In a time of exploration, uncertainty and rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, the University of Nebraska at Omaha wants to be a resource for individuals and organizations to turn to for up-to-date guidance. Its AI-CCORE initiative launched as a means to educate communities across the state and give students, entrepreneurs and teams behind businesses and nonprofits the ability to learn and apply AI.

AI-CCORE stands for Artificial Intelligence Center for Collaborative Outreach, Research and  Education. Funded through a grant from the Weitz Innovation and Excellence Fund, AI-CCORE seeks to be a hub for workforce development, research and innovation.  

Offerings include bootcamps for training professionals on tech advancements and prototyping software solutions, master classes for forming foundational understandings of AI and a studio aimed at high schoolers and young adults to expose them to current concepts and applicable skillsets. 

Martha Garcia-Murillo, dean of the UNO College of Information Science and Technology, said having students dabble in both AI and entrepreneurship opens up new career pathways they may not otherwise consider. As companies experiment with AI and question the relevance of existing job responsibilities, students can meet future workforce demands and/or go off and start their own ventures. 

Garcia-Murillo said community collaborations and programming through AI-CCORE have been going on since early last year. 

UNO held its inaugural Mav AI Day earlier this month to directly showcase UNO offerings, partnerships and discussions on AI to the community. It also included a ribbon-cutting ceremony on a new exhibit open to the public at the Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center. 

Organizers said the exhibit is meant to be a space for people to feel empowered to ask any questions they may have around AI and its impacts across industries and education. Future Mav AI Days are planned. 

During Mav AI Day, entities such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, Farm Credit Services of America and SPARK CDI spoke on their collaborations with UNO — highlighting joint efforts to create usable, AI-powered tools for their respective needs. 

Garcia-Murillo said collaborations such as these form because businesses and nonprofits reach out to UNO and participate in programs such as AI-CCORE. Upon seeing UNO expertise in action, she said teams become interested in seeing what projects the university ecosystem can help them with.

Vishva Prasanth Srinivasan, an AI engineer and member of the AI-CCORE team, said students have taken on projects for companies as part of their capstone requirements, giving them real-world experiences and career pipelines. He added that he and his colleagues can assist startups and established entities alike with workshopping ideas, developing solutions and brainstorming a way forward to launch. 

“Since we are an educational institution and we are always on top of all trends, it’s our responsibility to always be on top of anything and everything,” Srinivasan said. “So, we are always (at) the edge of what AI is. We know and we move at the speed equal or faster than what AI is currently growing.”

Srinivasan said AI-CCORE is open to any project or industry where stakeholders think AI could be useful. He encouraged interested participants to reach out and see if AI-CCORE is the right fit. 

UNO has demonstrated additional efforts to remove barriers to understanding AI, such as launching Nebraska’s first AI degree program and training students on modern cybersecurity skills through its Nebraska Cyber MATRIX initiative. Other activities in Omaha and the state include the new NA’WI initiative to expose rural communities to AI, as well as the OMA x AI conference. 

Ticket sales end June 28 for the upcoming OMA x AI conference. You can learn more about the event on June 30 here. 

Garcia-Murillo said the AI exhibit on UNO’s campus is open on Fridays. She said the larger goal is to eventually open an exhibit at the Kiewit Luminarium.