Specific Ideas

  • Help Colleges identify tool talent by developing AI supported lead scoring in Customer Relation Management tools.
  • An AI course set‐up manager – setting up a large number of World Campus courses often involves a lot of repetitive and tedious work that currently needs to be done by a human, like changing the dates in a course to the dates for the next semester. An AI that can perform much of the routine set‐up tasks and answer questions like when and where content was changed and by who, or find and replace terms throughout courses (such as when software is updated or when a term used isn’t right – nonprofit vs non‐profit), or searching through courses for specific keywords, file types, instructions so that they can be identified and changed en masse.
  • An AI grading assistant – many of the assessments in Canvas require manual grading (unless it’s a quiz). An AI grading assistant that can be fed answer keys and provide “pre‐grading”, highlight possible issues and probabilities of being correct for review by the instructor could help turnaround certain types of assignments (like accounting spreadsheets, science or math‐based worksheets) for more immediate feedback or provide meaningful practice for students in advance of taking the graded assessments.
  • An AI assistant that can convert and serve up course materials based on student needs – time available, electronic format desired (audio, mobile, tablet, file type).
  • Role‐play assistant – AI that can act as an expert, boss, board of directors, patient, audience, “the market” to help students practice a variety of skills. Alternately, an AI that can assist with presentation preparation by providing feedback on things like content and tone, audience appropriateness, questions or possible missing information, and whether it is likely to meet assignment requirements.
  • An AI that can help students understand course content and readings by providing occasional comprehension checks via multiple choice or fill‐in‐the‐blank style questions, then providing summaries or direct students back to content as needed.
  • A chatbot for FAQs in courses (course specific) or at the university generally – Canvas guides, handbooks, policies, procedures, where to find “x”. Could be student‐focused or instructor‐focused (or know what content to serve up based on the user’s role).
  • Create an AI concierge to assist students (and their parents) throughout their Penn State experience
  • Develop a tool that can reduce a student’s cost and time to degree. What could have sped things up or made things cheaper for you?
  • Use the power of AI to address challenges in the process of applying to Penn State
  • Imagine a tool to facilitate creative funding for your education. Micro‐funding? Personalized scholarships? AI enabled go‐fund‐me?
  • Build an AI agent to answer questions current or perspective students might have about the university
  • Use AI to increase efficiencies at Penn State that can contribute to reducing costs. More efficient buildings? Parking & Transportation? Snow Removal?
  • Leverage AI to build a scalable counselor for at‐risk or struggling students at Penn State
  • Build a tool to help students determine if Penn State is right for them
  • Create a tool to provide prospective students with the colleges or programs that best match their desired academic experience and interests
  • Build an AI agent that can answer questions about what it’s like to be a Penn State student
  • Use AI to provide students with personalized course recommendations
  • Help students go beyond the classroom by matching their interests with various clubs, organizations, research, and activities with which they could become involved
  • Build a matching tool to connect a newly accepted student with a junior or senior at Penn State who has a similar degree or interests that could talk about their experience
  • Use AI to analyze course materials for better, more inclusive learning
  • Intelligently automate student support services for faster, more accurate support
  • Build a better connector to Penn State resources, creating seamless experiences where currently there is confusion
  • Build an intelligent layer over any of the existing tools that Penn State uses
  • Build a tool to connect students with opportunities for scholarships, internships, undergraduate research, study abroad, and more
  • Create a tool to bring students together in study groups or matching with mentors, which could include students that have taken the course and are willing to help
  • Intelligently provide personalized job/career recommendations that provide a good fit, in a geography where they might want to live
  • Build an interface to create a student’s resume based on information provided/collected, e.g. degree, classes, projects, clubs & organizations, internships, etc., tailored to specific job types.
  • Develop a tool to scan a person’s social media profiles and recommend changes or deletions to the profile
  • Leverage AI to make the in‐classroom experience better. Better note‐taking? AI‐assisted Instructional Design? In‐class AI Q&A system?
  • Build a solution that enables a student to conduct mock interviews and obtain feedback on how they might improve