In a fast-paced stream of presentations, Cornell faculty, staff, and students showcased their use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to solve unique challenges they faced in their courses and work on Wednesday, January 22, 2025.

After brief opening remarks by Chief Global Information Officer (CIO) Curt Cole and by CIO for Cornell’s Ithaca campus and Cornell Tech Ben Maddox, eight projects from the Fall 2025 cohort of the university’s AI Innovation Lab were presented to in-person and Zoom audience members. Among the participants gathered in Bill and Melinda Gates Hall were three co-chairs of the Generative AI Plenary Council at Cornell: Vice Provost for Academic Innovation Steve Jackson, Vice President for Research and Innovation Krystyn Van Vliet, and Provost Kavita Bala.

One demonstration revealed a quick and accurate search for faculty members with expertise in trending topics. Another highlighted a Socratic chatbot that informed a professor about his class's grasp of the previous lecture's material. The novel applications of AI to solve common problems inspired the audience to imagine resolving their own challenges with similar tools.

To wrap up the event, Thorsten Joachims, inaugural Associate Dean for Research and interim dean for Cornell Bowers College of Computing and Information Sciences, spoke to the excitement of the participants and the success of the projects in solving real-world problems across the Cornell community.

Organized by Ayham Boucher, head of AI Innovation, the event culminated with the announcement of projects in the Spring 2025 cohort and an invitation to submit ideas for future projects. Details about each project will be featured in future news articles. Watch the AI overview page for the series of project stories.

The audience photos were taken by Luke Stewart - Cornell Bowers.