Aug. 8, 2024
Media Advisory: Students to showcase AI projects
- What: AI Core + Design Lab Summer Internship Showcase
- When: Friday, Aug. 9, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
- Where: Health Sciences Innovation Building, Room 605
TUCSON, Ariz. — Sixty University of Arizona students tapped the latest in artificial intelligence over the summer to solve real-world problems for real clients – creating specialized chatbots, virtual reality experiences and new potential for transforming the shopping experience, tourism, language learning, health care and more.
The students will demonstrate the results of their work on Aug. 9 during the AI Core + Design Lab Summer Internship Showcase, which will take place from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. in Room 605 of the Health Sciences Innovation Building. A schedule and list of project descriptions is available online.
The students are members of the inaugural cohort of the AI Core + Design Lab Summer Internship. Partnering with local employers, the program employs and mentors students in a fast-paced, startup environment, teaching them to use AI tools that are reshaping how we work, and to recognize new opportunities and applications for the rapidly evolving technology.
"The internship is an intense but super-fun experiential learning program that rapidly introduces University of Arizona students to AI technologies. We're building solutions for our researchers and commercial partners using technology that is evolving right before our eyes," said Ash Black, director of the university's AI Core, a program that gives students opportunities to explore AI applications in the workplace. "It's all learning by doing in a fast-paced, startup environment. It's pretty hard work, but the maturation comes fast, and the students are more than capable of getting the job done.”
The AI Core + Design Lab internship is a collaboration between the university's Institute for Computation and Data-Enabled Insight and Student Engagement and Career Development, with support from the University Center for Assessment, Teaching and Technology and the College of Health Sciences.
The interns – a mix of undergraduates and graduates from 10 different colleges – worked on 12 projects throughout the summer. They developed chatbots that provide company-specific insights and advice. They created a resume AI that can understand job seekers' profiles and personalities and then pair them up with opportunities. They deployed a chatbot that helps delayed-learning toddlers with language acquisition in a wide variety of languages. The interns also used AI for medical simulations and created lifelike human avatars powered by ChatGPT, among other projects.
Clients included, among others, Pima Community College, the city of Tucson, Joyful Jobs recruiting agency, and the university's Norton School of Human Ecology and Eller College of Management.
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Media contact:
Stephanie Doster
Institute for Computation & Data-Enabled Insight/Space 4 Center
520-626-3451
scdoster@arizona.edu