As part of the newly completed Artificial Intelligence Corridor in Vance Academic Center, CCSU will be the first university in the nation to have this holographic synthetic human developed in partnership with two artificial intelligence companies, the project leaders said. The so-called synthetic human is AI-powered hologram technology that projects a digital, lifelike person with interactive and cognitive abilities within a clear display case in the corridor.
The university celebrated the opening of the corridor this past week in a ribbon cutting offering a first look at the new classrooms, robot dogs and holograms in the display case where the autonomous human will eventually go.
"Central was the first public-funded institution of higher education in the state. So we want to continue to be the first, in many ways," said CCSU President Zelma Toro.
About 18 months ago, around five months after the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, Toro came up with the idea of appointing a task force to explore what needed to happen for CCSU to feature the advancements of artificial intelligence on its campus, she said.
Like any new technology, it was inevitable that artificial intelligence would find its way into education, said Thomas King, director of auxiliary services and cloud infrastructure at CCSU.
"It's gonna be pervasive," said George Claffey, chief information officer at CCSU and co-chair of the project's task force.
And at CCSU, evidence of AI's expanding emergence into society was now visible, he said, as the 5,000-square-foot project with almost $1 million worth of equipment has been completed, comprised of three new classrooms with large screen displays, hallway graphics and computer rack displays, an AI research room with an isolated AI server and meeting space.
The AI-powered holographic human, created as part of CCSU's partnership with technology companies Holovisn and Synth Studios, is not fully ready yet but will occupy the senior design and faculty research lab.
CCSU is the first university to collaborate with Holovisn and Synth Studios on developing the holographic synthetic human, and the first to integrate it alongside students and faculty, he said.
"We are confident that offerings of this nature will soon become standard across higher education," said Shawn Landgraf, founder and CEO of Holovisn.
The technology combines a mechanical LED fan wall that generates a 3D visual effect with an advanced AI engine capable of natural language processing and high-resolution, custom avatar graphics, Claffey said. This kind of synthetic human will have custom clothes, hair, eyes, skin and more.
Students and visitors will be able to interact with this synthetic human through a camera and microphone, he said, and it will be able to recognize people, store memories and speak back to them in a conversational tone.
The autonomous human will have what they are calling two separate artificial "brains," which are comprised of software and hardware with cognitive abilities, Claffey said. The "multi-modal AI Brain" integrates multiple forms of AI for its operations, Landgraf said.
One is designed after an admissions counselor, meant for quick and light-hearted interactions about the university with anyone, and one for its role as a research assistant, for more sophisticated and serious engagements with students and faculty. "And so it meets you where you are," he said.
King said he thinks of the synthetic human as something to bounce ideas off of, as a personal learning assistant and useful research tool.
The lab is also home to two Unitree robotic dogs, robots equipped with radar, thermal sensors and environment mapping technology, which many event attendees watched in awe as one of the robot dogs jumped and walked around the room. The robot dogs are designed for cobot training, which entails direct human-robot interaction and allows students to program them to perform various tasks, Claffey said.
"So there's lots of uses for this, really," he said, gesturing to one of the robot dogs. "This is designed to fit the application that you have the need for."
Instead of requiring thousands of lines of code for a simple command, the technology makes it easier for students to make the robot dog jump, move around and program other tasks themselves, Claffey said.
"So the whole point is to have this be an open lab," Claffey said. "You don't have to be an AI expert to walk in here. You just have to have an idea."
The corridor also has three classrooms, with more than a hundred new computers specifically designed to either explore the application of everyday AI or to explore groundbreaking AI, Claffey said.
Through 80 of the computers in two of the classrooms, students can use AI to study how climate change has impacted the environment through uploading topographical maps, analyze traffic patterns and data from traffic cameras to strategize more efficient transportation, and use AI technology for fiscal analysis, he said.
"Artificial intelligence is increasingly integrated into everything we do," he said, "and these classrooms will allow our students to engage with it in practical ways."
With the 28 other computers in the third classroom, students can use the computer's design to develop their own AI-powered app, configure AI servers and program their own models, train large language models and manage how AI can interact with data.
The corridor itself is meant to guide students from diverse disciplines, from computer science, linguistics, psychology, business or design, to explore and harness the power of artificial intelligence, Toro said.
The total cost of the new equipment was approximately $950,000, with $700,000 spent on technology like the computers, robotic dogs and digital screens, and $250,000 coming from in-kind contributions from companies piloting technology like Synth Studios and Holovisn, for the synthetic human cabinet, Claffey said.
"It's definitely cool, being like the first university to do something like this," said CCSU sophomore Noah Dumeny.
But at the same time, Dumeny and sophomore Ricky Cody said it was weird to see how quickly AI was implemented inside their school, given how recently that kind of technology was introduced to the general public.
"I haven't seen anything like it," Cody said. At least not in person, he added, saying that this technology reminded him more of what he had seen in movies.
Many involved with the new project acknowledged that the synthetic human aspect of this new project in particular, while exciting, may take some getting used to.
"Let me tell you, that's the more scary development you are going to see here," Toro said.
Michael Gendron, professor and chair of Management Information Systems and the AI Lab coordinator, said although he had heard some questions and concerns about having something as sci-fi-like as a synthetic human, he didn't think there was a need to be afraid.
"We're a long ways away from Skynet and Terminator," he laughed.
And there were always concerns with any type of new technology, King said.
"So I don't think this is unique to AI," he said. "Society has to figure out what the ethical implications are for any new technology and develop norms and standards around it. This is something that we've come across before, and we'll deal with it as we encounter it."
Even so, education played a significant role in getting people comfortable with AI, and that was what this corridor aimed to do, Gendron said.
"We have to get people past the scare that this is going to take over their life," he said. Gendron calls himself an advocate of "the democratization of AI," to get everybody involved in and know what artificial intelligence is.
And for the most part, Gendron and King said most students already were using AI, and expected them to continue to embrace it.
"I don't think we're gonna have to worry about students becoming comfortable with this," King said. "This is just giving them a more professional way on how to use it, developing those strategies so that they can use it effectively."
As part of the AI application minor at CCSU, students were required to take ethics courses, Gendron said.
"You can't send them out into the wild without them knowing the implications of what they're doing," he said. "Just because you have access to a certain dataset, it doesn't mean you should use it. They have to have an understanding of the ethical boundaries."
But they also didn't want this technology to be limited to CCSU students. In the spring, they would be launching a community outreach program in the spring to invite community members in, show them how to build AI applications so they can gain knowledge about it and be more comfortable with it, Gendron said.
"That's the whole vision behind this," he said, "how to utilize this successfully and not be afraid of it."
And Toro said she expected other universities to follow in CCSU's footsteps, especially because AI familiarity was now a desired trait in the job market.
"I think that if they want to provide their students relevant educational experiences in the area of artificial intelligence, they will have to do this because employers are asking for it," she said. "I am confident that Central will lead the way in AI, education and innovation, equipping our graduates to thrive and make meaningful contributions to the world."
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