#201: UHCL's NASA Partnership + UT System's Enterprise AI Strategy [EDUCAUSE 2024]

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Featuring:

- Dr. LeeBrian Gaskins, Senior Associate Vice President of IT/CIO at University of Houston-Clear Lake

- William Huang, Deputy CIO, University of Texas System

What You’ll Learn:

Student-Centered Innovation in Higher Ed

UT System declared 2024 as "the year of the student," implementing the 25-year-old Archer Center Fellows program that brings 30-40 undergraduate, graduate, and medical students to Washington D.C. for leadership development

The UT System's 12-week summer internship program provides students with 9 hours weekly of professional development alongside functional work in IT, business, accounting, and legal areas

UHCL prioritizes graduate education growth through collaborative approaches with other Houston institutions, rejecting the "zero-sum game" mentality in student recruitment to create shared student success

Enterprise AI Implementation Strategy

UT Health Houston formalized a major partnership with OpenAI to provide advanced AI tools for medical students and clinical faculty, representing one of several mission-specific AI implementations

UT System has deployed a multi-node private AI cluster at their shared data center for all 14 institutions to develop business use cases, creating a secure on-premises AI environment

UHCL is developing 24/7 AI tutoring systems that help students identify knowledge gaps before exams and using AI analytics to mine historical student data for previously unrecognized improvement opportunities

Cross-Campus Collaboration Framework

The UT System achieves economies of scale by site-licensing Microsoft tools for all 256,000 students, faculty, staff and clinicians across its 14 institutions

UHCL collaborates with neighboring Houston campuses to create consistent experiences for faculty who teach across multiple institutions and share licensing resources

Regional partnerships between campuses with similar demographics (like Hispanic-serving institutions) enable targeted technology solutions for specific student populations

Space & AI Educational Innovation

UHCL was established through direct partnership with NASA, whose director requested graduate education facilities near the space center 50 years ago

The university houses NASA archives through the Space Act and maintains strong aerospace engineering and space exploration business programs

UT San Antonio and UT Health San Antonio jointly created one of the first programs combining a medical degree with a master's in AI, featuring three years of medical education, one year of AI focus, and a capstone integration year

Timestamps

01:37 - William Huang's background and DJ experience

02:00 - 2024: "The Year of the Student" and Archer Center Fellows

04:42 - Enterprise AI Strategy across UT System

07:58 - UHCL's AI Policy and Student Success Applications

10:53 - Balancing System-Wide Initiatives Across 14 UT Institutions

12:00 - Regional Collaboration Between Houston Area Campuses

16:24 - UHCL's NASA Connection and Aerospace Focus

19:25 - How AI Will Transform Digital Transformation

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