Santosh Pitla, a biological systems engineering professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, knows firsthand the perils and promise of artificial intelligence. At the start of a recent class on fluid for hydraulics, Pitla asked an AI tool for information on the subject.

“It’s 70% accurate,” he said. “If a student goes and uses that as an example, it’s not going to work. You still need the domain expertise, the critical thinking.”

In directing the Machine Automation and Agricultural Robotics Lab, Pitla also sees the AI future, driving the cutting edge of robotics innovation alongside software tools like large language models and new ways to process data.

“So how do we empower our students, staff and faculty to be prepared for this new future, which is already here?” Pitla said. “Every job you see, whether (at) big tech or ag equipment companies — they would like AI experience. So how do we bring this into the classroom responsibly and safely?”

To help answer those questions, and guide the University of Nebraska System’s approach to AI, the university system launched an Artificial Intelligence Institute on Feb. 9. Pitla and Adrian Wisnicki, a professor of English who works on the intersection of humanities and technology, are the institute’s co-directors.

It’s another of many steps the NU System is taking to embrace AI. The University of Nebraska at Omaha launched the first AI degree in the state last year, and has sharpened its AI focus in areas like cybersecurity. At UNL, a new AI makerspace is letting students learn with high-end computing power.

The AI Institute grew out of a recommendation from NU System’s AI Taskforce, which was organized in 2024. Both Pitla and Wisnicki served on the task force, which decided that efforts around AI needed to be unified across all campuses.

“Every faculty member is being impacted, every student is being impacted by AI,” Wisnicki said. “So we needed a larger response than just a kind of campus-focused response … and that’s where I would say the idea of the institute (came from) once we started kind of thinking about the scale of the effort.”

Orienting Nebraska’s AI approach 

AI is often seen as a coastal, Silicon Valley-type endeavor — a technology alternatively backed by sky-high hype of a beneficial digital god or futuristic predictions of humanity’s downfall.

But Wisnicki and Pitla want to chart a different approach to AI. “We are the Silicon Prairie,” Pitla said. “We are grounded in reality.”

Away from the hype, and with a healthy dose of skepticism, the real question becomes: How can AI solve real problems for Nebraskans, enabled with the mission and sensible Midwest culture of the NU System?

“Big tech has lots of different products to offer us,” Wisnicki said. “We want to see that they actually work, and that they work consistently, and that they serve our communities.”

Pitla and Wisnicki bring a unique perspective to the AI Institute by mixing Pitla’s hard STEM background with Wisnicki’s expertise in humanities. Both academics want to keep people as their focus rather than getting lost in the technology itself.

They also see the institute as a way to bring together all corners and disciplines of the NU System, from the metro campuses to the extensions serving rural Nebraska. “Bringing two researchers like us together really speaks to a kind of true representation of interdisciplinarity,” Wisnicki said. 

“You hear that term used quite a bit in academia … but often that might be biologists collaborating with other scientists, or historians working with English professors,” he said. “But here, we’re really bringing humanities and STEM together, and that leads to the best kind of research.”

Early days

As Wisnicki and Pitla get to work on the AI Institute, they have much to figure out, from funding to specific initiatives. For the moment, the institute has support from a $250,000 Google grant and the state Nebraska Research Initiative. 

“We can go to private foundations, we can go to the government, we can go to big tech,” Wisnicki said. “And part of it is to see who shows interest in us, but also where we’re interested in going, and where we’ll be able to find funding that works with the kind of priorities and interests we have.”

Both Wisnicki and Pitla emphasized that they want the AI Institute to be a co-creation with NU System stakeholders, from faculty and students to industry and startups. The institute is currently in a kind of soft launch, meant to gauge interest — which the co-directors say has been overwhelmingly positive.

Over the next few months, Wisnicki and Pitla plan to conduct more listening sessions and prepare for an official Board of Regents vote in June to formalize the institute.

“We have some ideas, but we want to get confirmation, affirmation about these ideas,” Pitla said. “Or if (we) miss some ideas, we want to bring them back into our mission and vision. Because with AI, everything is changing so fast, so we want to get feedback … before we put that official documentation (to the regents).”

The larger vision is to make Nebraska a premier location for AI research and integration. “If you have AI happening in Nebraska, why would someone want to come here?” Pitla said.

“It’s about the people — there are more people to empower here than in the East and West Coasts (where there is higher AI adoption), and there’s a good amount of skepticism about technologies in Nebraska,” he said. “So there’s a lot to learn (about) how we can integrate AI or empower people with AI. And I think Nebraska, it’s in the middle of everywhere, so a perfect, fertile ground to test it out.”

Lev Gringauz is a Report for America corps member who writes about corporate innovation and workforce development for Silicon Prairie News.