Advancing AI/ML in higher education institutions

Higher education institutions and researchers have, in many regards, pioneered the use of high-performance computing and the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning. But many of those leading higher education institutions also need to recognize how artificial intelligence and machine learning can be put to broader use at college campuses and universities.

While AI has helped institutions like San Diego State University establish a growing reputation for innovative programs in the high-performance computing work, AI is also helping colleges at a broader level, says Howard Lock, AI and ML Business Development at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) in a new EdScoop executive interview.

Whether “it’s student success, campus safety, or helping researchers and data scientists lean further into their technologies so they can experiment faster,” the insights from combining AI and high-performance computing are helping “educational institutions achieve a level of preeminence.”

SDSU Vice President and CIO Jerry Sheehan highlights some of the ways AI is bolstering the university’s work in the interview. He also shares his insights on the challenges that SDSU officials faced putting AI/ML into production to make scientific research more robust. And he discusses the importance of developing guidelines for the ethical use of data in parallel with developing AI/ML technical capabilities.

“It isn’t an overstatement to say that high-performance computing resources — in particular GPUs (graphics processing units) for instruction — given the data nature of many of our disciplines, are emerging as critical a tool as a textbook would be or a wet lab would be to a science course,” Sheehan says. “Institutions that have those tools advance. Institutions that don’t have students who aren’t prepared for how they will solve those problems in the real world,” he adds.

Hear more stories on how leaders are advancing AI and ML in the public sector.

This video panel discussion was produced by Scoop News Group and EdScoop and underwritten by HPE and NVIDIA.