, staff, and students at your institution without unnecessary spending.
Check out this session and other related presentations in the Challenges & Opportunities with Emerging Technologies Track (opens in a new window), which focuses on the impact of new technologies, policies, and practices in the R&E community, at the 2025 Internet2 Community Exchange held April 28-May 1 in Anaheim, Calif.
Visit the CommEX25 website (opens in a new window) to learn more about the event and register, and be sure to check out our “Shaping an Unmissable CommEX25” series for insight from the leaders behind this year’s program (opens in a new window).