Artificial Intelligence

Podcast: The future classroom: Teaching and learning in age of AI

Sarah Holland — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 17:00:08 +0000

Podcast: The future classroom: Teaching and learning in age of AI Sarah Holland Mon, 03/23/2026 - 13:00

As society navigates rapid technological advancement and escalating challenges at home and abroad, it’s up to our educators to prepare students to meet the evolving needs of the state, the nation, and the world. We call this Advancing 21st Century Education for All: one of the key pillars of our Grand Challenge Initiative.

On today’s episode of Access to Excellence, Ingrid Guerra-López, dean of George �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Education and Human Development, joins President Gregory Washington to discuss the future of education in a rapidly changing world and why the irreplaceable human elements of teaching will define the profession's future even as technology transforms it.

We don't have the luxury of looking away and saying, well, I don't like technology and I don't like the AI thing, or whatever the technology might be. And just say, well, I'm not gonna engage. The world has moved on, right? So I think one of the critical things that is gonna be really important for educators and, and educational systems is to promote the ability for students to engage in lifelong learning and adaptability 'cause that is always going to be a constant requirement. — Ingrid Guerra-López

Read the transcript

Intro (00:04):
Trailblazers in research, innovators in technology, and those who simply have a good story: all make up the fabric that is �鶹��Ƶ, where taking on the grand challenges that face our students, graduates, and higher education is our mission and our passion. Hosted by �鶹��Ƶ President Gregory Washington, this is the Access to Excellence podcast.

President Gregory Washington (00:27):
The world is changing. Virginia and the nation require institutions that can rapidly align the next generation workforce with the evolving needs of the economy and our communities. More is already demanded of this generation than any before them. We have no choice but to prepare them for a task that is nothing short of saving the world. At George �鶹��Ƶ, we call it advancing 21st century education for all. It's one of the key pillars of our Grand Challenge initiative, and I can't think of a better person to talk to us about it than our guest. Dr. Ingrid Guerra-López, dean of George �鶹��Ƶ's College of Education and Human Development, Dean Guerra-López, welcome to the show.

Ingrid Guerra-López (01:22):
Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

President Gregory Washington (01:25):
Well, let me start high level here. Where does your passion for education come from?

Ingrid Guerra-López (01:32):
So, it, it actually, I would say maybe doesn't come quite from education, it comes from learning. I've always been really drawn to asking questions, to needing to understand how things connect, just overall general inquiry and curiosity, you know, how things fit together. And so learning to me is ultimately what the promise of education is. Learning in itself, it, it's intrinsically valuable. It expands us. It, it deepens our judgment. Uh, it fuels so many other things. And education is one of those means. It's one of the many pathways through which learning can occur. We can learn through so many ways: on our own, through reflection and experience, uh, informally in our communities, through family, through our work, vicariously by watching others, and through that formal educational system. So I think it's, it's really important to distinguish the education from the actual point of it, which is learning and growth.

President Gregory Washington (02:29):
You got teachers and you have learners, right?

Ingrid Guerra-López (02:31):
That's right.

President Gregory Washington (02:32):
So, before we talk a bit about the future in the 21st century, talk to me a little bit about the current status of the education system, right? What are our streams, what are our current challenges? And there are very few areas more maligned in, in my opinion, than education, especially, especially at the K-12 level in the country. And so, talk to me a little bit about where we are currently positioned.

Ingrid Guerra-López (02:58):
Yeah, I, I do think that we do have a deep commitment for equity and for access. And there's a, a genuine sustained effort across states and districts to expand access. And whether it's through early childhood programs or inclusive special education services or college access pathways, you know, even support for multilingual learners. We've expanded who education is for, and that matters enormously. Now, the next step is really ensuring that access translates into meaningful opportunity and high quality learning experiences for everybody, for every learner. So I think that's one really important strength that we, we have right now. I think that there are also extraordinary, uh, innovation pockets across the country. Uh, we know that educators are experimenting boldly, whether it's through problem-based learning or competency-based progression, industry partnerships, AI-assisted instruction. There's a lot of things that are going well in terms of innovation. The challenge isn't a lack of innovation, it's that innovation is often localized.

Ingrid Guerra-López (04:04):
It's isolated in pockets rather than scaled system-wide. So I would say that that's really important. I would also highlight that the research base is fairly strong. We know more than ever before, um, how children learn. We know about brain development, uh, motivation and engagement, effective feedback, et cetera. The learning sciences and human development research base is, it's pretty robust. That's part of the work that we do through our partnerships at the College of Education and Human Development. One of our really exciting initiatives is a research practice partnership ERA•NOVA, our Educational Research Alliance of Northern Virginia, where we engage with over 20 school divisions across the region and beyond connecting research directly to district level practice, especially this year around AI readiness.

President Gregory Washington (04:54):
So you gave me a lot of the strengths, and you talked about scalability. I see that as being a challenge. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. But if we know how to do this right, if our research has given us more insight than ever before, we, we have all of this positive, why do we not have better educational outcomes, especially at the K-12 level?

Ingrid Guerra-López (05:18):
So there's, there's a couple of things. I think our educators are represent an interesting variable, because on the one hand, the resiliency of those educators are, um, it's a strength, right? They've shown us that they can navigate a, a, a global pandemic, um, rapid technological change, et cetera. But at the same time, we're seeing more teacher burnout and issues with retention than ever before. We're asking them to be all things to all people, instructional designers, and data analysts, and technology integrators, and social workers. All the things without systematically redesigning workload, support structures, compensation. And preparation alone is not enough, right? You need that induction and that support and the mentorship and the professional growth systems that, that have to evolve with it. So that's why modernizing educator preparation and building stronger support pipelines is so central. So what I'm getting at is really that, that we have a structural mismatch. Our current system was largely optimized for predictable career pathways and content transmission and standardized pacing, like all of the things of the industrial area workforce required. Today's economy though, requires more, uh, adaptability and continuous learning. It requires comfort with a certain level of ambiguity, and it also requires us to think across different disciplines. So we're still organized around seat time and subject silos, while the world rewards problem solvers right across different boundaries. So, um, I don't know if it's a, a failure as much as it's a structural lag.

President Gregory Washington (07:02):
Structural lags unimplemented manifest themselves to the broader public as failures, right?

Ingrid Guerra-López (07:09):
Yeah.

President Gregory Washington (07:09):
Yeah. So let's back up for a second. You, you hear these calls of reform, you hear these calls of rethinking college education. Where does the call come from the loudest?

Ingrid Guerra-López (07:21):
I think it comes from, uh, different people, from everybody, really, but for different reasons, right? So you have employers who want graduates who can navigate complexity and technology and, and, and change. Understandably, families want return on investment and a good quality of life for their graduates. Governments want workforce alignment and economic competitiveness, right? They want our educational systems to be aligned with that. Students just want relevance. You, you go into a classroom at any level and you hear students asking you like, how does this connect to the real world? You know, what will I do with this? They don't reject rigor. They reject irrelevance. Right? And then you have industries like healthcare and technology sectors who want interdisciplinary thinkers, because those fields are evolving so quickly that narrow specializations aren't enough. They want engineers who understand ethics. They want healthcare professionals who understand data. They want leadership who can translate between disciplines, you know, and technologists who understand human behavior.

President Gregory Washington (08:29):
If I were to now ask the real question, the big question, you know, we're sitting in the 21st century, right? We largely have a 20th century educational framework. Uh, classes today aren't taught that much differently than what they were taught in 1999. Uh, we, we had electronic means of delivering content, and that was incorporated into our world. Fast forward, we have the most disruptive technology of our generation. Artificial intelligence has now moved beyond the laboratory, beyond the application of a few people who are on the bleeding edge to really being mainstream. Right? Right. Now, 50% of American households use AI in some form. It's about as mainstream as you can get. So what should 21st century education look like at different levels? So from early childhood through doctoral programs, what should it look like? Put your crystal ball on.

Ingrid Guerra-López (09:34):
Yes. Yes. Love to bring out my crystal ball. So, I, I think at those, uh, very early years and early childhood, it's really critical to cultivate curiosity, play-based problem solving. And of course, you, you wanna integrate with early digital literacy, right? Not just screen time, but digital understanding.

President Gregory Washington (09:55):
So, unpack that. It sounds intriguing. What does that actually look like?

Ingrid Guerra-López (10:00):
It's really, um, understanding what the technology is, right? Where, how algorithms work and, and again, at a developmentally appropriate way, you know, making a distinction between, you know, real world connection and what you might get out of the, the technology. It, it's a, it's a lot of different things. They're born into a generation where, um, technology all around them. So understanding what it does well, what it doesn't do well, that early discernment about how technology can help, but what the limitations are as well. I think that there are other things, right? So we, we, we tend to talk about technology and technology being such a disruptor, but, but there are also those uniquely human skills that are just as critical. Uh, and so as you think of the progression through K 12, the project-based learning is really important because it builds in that relevance, and it really does create an environment where you have to integrate knowledge, different subject matters into a coherent project that's tied to a, a real world authentic environment.

Ingrid Guerra-López (11:13):
So, you know, even in stem, it, it needs to be applied, right? Like, what community problem are you solving? Uh, and again, that AI literacy that's appropriate at, at every level. And, and really critically, again, I would have emphasize that it's that real world problem solving tied to community challenges. That's something that, you know, is so integral to what, what �鶹��Ƶ does. And I think that that's really critical. As we move through undergraduate, again, the interdisciplinary learning is really critical. Industry connected experience is one of the things that we try to do at our college is, you know, engage our students in sometimes as many as, as two different kinds of internships or applied learning experiences in workplaces or in those kind of environments, because it's so critical. The data literacy, you know, whether they're gonna go on to work in a classroom or any other setting, we live in these highly technology-integrated, uh, data-rich environments.

Ingrid Guerra-López (12:15):
And the, the data literacy is, is really critical. And just like the technology piece is important, the ethical reasoning is important, right? It's, it's not just the use of technology. It's ethical reasoning around technology. And, and we know from, there's a really interesting survey that is deployed every three years by the World Economic Forum, and they survey employers across the globe, um, every three years or so. And, you know, those, the skills that they consistently have at the top as desirable for global employers continues to be those transferable skills, right? So adaptability, critical thinking, communication, systems thinking. So that has to be embedded, uh, in our undergraduate curriculum all the way through our, our graduate, um, stages with systems thinking and research to impact pipelines. Again, I think one of the things that's unique and a great strength of George �鶹��Ƶ is that we really focus on research of consequence. That there is an immediate sort of transdisciplinary approach to what we do in that we work closely with the community. We work on societal challenges that matter to our communities. And so that has to be a critical environment through which we, we teach at the graduate level or at the doctoral level, those research skills that are, you know, really tied in that, uh, problem of practice.

President Gregory Washington (13:40):
But you walk in the classroom of today, and those young people are living in a half virtual half real environment, right? They're on their phones when they go home, they're on their iPads, they're on their laptops, and the like. They're literally interfacing with ai. AI is a helper for them. They're asking it questions, they're engaged with it. They are already there, right? And so what does educating this next generation of educators look like so that they can actually engage with young people at that level? Because it can't be traditional, it cannot be the way you and I learned, because the young people, aren't they, we didn't have the tools. We didn't have the tools that they had. I remember hours in stacks, right, in the library. Or I remember getting online and spending hours with Google searches, and they're not using Google searches anymore. They go right to the answer and to the references in a very quick way just by knowing how to properly prompt or do they, right? So these are the kinds of things that I'm trying to see where we are in terms of educating the next generation of educators who have to teach to students who have these tools.

Ingrid Guerra-López (15:06):
Yeah, no, absolutely. Right? If, if we're serious about preparing students for a rapidly changing world, then that means we have to start with the adults who guide them, and, and that's our teachers. So modernizing education begins with modernizing the teaching profession in a lot of ways. And, you know, today's teachers are not, they're not just content experts or deliverers. It's a complex professional operating and dynamic environment. So I think, you know, education today and for the next, uh, generation of educators, uh, they're, you know, clearly instructional designers because the content isn't enough and a textbook is not really enough. They're designing learning experiences that are integrating many of those elements that I, I, I talked about, right? Whether it's project-based learning and then technology tools in a purposeful way, or interdisciplinary content applied right in real world problems. They have to understand how to scaffold learning how to potentially use those technology tools to differentiate instruction, how to potentially use those AI tools to develop meaningful performance based assessments.

Ingrid Guerra-López (16:19):
So that's one component of, you know, what they're now having to do in this next generation. But again, going back to the data-rich environments that also have to be data interpreters, right? We know that classrooms are increasingly data-rich environments, and teachers have to be able to interpret assessment results, identify learning patterns, and adjust instruction in real times in many ways. So that, that data fluency, it's not just about spreadsheets, it's about instructional decision making. The technology component, right? They have to be technology integrators. It's not as an add-on. It's embedded in, as you were saying, in describing how students learn and how they work and how they live. So teachers need to understand when technology enhances learning and when it distracts from it, you know, there have been many instances where in some cases, technologies were integrated in the classroom. I'm thinking of the, the smart board, for example. And then they sat there as symbols of progress, but there wasn't any support in many cases provided to teachers to take advantage of the technology, not only to enhance teaching practices, but to enhance learning outcomes and to model for students how to use technology effectively. So, so they have to now know how to integrate AI tools responsibly and how to help maintain academic integrity while at the same time embracing innovation. And, and that's a balance.

President Gregory Washington (17:51):
This is where I, I want to have a, a more lengthy discussion, right? Should our teachers educate our students in how to effectively develop and utilize prompts so that they can properly interface and engage with a large language model.

Ingrid Guerra-López (18:12):
So AI is, is a lot of things, right? There's a, certainly a, a literacy component to it, just as far as understanding what it is. And it, it, it's also a tool in that it helps them apply learning sciences.

President Gregory Washington (18:27):
Yeah. But it, but it has a language. And that's the thing. So, so, you know, I tell people all the time, if you get on your computer, you give it a PDF of a paper or of a book, and you say, review this book for me, and give me, and give me your summary of it. I would contend to them that that is an improper way to use AI, right? But it's the way in which people engage and interact with it, right? But they're not really speaking the language of how the computer, which AI is really giving you your answers based on associations. It associates the, the words that you write with specific sets of other words and other outcomes that it knows. So if you don't want it to hallucinate or give you things that are really, shouldn't be part of the question in which you ask it, you actually need to take care of that in how you ask it, right?

President Gregory Washington (19:26):
You need to start to focus the large language model to a general framework, a general area that's involved with the document or that, that you've given it. You need to tell it who it is, so it knows where to pull prerequisite information to help it do the identifications that are necessary to get your answer, right. So one example is you have a person do a general prompt. You give them a, the same book, you have them do a general prompt where they ask it, summarize this for me, blah, blah, blah. And let's say it's on physics, you know, it's on electromagnetics. I'm, I'm sorry, I'm giving you an engineering scenario.

Ingrid Guerra-López (20:10):
It's, it's okay.

President Gregory Washington (20:10):
But let's say it's on electromagnetics and you say, summarize this book on electromagnetics. That's one way, another way to say is, you are the foremost electromagnetics physicists in the world. Your research is on blank relative to electromagnetics. Take this book, summarize it. Give me relative feedback with emphasis on A, D, C, D and E. I'm gonna get a very different set of outcomes that I've gotten with just a straight summarize this. Yeah. Right? And because our young people are gonna be interfacing in dealing with young people who are gonna be interfacing with this technology, to me, it's critical that they know how to do it. People are gonna use it. So you, you better learn, they better know how to use it in the most efficient way, in the most efficient mechanism possible. Right? And so we're still debating whether it's cheating or not, and we really should be about how do you best employ it to give you an advantage over the other folk who are still debating whether it should even be used or not. Right? Because to me, that ship is kind of sailed.

Ingrid Guerra-López (21:24):
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. What you are describing, so I mentioned earlier, AI is a lot of different things, right? It can be seen as a tool, as a career pathway, uh, as a disruptor. But to me, you're describing AI as a literacy, right? It's something that students must understand. We teach reading and writing because literacy empowers agency and AI literacy is gonna serve a similar function. Um, students and educators both need to understand how AI systems are trained, where bias can enter, what hallucinations are, how to verify an AI generated output, or what ethical boundaries really matter as you create your prompt or as you think about how to engage with AI and how data privacy works as well. So without that kind of literacy, I definitely agree. Like we risk creating passive consumers of, of technology instead of informed critical users.

President Gregory Washington (22:27):
You know, we have very, very highly regarded education programs here at George �鶹��Ƶ from special ed to education leadership. And so what makes �鶹��Ƶ stand out as an education institution in your mind?

Ingrid Guerra-López (22:41):
Yeah, I think, um, and I mentioned this a little bit earlier, I think the fact that we have such strong ties to our community and our educational partners, we're working in real problems of practice that our school partners see as, as priorities. One of the, the really exciting initiatives that I mentioned our ERA•NOVA partnership. We're really approaching, even AI, for example, not, not from a high perspective, but working directly with our, uh, school division leaders to define what readiness actually means. Whatever your subject matter is, it's gonna be relevant a across the different, uh, content areas of teaching. So we're asking things like, you know, what competencies should teachers have in an AI enabled classroom? Um, and, and, you know, responsible classroom integration look like. What, what is that? How do we balance innovation with student safety? Um, how do we actually even know whether AI is improving learning?

Ingrid Guerra-López (23:46):
So one of the things that, um, we are doing as a result of that collaboration is identifying very specifically the kind of skills that we should be embedding across all of our educational programs across all of our teacher preparation programs, whether it's in special education or early childhood education, or secondary education, because that's just going to be part of the job. I've heard some alarmist kind of warnings that, you know, AI is going to, uh, eliminate teachers, and that just simply isn't true. We've been hearing those concerns for a long time. We heard it, you know, with the radio and the television and the internet and the cell phones <laugh>, what it's going to do is elevate the teaching profession, right? Because if you look at not just the teaching profession, but all professions, it is fundamentally changing the way in which you work, the actual critical tasks that are required, how well you do it. So it is, uh, in my opinion, going to elevate. So I think that's one of the things that's really unique about us. It's that integration between research and practice. It, we don't just stay at the theory of things, but we're using research and, uh, research capacity and theory to work with our educational partners and the educational community to, to address real challenges.

President Gregory Washington (25:13):
So if I were to ask you who's actually successfully making this change and adapting as you've highlighted here, who, who's doing that at George �鶹��Ƶ?

Ingrid Guerra-López (25:25):
You mean across our educational programs or?

President Gregory Washington (25:27):
Yeah.

Ingrid Guerra-López (25:27):
Yeah. I, I think I, like I said, I think we're, we're all doing it that ERA•NOVA that research practice partnership, we have faculty across many programs, including educational leadership who are really vested in working. We have, uh, a couple of faculty right now. We, we were successful in, uh, obtaining a global data sharing agreement with a couple of our school divisions. And what we did is we prioritized the areas of interest of those school partners. So we already have faculty in the college testing out AI tools to enhance math instruction and literacy instruction. And that's huge because it, it, you know, it requires for the school division to have a lot of trust in us. And so we're, that's just the, the kind of, I think, work that we're doing in partnership with our school divisions to, to modernize the teaching profession.

President Gregory Washington (26:25):
These technologies are gonna solve some significant problems for us. I, I do believe, as you highlighted that the teaching profession isn't going away. What I caution is stating that it's not going to have to radically change, right? You can interface with a teacher who understands many of the great works of Shakespeare, right? Or you can interface with a bot that has read every great work on any subject and can correlate it, right? And so how does that professor engage with a student that has access to that tool, right? Because in some instances, the, the, the, the, the tool, the technology actually has a greater knowledge base and is able to synthesize that knowledge base better than the professor. The tool itself has the ability to synthesize and bring information together. And, and, and for lack of a better way of saying this, and almost like a human-like manner. So we have to teach people how to find their place in that environment. And I think that that's critical and non-trivial, right? I know we have people thinking about this and working on this here. Do you have some examples of any programs that are utilizing that?

Ingrid Guerra-López (28:01):
I guess I would kind of take us a little further back. It's not about content, right? The role of an educator. It requires that human judgment. We can't compete with the knowledge generation, the analysis, in some cases, the synthesis, but that's not the value of an educator, right? It's really that human connection. It's that mentorship, it's discernment. It's very subtle art of recognizing when a student is struggling. It's the human connection. It is the helping to love to learn, to engage with learning on an ongoing basis. That's the challenge is right now, we're, and you know, lots of folks are, are talking about this. We're, we're educating students for a world that we probably can't even imagine.

President Gregory Washington (28:53):
No, that's right. Right? But, but I contend to you that we've always educated young people for worlds that they could not imagine. Right? I remember we were educating people in the early and mid-2000s for an explosion of wireless and internet of things based technologies that hit long before these young, we didn't know what those technologies were gonna look like, right? But we graduated young people who can interface and, and engage with them. And so I think you're hitting the nail right on the head with this whole piece of leaning into that human connectedness part, right? My, the best teachers, uh, the best teachers that I've had throughout my career have been people who could do that, right? Who could look at you and see your strengths in your development cycle, who could see your weaknesses, right? And they didn't do that by, uh, a test per se. They did this by discerning, they did this by watching you engage and seeing, you know, it could be where you stopped your pencil as you were writing. It could be the look that was on your face as you were engaging, right? It could just be the feeling that they got from engaging with you on a specific issue or on a specific problem, right? Those pieces are, in my opinion, uniquely human.

Ingrid Guerra-López (30:30):
That's right.

President Gregory Washington (30:31):
And we have to figure out how to emphasize them and lean into the tools.

Ingrid Guerra-López (30:39):
That's right.

President Gregory Washington (30:40):
You, you, you get what I mean.

Ingrid Guerra-López (30:41):
Absolutely.

President Gregory Washington (30:42):
That is the solution. That's, that is, or at least, that's the solution right now, <laugh>,

Ingrid Guerra-López (30:47):
Right? That that's right. We, because don't be because we

President Gregory Washington (30:49):
Don't know what the future's gonna look like.

Ingrid Guerra-López (30:49):
That's right. We, we don't know what the new thing will be. And so regardless of the change and the, regardless of, of the tools that come along, right? What we're really trying to promote is adaptability. And again, change is always, it, it's only accelerating, right? So we don't have the luxury of looking away and saying, well, I don't like technology and I don't like the AI thing, or whatever the technology might be. And just say, well, I'm not gonna engage. The world has moved on, right? So I think one of the critical things that is gonna be really important for educators and, and educational systems is to promote the ability for students to engage in lifelong learning and adaptability 'cause that is always going to be a constant requirement.

President Gregory Washington (31:37):
So let me ask you this, because you, you clearly are, uh, as an educator, you're gonna have to deal with humanist on the, the ethical values of what you teach and what you don't teach, right? And so how can classical liberal arts education evolve to meet the needs of these 21st century students and workers and employees and employers, right? How do we evolve the classical liberal arts framework in order to meet that need?

Ingrid Guerra-López (32:09):
Yeah. I, I think, you know, it's just as important as it's, as it has always been. Um, I think, you know, we want to, um, leverage, you know, the logic, the logical reasoning that comes from, from philosophy and, you know, the history, uh, patterns right across history. So I, I think they're just as relevant as before, but I think like everything else, it has to evolve and we have to do, uh, a better job of applying those insights, right? Like to me, liberal arts as, as someone who navigated philosophy and English and psychology, uh, in my undergrad, I have found those skills to be so critical to everything I do. And so I, I think it's just making sure that we're taking it a step further and that we are using the liberal arts in a way that's applied, and that is clearly relevant. I, I think it's relevant, but as educators, I think we need to do a better job of, of making that connection. But, you know, as I said, again, this whole idea of, uh, critical thinking, um, and, uh, collaboration and insight, those are all things that I think our liberal arts are, are really good at helping us develop.

President Gregory Washington (33:30):
If you were talking to a young person right now, somebody just graduating out of high school and entering into the profession, you say, I want to be a teacher. Teachers really impacted me my entire life. And that's where I see myself having the greatest impact as a human. And that young person was looking at you, what are three things you would tell that person to make sure you do now while you're going through your educational framework in order to make you a, an effective teacher going forward?

Ingrid Guerra-López (34:08):
I definitely think that I would ask them to model adaptability, right? To make sure that as you enter the teaching profession, that you're aware that students are also looking at you and how well you embrace change. So I think that's one critical thing. Also, this idea that, that I mentioned before around problem-based learning is really critical. The world needs problem solvers, right? Ethical problem solvers that regardless of the workplace or context can work with others to solve complex problems. And so embedding that in the learning environment and in the learning experiences is, is really critical. So I, I think those are some of the critical things that I would make sure that they know is, is essential for an effective teacher.

President Gregory Washington (34:59):
Given where you sit as a leader and an administrator, right? And you're leading now cohorts of faculty, what do you tell them about how this disruption that's coming from AI, this, this change that's coming to the profession, what do you tell them about what they should be doing right now to adapt and to coexist with these technologies as they evolve?

Ingrid Guerra-López (35:29):
Experiment, right? I think one of the things that, that we're working on in the college is to have, or to develop an AI and other kind of emerging technologies tinkering lab where people are in an environment where they can explore and they can tinker and they can try out tools, whether it's with, uh, with fellow educators or, you know, a space for other, for educational leaders as well. There's on both ends of the spectrum in some, in some cases, a lot of fear about safety and the implications of using it. And then the other hand, very eager, uh, folk who want to use it and think it's the tool for all the, the problems. And so I think just having that community space for educators to explore, to experiment, to ask questions, to break things, to say, well, what happens if we do this? And, and to make that part of the learning experience, I think that's only going to reduce the fear and anxiety of the unknown.

President Gregory Washington (36:29):
Well, this is all good stuff, and the kind of thing that positions us well for the future. What do you tell your fellow deans, you know, some of which are really struggling with this technology, and you are kind of at the forefront of it, because outside of computer science, it probably affects your discipline more than any other.

Ingrid Guerra-López (36:50):
Yeah. I mean, we certainly talk, uh, I think as leaders often about, you know, how the implications of AI in the university and, and of course the workplace as well. I, I think, you know, what I would reiterate with my colleagues is that there is no one area that isn't impacted by the shifts in technology, whether it's AI or whatever comes after every single career, every single sector, every single space and community is being impacted by technology in one way or the other. And so we have a responsibility to understand if that's already changed our communities, and it's gonna change it even further. How do we adapt the preparation that we provide those students during the time they're with us to make sure that they're capable and ready to shape and contribute in that kind of world?

President Gregory Washington (37:47):
That's it. Well, we're gonna have to leave it there. Ingrid, thank you for sharing your vision and leadership with the educators of our future. I'm George �鶹��Ƶ president Gregory Washington. Thanks for listening. And tune in next time for more conversations that show why we are all together different.

Outro (38:16):
If you like what you heard on this podcast, go to podcast.gmu.edu for more of Gregory Washington's conversations with the thought leaders, experts, and educators who take on the grand challenges facing our students, graduates, and higher education. That's podcast gmu.edu.

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Protecting production through physics-powered detection

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 13:25:04 +0000

Protecting production through physics-powered detection Nathan Kahl Tue, 02/24/2026 - 08:25

In This Story

Matthew Jablonski

When a manufacturing machine is cutting, drilling, or shaping metal, it is following a precise set of digital instructions, with every motor turn intentional. But what happens when there’s a subtle change along the way?

That is the problem Matt Jablonski is working to solve. Jablonski, an assistant professor in the �鶹��Ƶ's Department of Cyber Security Engineering, received $50k from Virginia’s Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) through its Industry Faculty Collaboration Acceleration Program. He is teaming up with Northern Virginia-based startup SARC Solutions, which is developing a product called Beholder based on technology licensed from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The project focuses on protecting cyber physical systems, complex machines that blend software, electronics, and physical components. These systems power everything from manufacturing equipment to critical infrastructure. Securing them is challenging because traditional cybersecurity tools can interfere with real-time operations.

Beholder is the product that Jablonski is working on with SARC. Image provide.

“If you add too much security overhead to a control system, you risk disrupting the very thing you are trying to protect,” said Jablonski, who has a master's and a PhD degrees from George �鶹��Ƶ.

Instead of monitoring a machine directly with heavy security software, Jablonski is taking a lighter approach, collecting indirect measurements, including electrical power traces from motor drives and select operating system statistics, to observe how a machine behaves during operation. These indirect signals, often called side channels, can reveal patterns about what the system is doing without interfering with it.

The concept builds on Jablonski’s previous research in cyber physical system safety and security. It also connects directly to a course he teaches on practical side-channel attacks and defenses. Historically, side-channel analysis has been used by attackers to extract secrets by studying metadata such as timing, temperature, or power usage. Jablonski is applying those same ideas defensively.

In this project, the focus is a large manufacturing machine that follows digital instructions known as G-code. A 3D computer-aided design is translated into G-code, which tells the machine exactly how to move and cut. The team’s goal is to align those instructions with the physical signals coming from the machine’s motors and systems.

By mapping the expected digital commands to the observed physical behavior, the team is developing artificial intelligence models that learn what “normal” looks like and can flag when the system drifts from that state. Rather than generic anomaly detection, the models aim to identify subtle signs that the machine is not operating as intended.

“We are looking for indications that the system is not performing in a normative sense,” Jablonski said.

The grant will help support doctoral student Sanjay Kumar Samala, who begins his PhD in the fall. Together, they are building out the testbed and developing early models, with a demonstration targeted for this summer.

The partnership with SARC reflects the broader CCI mission of accelerating collaboration between academia and industry. By pairing faculty expertise with emerging companies, the program aims to move ideas more quickly from lab to application.

“This award is exactly what Virginia does well: pair applied academic expertise with a startup that can transition research into a deployable capability,” said Joseph Carter, strategy, execution and adaptation at SARC Solutions. “Our goal with George �鶹��Ƶ is to turn Beholder into a pilot-ready, ‘signals-to-decisions’ monitoring layer that helps manufacturers detect subtle manipulation before it impacts quality, safety, or uptime.”

For Jablonski, whose interest in security deepened during his freshman year of college in the wake of 9/11, the project fits squarely within a decade of work focused on making cyber physical systems safer. “We live in interesting times,” he said. “As systems become more connected and more intelligent, safety has to remain a priority.”

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George �鶹��Ƶ researchers lead statewide study on ethical use of AI in higher education

Shayla Brown — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 16:07:37 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ researchers lead statewide study on ethical use of AI in higher education Shayla Brown Tue, 02/17/2026 - 11:07

�鶹��Ƶ’s leadership in advancing 21st-century education took another leap forward this month when several university researchers were named to a statewide project exploring the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on teaching and learning in higher education classrooms.  

Funded by a State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) Fund for Excellence and Innovation grant, the cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional project aims to promote ethical integration of AI into educational settings. 

The initiative, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Teaching and Learning,” involves 80 faculty, graduate students, and staff from multiple Virginia institutions including University of Virginia, James Madison University, Roanoke College, Bridgewater State University, and Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Amanda Bryan, an assistant professor in George �鶹��Ƶ’s Department of English and co-lead on the study, said it is “designed to test onboarding activities in increasing students’ ethical and responsible use of AI tools.”

Amanda Bryan. Photo provided.

 The study is an example of a Mega Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, or SoTL, project. It’s one of 11 projects George �鶹��Ƶ is involved in, generating evidence of learning from multiple institutions.

“The research team designed the activities, which we then make available to other professors to adapt to their own disciplines and provide us data on how effective the activities were in increasing ethical use of AI tools for the students,” said Bryan.

The team also considered different levels of activities to accommodate students who were inexperienced with AI versus those who had advanced skills. 

“We took the task on ourselves that we’re asking students to do because we actually used AI to revise the activities in the ethical, responsible way that we would want students to be able to do,” said Bryan, who is conducting this project with data from students in her ENGH 302 Advanced Composition course. 

“We asked students open-ended questions, including whether they think they’re over-reliant or under-reliant on generative AI tools. That feeds directly into the next activity, which is all about under-reliance, over-reliance, and the harm of being either. We want students to find a cushy middle,” she said. 

The team got their first round of data from students in spring 2025, which showed that just providing these discussion spaces has increased students’ ethical thinking about AI use in college by more than 60%, explained Bryan. 

“We went to the institutional review boards at all the different institutions to get permission to do the research,” said Breana Bayraktar, an educational developer with George �鶹��Ƶ and one of the projects primary investigators.  

Students working on their laptops in class. Photo by Getty Images.

Bayraktar said thanks to the support of the SCHEV grant, they've been able to hire graduate research assistants and get undergraduates involved in organizing the collected data. 

“We support each of the institutional teams for their research objectives and collect data from students,” said Bayraktar. “There's a number of teams that have done presentations or have written projects that are either published or on the track to publication that have come out of the different research projects. With this data, we were able to make one coherent project with one survey.” 

Students in George �鶹��Ƶ’s Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP), and OSCAR Research Assistant (OSCAR-RA) Program also helped in the research. 

“The students really gain professional experience and exposure to real-world research practices. It’s very much a mentoring role with the students,” Bayraktar said. 

There is an Open Educational Resources (OER) portion of the study, “so even after this study is complete, all of the research methods and activities we’re using are being compiled into OERs for future use under a creative commons license,” said Bryan.  

Under this SCHEV grant, George �鶹��Ƶ is hosting three conferences on AI, the last of which will be in May 2026. The grant funding goes through summer 2026. 

Learn more about AI at George �鶹��Ƶ

In This Story

Amanda Leigh Bryan

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George �鶹��Ƶ's College of Education and Human Development is advancing responsible AI in education

ckearney — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 20:39:13 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ's College of Education and Human Development is advancing responsible AI in education ckearney Wed, 01/28/2026 - 15:39

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape education, �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) is helping chart a path for schools to adapt AI responsibly, equitably, and effectively. Through the Educational Research Alliance of Northern Virginia (ERA.NOVA), a research and practice partnership that connects CEHD and other George �鶹��Ƶ faculty with K–12 and state leaders, the college is convening some of the region’s most forward-thinking voices to define what readiness for AI in education truly means.

ERA.NOVA Fall Convening brought together state policymakers, division technology officers, superintendents, and faculty researchers to explore how AI is changing the K-12 landscape across Virginia. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

This year’s focus on AI in education within ERA.NOVA reflects the vision of CEHD Dean Ingrid Guerra-López and ERA.NOVA’s school superintendent partners. It positions the alliance as a catalyst for forward-looking, research-informed solutions for school districts across the region and will strengthen educational opportunity and readiness for the future.

That necessity of the shared vision was evident at the ERA.NOVA Fall Convening in late October, which brought together state policymakers, division technology officers, superintendents, and faculty researchers to explore how AI is changing the K-12 landscape across Virginia. Participants shared a common understanding: The question is no longer whether AI belongs in education, but how to implement it in ways that strengthen instruction, prepare students, and ensure safety.

Superintendent Dan Hornick of Orange County Public Schools described his district’s efforts to balance innovation with responsibility. “We cannot pretend the future does not exist,” he said. “If we do not teach students to use AI responsibly, we are not preparing them for the world they are entering.”

Hornick’s division created flexible guidelines and integrated conversations about AI into curriculum planning and professional learning communities. Success, he said, depends on taking time to address privacy, safety, and teacher preparation before expanding implementation.

At the state level, Calypso Gilstrap, executive director of the Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Innovation, outlined the commonwealth’s Guidelines for AI Integration Throughout Education (PDF), which emphasize age-appropriate use of AI, careful tool selection, family engagement, and collaborative policy development.

“AI readiness is no longer optional,” Gilstrap said. “There are 32,000 jobs in the United States right now with AI in the title. Our students need these skills today, not 10 years from now.”

By 2029, she added, the department expects AI to be part of problem-based learning across grade levels, beginning with early exposure in kindergarten.

Gilstrap stressed that AI should not be seen as a shortcut to learning. Students must learn to question AI-generated content, verify information, and maintain human connection as they use digital tools. “Well-trained teachers can use AI to enhance their work, not replace it,” she said.

From George �鶹��Ƶ CEHD’s research perspective, Elizabeth Davis, postdoctoral fellow with EdPolicyForward, shared findings from the AI for Responsive Inclusive School Enhancement (ARISE) project. The project examines how school districts can use AI to identify and interpret research, such as to expand evidence-based interventions used to support school improvement planning.

Davis coauthored AI in K-12 Education: What School Divisions May Consider in Preparing for the Future and the companion PDF resource AI in K-12 Education: Preparing for the Future . Both publications were shared with convening participants and highlight emerging research on effective and ethical implementation.

“Efficiency must never come at the cost of human judgment,” Davis said.

Her team’s findings, focused on AI literacy, ethical design, and data governance, reflected many of the same priorities discussed by district leaders. She also noted that Northern Virginia’s position as the world’s largest data center hub gives the region an opportunity to lead in sustainable and ethical AI use.

District technology leaders Aaron Smith of Loudoun County Public Schools and Sharon Shewbridge of Stafford County Public Schools shared how their divisions are turning policy and research into local action. Smith emphasized the importance of protecting students and ensuring that the tools brought into classrooms are safe and developmentally appropriate. “Our focus has to be on protecting students and understanding what K–12 really needs from AI before we bring it into classrooms,” he said.

Audra Parker, director of George �鶹��Ƶ’s Office of Teacher Preparation, underscored that preparing educators is essential to any successful AI strategy. “AI readiness is ultimately about people,” Parker said. “Teachers need structured opportunities to build confidence, deepen their understanding, and practice using these tools in ways that elevate the irreplaceable human work of teaching. When we invest in educator preparation, we ensure that AI supports learning rather than driving it.”

Participants agreed that responsible integration of AI requires more than access to new tools. It calls for a shared framework grounded in educator expertise, ethical design, and a commitment to equity. Several divisions are also involving students directly in AI policy discussions, forming advisory committees and encouraging young people to provide feedback on how these technologies are used in classrooms.

“Students are already using these tools,” Gilstrap noted. “The question is how we guide them to use it well.”

The convening also reflected CEHD’s growing role as a thought leader, particularly in defining how institutions can prepare students and educators for a future shaped by intelligent systems. Under Dean Guerra-López’s direction, ERA.NOVA is intentionally bridging scholarly expertise with the urgent, practical needs of school divisions navigating AI’s rapid evolution.

Guerra-López emphasized that this kind of collaboration reflects CEHD’s mission to bridge research, policy, and practice for the public good. “Artificial intelligence is accelerating the evolution of work and learning.” Guerra-López said. “We launched this year’s ERA.NOVA focus on AI because our partners told us they needed guidance grounded in both research and real-world practice. As we prepare future educators, we have both an opportunity and a responsibility to lead—to ensure AI strengthens human development, expands opportunity, and supports ethical, future-ready learning across our schools.”

The Fall Convening was the first in ERA.NOVA’s 2025–26 series on Artificial Intelligence in Education. Upcoming sessions will continue to explore readiness, capacity building, and ethical implementation across all levels of the education system.

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Brainpower inspires energy-efficient AI

tdonnel — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:57:20 +0000

Brainpower inspires energy-efficient AI tdonnel Thu, 01/22/2026 - 11:57

The key to energy-efficient artificial intelligence (AI) could lie in the human brain. �鶹��Ƶ researchers Maryam Parsa (PI) and Giorgio Ascoli (co-PI) are leading a Department of Energy-funded project to make AI dramatically more efficient by mimicking the brain’s computing strategies.

Maryam Parsa. Photo provided.

“AI today is powerful but extremely energy-hungry,” said Parsa, an assistant professor in George �鶹��Ƶ’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering who specializes in neuromorphic computing. “We want to understand why the human brain is so efficient and why AI is not—and then bridge that gap.”

Unlike traditional AI models that rely on continuous signals and massive data centers, the brain uses sparse, event-driven signals called spikes.

“Any one neuron only fires a spike here and there, but the timing of those spikes carries a lot of meaning,” explained Ascoli, a Distinguished University Professor in George �鶹��Ƶ’s Bioengineering Department specializing in neuroscience. “That’s why the brain can do so much with so little energy.”

To replicate this efficiency holistically, Parsa and Ascoli teamed up with Akhilesh Jaiswal at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Pedram Khalili at Northwestern University. The team is building a full-stack neuromorphic computing system spanning devices, circuits, architectures, algorithms, and applications.

Each principal investigator is contributing specific expertise to the system:

Ascoli contributes neuroscience insights using Izhikevich models, mathematical frameworks that capture real neuron spiking dynamics, to inform system design.
Khalili develops spintronic devices, components that utilize magnetic materials to harness an electron's quantum properties of spin and charge for processing and storing data. By naturally exhibiting neuron-like temporal behavior, these devices are expected to reduce energy demands.
Jaiswal designs analog circuits to integrate these spintronic devices into functional architectures.
Parsa leads the project as well as neuromorphic learning algorithms and application-level integration, exploring diverse learning approaches to optimize speed, precision, resiliency, privacy, and energy savings.

Giorgio Ascoli. Photo provided.

“Izhikevich models allow neuromorphic systems to mimic the timing, diversity, and variability of real neurons, enabling more brain-like learning and efficiency,” Ascoli said. His extensive experience with these models, including simulating hippocampal networks, provides the biological foundation for the project.

“Instead of forcing existing devices to mimic brain behavior, we asked: What if we leverage new devices that naturally exhibit these dynamics?” Parsa said. This approach ensures innovations at the hardware level align with biologically inspired algorithms, creating a cohesive system rather than isolated solutions.

By introducing greater biological complexity and leveraging novel spintronic devices, the team hopes to reduce AI’s energy footprint while improving performance metrics such as accuracy and privacy. Early results are promising; even simple changes to spike distributions improved privacy without sacrificing accuracy.

The research also explores learning algorithms beyond the traditional. “Our goal is to see how different neuron models and learning rules interact and which combinations optimize for speed, precision, or energy savings,” Parsa said.

Ultimately, the project could transform AI by making it greener and more brain-like. “If we succeed, we’ll have systems that learn faster, consume less power, and operate more like the brain,” said Ascoli.

“This is not just about making AI more efficient,” said Parsa. “It’s about rethinking computing from the ground up."

In This Story

Maryam Parsa

Giorgio Ascoli

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NASA-funded wildfire digital twin could save assets and lives with pollution prediction, burn forecasting

Sarah Holland — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 19:29:20 +0000

NASA-funded wildfire digital twin could save assets and lives with pollution prediction, burn forecasting Sarah Holland Thu, 01/15/2026 - 14:29

One year ago, the Palisades and Eaton Fires ravaged the coast of Southern California. Combined, the fires killed 28 people, destroyed more than 16,000 structures, and displaced tens of thousands of residents.

Wildfires are notoriously difficult to predict due to the multitude of factors that affect their growth, spread, and speed. That uncertainty makes it difficult for response teams to know who should be evacuated to avoid both active flames and hazardous air pollution. Mass evacuations require cooperation and communication across numerous departments, and getting those systems activated can take precious time that evacuees might not have if the fire is spreading at a rate of seven and a half football fields per minute as the Palisades fire did.

Chaowei "Phil" Yang. Photo by Office of University Branding.

One researcher at George �鶹��Ƶ is working on a solution. Chaowei “Phil” Yang, professor in the Geography and Geoinformation Science Department in the College of Science, has teamed up with researchers from California State University—Los Angeles (CSU-LA), NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the City of Los Angeles to develop a wildfire digital twin to understand fire evolution and air pollution impact.

“The goal is to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-based system that can provide real-time, high-resolution simulation and forecasting of wildfire behavior and model the resulting air pollution and air quality impacts for better informed public health responses,” Yang said.

Air pollution is a critical metric here. “Inhaling wildfire smoke can cause serious and long-lasting damage to the breathing system,” said Yang. “We need to get those people impacted to safety as well as those in direct line of the spreading flames.”

Yang, who is the director of the Center for Intelligent Spatial Computing for Water/Energy Science, has worked on several projects using his knowledge of geospatial cyberinfrastructure and spatial cloud computing to study the impacts of major global events on air quality. When the wildfires hit southern California, Yang felt that his expertise and resources could be used to help mitigate future wildfire disasters.

Yang’s work ties directly to improving human health, well-being, and preparedness, as well as building a climate-resilient society, two key solutions in George �鶹��Ƶ’s Grand Challenge Initiative, the university's research focus to enable us to live in a world of our choosing.

“Looking at the damage increasing because of climate change, to both assets and people’s life and health, that really triggered us,” Yang said. “We really felt that we needed to do something to address it.”

The digital twin will integrate a range of data from a diverse set of sources—such as satellites, UAVs, ground observations, and citizen reports—in order to forecast and simulate the progress of a wildfire and the mitigation of potential interventions. Everything from fuel sources, moisture, load, and consumption to wind speeds and temperatures to real-time sensors for the fire are pulled into the system.

George �鶹��Ƶ’s high-performance computing (HPC) cluster is used to automate the data interpretation process, while machine learning modeling calibrates the data sets to increase accuracy. As more data sets become available, the model’s accuracy will increase.

“When we eventually provide information to firefighters and local agencies, we will give them a range of possibilities and a confidence level in those possibilities, such as ‘the fire will move in this direction with about 90% confidence, or 20% confidence,’” Yang explained. “That’s important for them when they’re trying to make these quick decisions about where to put fire fighters. It makes the information actionable instead of just data sets.”

While working on a bold solution to a grand challenge, the project is also an opportunity for students of all levels—from high school through post-doctoral—to get hands-on experience in cloud computing and digital transformation to address grand challenges.

Anusha Srirenganathan, PhD Earth Systems and Geoinformation Sciences ’25, joined the project during her time at George �鶹��Ƶ. “Working closely with researchers from different disciplines helped me grow as a collaborator, and my work on the project strengthened my abilities in large-scale satellite data processing, spatial cloud computing, and AI/ML modeling for environmental applications,” she said.

“We’re using these capabilities to cultivate the next generation workforce,” said Yang. “It’s eye-opening for the students and paves a path for them to become the future leaders of the nation.”

Securing a safer future for both the current and future generations is what drives Yang in his work. And he sees this work on a wildfire digital twin as only the beginning of what’s possible with the technology.

Yang said his team is already working on a Chesapeake Bay digital twin project to develop more accurate flood forecasting, and collaborating with Daniel Rothbart at the Carter School on a conflict resolution digital twin with an alert system. “There could be possibilities for this technology to help predict other natural disasters or forecasting conflict as it evolves,” Yang said. “It’s exciting to get the chance to utilize our knowledge and tools to address the grand challenges we’re facing today to hopefully save lives and reduce asset loss.”

“This experience has shown me that research can provide real value when it matters most,” Srirenganathan said.

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George �鶹��Ƶ secures $1.5M to launch cutting-edge AI data center research lab

Martha Bushong — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 12:02:47 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ secures $1.5M to launch cutting-edge AI data center research lab Martha Bushong Thu, 01/15/2026 - 07:02

�鶹��Ƶ is taking a major step toward advancing clean energy and digital infrastructure innovation with the launch of the Virginia AI Data Center Research Lab at �鶹��Ƶ Square in Arlington. This initiative is made possible through funding from the Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank and Virginia Energy. The $1.5 million grant establishes a first-of-its-kind research and workforce development initiative and positions the commonwealth as the national leader in grid-interactive, AI-driven digital infrastructure.

Liling Huang, lab director (center) cuts ribbon of the Virginia AI Data Center research lab. Other guests (from left) Micah Till, Andre Marshall, Dean Ken Ball, Glenn Davis, and Jennifer Andos. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding.

Why Virginia

Virginia sits at the center of the world’s digital infrastructure, hosting the largest concentration of data centers globally and supporting mission-critical cloud, AI, and national security operations. The rapid emergence of AI-driven workloads has dramatically increased power demand, grid complexity, and the need for a highly skilled workforce.

As AI workloads surge, Virginia utilities face unprecedented interconnection requests and a shortage of engineers and technicians skilled in AI computation, power systems, cooling, and clean energy integration.

“We are on the frontlines to see how data centers, and in particular AI use, are changing the power grid and the information available to those who rely on it—both as the owners of underlying infrastructure and end users ourselves,” said Micah Till, manager, electric transmission system protection engineering, Dominion Energy Virginia. “George �鶹��Ƶ is an important partner for us in that. The work here will allow stakeholders across our nation to proactively and collaboratively work toward the smooth adoption and integration of clean energy and AI data center technologies.”

Workforce Development and Research Goals

The Virginia AI Data Center Research Lab will provide hands-on training for George �鶹��Ƶ students, K–12 and community college programs, industry-led workforce development and certification, and internship and apprenticeship pipelines. It will promote joint research and development projects with utilities, data centers, and leading institutions. It will enable real-world experimentation on critical infrastructure challenges, including grid-responsive AI workload management, power quality and harmonics optimization, thermal-electrical interactions, small modular reactor and renewable energy integration, and data center resilience and energy efficiency.

The facility will generate Virginia's first publicly available open-source dataset capturing real data center electrical and thermal telemetry—data that is not commercially available—enabling statewide research and innovation that will benefit universities, utilities, and industry partners.

George �鶹��Ƶ professor Liling Huang speaks with Glenn Davis, director of the Virginina Department of Energy (right) and Andre Marshall, George �鶹��Ƶ's vice president for research, innovation, and economic development. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding.

Voices from Partners and Leadership

“Virginia Energy’s investment in George �鶹��Ƶ’s Virginia AI Data Center Research Lab underscores our commitment to pairing world-class digital infrastructure with smart, sustainable energy systems,” said Glenn Davis, the director of the Virginia Department of Energy. “By combining AI, advanced data center technology, and grid-interactive research in an open, university-based platform, this project helps ensure that Virginia continues to advance our clean energy and workforce goals. Virginia didn’t become the data center capital of the world by accident. We earned it. And labs like this one are how we keep earning it.”

“We are honored to receive this support from the Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank and Virginia Energy to launch the Virginia AI Data Center Research Lab,” said Ken Ball, dean of George �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Engineering and Computing. “This lab will give our students, faculty, and partners access to state-of-the-art AI and data center infrastructure, enabling cutting-edge research, hands-on training, and open-source data resources that will help secure George �鶹��Ƶ’s and Virginia’s positions as global leaders in digital infrastructure and energy innovation.”

Powering Artificial Intelligence

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Energy

Electrical Engineering

Groundbreaking study reveals hidden complexity in human genetics

tdonnel — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 18:32:03 +0000

Groundbreaking study reveals hidden complexity in human genetics tdonnel Mon, 01/12/2026 - 13:32

In This Story

Amarda Shehu

Sometimes, in genetics, two wrongs do make a right. A research team recently showed that two harmful genetic variants, when occurring together in a gene, can restore function—proving a decades-old hypothesis originally proposed by Nobel laureate Francis Crick. Their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), not only experimentally validated this theory but also introduced a powerful artificial intelligence (AI)-driven approach to genetic interpretation led by �鶹��Ƶ researchers.

The project began when Aimée Dudley, a geneticist at the Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI), approached �鶹��Ƶ Chief AI Officer Amarda Shehu after following her lab’s work on frontier AI models for predicting the functional impact of genetic variation. That conversation sparked a collaboration that married PNRI’s experimental expertise with George �鶹��Ƶ’s computational innovation to discover some surprising ways variant combinations can shape human health.

The problem

Every year one in three Americans is diagnosed with a genetic disorder. Symptoms manifest in infancy for about 70% of individuals. Sadly, 35% die before the age of 5. Advancements in clinical genomics offer hope to better understand and possibly treat these disorders.

“High-throughput genomic screening has been a wonderful feat for humanity,” said Shehu, “but one of its side effects is that it has produced massive amounts of data, outpacing our ability to interpret what that data means for health and disease.”

Research in the Shehu lab has for years focused on building frontier AI models to advance genetic interpretation, but all data available link only isolated, single variants to measured functional activity. Because each person's genome contains billions of base pairs, with about five million variants existing between two individuals’ genomes, looking at one variant at a time rather than combinations of variants could only reveal so much.

“It looked like we had hit a wall,” Shehu said, “that is, until Dr. Dudley contacted my lab more than a year ago.”

On the left, a 3D landscape derived from variant–variant measurements shows distinct functional regions emerging from pairwise interactions. On the right, these regions map onto a multimeric protein structure, where variants in separate spatial zones can be sequestered into different active sites, allowing functional recovery. This visualization captures the structural logic underlying positive epistasis and illustrates how AI-enabled analysis links genetic variation to protein function, a key, groundbreaking result Dudley and Shehu's labs published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Image provided.

The proof

Dudley’s lab was convinced that the key was to account for variant combinations in a gene, also called epistasis. They measured functional effects of variant combinations in the DNA of a key enzyme, argininosuccinate lyase (ASL), a lack of which results in urea cycle disorder, a rare but devastating condition.

The researchers tested thousands of variant combinations that resulted in no enzyme activity when on their own and found that a significant portion of them had high levels of enzyme activity when in combination with each other. In other words, two defective variants, when combined, can recover function.

“This was the most puzzling thing that I could not believe when Dr. Dudley showed it to me. Sometimes in biology, zero plus zero equals 100%,” said Shehu.

Shehu said that Crick, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962 with James Dewey Watson and Maurice Wilkins for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of DNA, had hypothesized this could happen.

“Crick had a fancy word for it—variant sequestration,” said Shehu, “But until Dr. Dudley, no one had demonstrated it.”

The progress

Once Dudley’s lab confirmed the phenomenon experimentally, George �鶹��Ƶ researchers turned to AI to see if it could predict similar effects across other genes. Using the ASL data from Dudley’s lab, George �鶹��Ƶ computer science PhD student Anowarul Kabir developed a machine learning model to predict the effects of variant combinations. Then, he applied the model to a structurally similar but evolutionarily distinct protein, fumarase (FH). The algorithm achieved 99.6 percent accuracy in predicting regained function within ASL and 91 percent accuracy in FH.

“The really cool thing about this,” said Shehu, “is that the model learned both sequence and structural patterns and was able to transfer its knowledge to another gene.”

This breakthrough suggests that with experimental data from a few genes, AI can help scale variant effect prediction to a broad set of genes. The PNAS publication estimates that as many as 4% of the genes in the human genome could have the same types of effects seen for ASL and FH.

The paradigm shift

This breakthrough marks a paradigm shift in clinical genomics for precision medicine. By considering variant combinations rather than isolated, single variants, clinicians can deliver faster, more accurate diagnoses and life-saving interventions for families facing rare diseases. They can also prioritize therapeutic treatments based on specific epistatic profiles of patients or clinical trial participants.

“Clinical genomics has been stuck in a rut for decades. We’ve shown that you need to look at combinations of variants to fully understand their impact,” said Shehu. “Our AI model expands coverage from one gene to another, accelerating interpretation and bringing us closer to true precision medicine.”

Topics

DNA

Machine Learning

Machine Learning in Health Care

Research

Artificial Intelligence

Students use AI to solve everyday challenges at recent Fail-a-Thon

Shayla Brown — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 17:35:24 +0000

Students use AI to solve everyday challenges at recent Fail-a-Thon  Shayla Brown Mon, 01/12/2026 - 12:35

�鶹��Ƶ is preparing students to transform setbacks into stepping stones with a “Fail-a-Thon," a hackathon event where failing forward is the goal.

The event, hosted by the College of Engineering and Computing, encouraged students to explore bold ideas under two themes: artificial intelligence (AI) for everyday challenges and tech for well-being and creativity.

Junior computer science major Oluwatomisin Badmus and his partner, junior applied computer science major Chesney Noye, working under the team name “AfroHacks,” took first place. 

Chesney Noye (center) and Oluwatomisin Badmus presenting at the Fail-a-thon. Photo provided.

Badmus and Noye are international students and wanted to emphasize the importance of checking in with one another within their community. The duo used an AI coding tool to build an application that allows users to log their current mood over the course of the day, and the system then uses the logged mood when responding to questions.

“You might describe it as a mood-aware AI chatbot,” explained Badmus.

They were able to complete a working version of the application to present to the judges. The team 808s won 2nd place and the Three Musketeers won 3rd. 

“I'm very passionate about AI, so I make sure to take advantage of every educational opportunity regarding AI. I hope to apply that knowledge in my work to make an impact both in and out of school,” said Badmus, an Honors College student. 

Badmus said he has participated in other George �鶹��Ƶ hackathons and competitions at other institutions such as Morgan State, John Hopkins University, and online. Badmus encouraged Noye to participate in the event with him in hopes that he would also find the experience rewarding. 

“I’ve always wanted to participate in a hackathon, so when I saw the flyer for the Fail-a-thon, I knew it would be a great opportunity to gain experience in a relatively low-stakes environment,” said Noye, who has a concentration in software engineering.

Noye said hackathons always seemed too intimidating, but he was encouraged by the fail-a-thon's easygoing approach.

“Having an event centered around failing gave people room to go out there with their ideas, and getting to see all the projects everyone else came up with was great,” he said.

“Getting to share stories with the other participants there on where our projects failed, what weird bugs we had, and how different our initial ideas and final products ended up was a great bonding moment and really helped normalize the idea that failing is okay,” said Noye.

The students had two hours to build real-world practical projects using provided AI tools. Many of the project features were built and working, and judges and attendees could see them live during the presentations. 

Humaira Akhtari (left) with Christi Cartwright Wilcox, director, Office of Outreach Student Success and Engagement. Photo provided.

“Watching students turn ideas into functional solutions in just two hours was genuinely exciting and inspiring,” said Humaira Akhtari, a term instructor in the Department of Information Science and Technology and one of three faculty judges at the event.

Other judges included professors Socrates Dimitriadis and Maha Shamseddine from the Department of Computer Science.

“I kept telling the teams, ‘I would be the first person to use your app’ because their ideas were genuinely useful. Seeing students build practical solutions, collaborate across disciplines, and confidently present their work made the experience incredibly rewarding,” said Akhtari. “It brings me so much joy seeing my students grow beyond the classroom. Whether it’s capstone presentations, Fail-a-Thon, or Engineering Week, I love seeing how my students are thriving.” 

Students from electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, IST, and cyber security engineering participated. The mix of backgrounds really elevated the ideas and discussions, said Akhtari. 

When evaluating projects, judges looked at creativity, risk-taking, learning through failure, and how well teams communicated their ideas.  

“Rather than penalizing mistakes, we looked for evidence of iteration, reflection, and growth. The goal was to celebrate experimentation and meaningful learning,” said Akhtari. 

“Events like Fail-a-Thon create a safe space where students learn that failure is not something to avoid—it’s part of the process. This mindset is essential not only in academics, but also in entrepreneurship and real-world problem solving,” said Akhtari.

One team built a study management tool where students could upload their course syllabus, and the app would automatically generate a personalized study plan based on upcoming assignments and deadlines.

Another team designed a nutrition app that helps users track dietary preferences like Halal, vegan, and other restrictions.  

There were also projects focused on productivity, motivation, and wellness—apps that help users stay on track with their schedules, motivate them to stay consistent at the gym, or even guide users while grocery shopping based on their calorie goals.  

Topics

College of Engineering and Computing

competitions

Hackathon

Applied computer science

computer science

Artificial Intelligence

Honors College

Students

CEC students

In This Story

Humaira Akhtari

Socrates Dimitriadis

Maha Shamseddine

Artificial Intelligence at George �鶹��Ƶ

Tech Expert, George �鶹��Ƶ alumna, and Costello Dean’s Advisory Council Member Kinsey Fabrizio talks about the AI Revolution and its positive disruption

Katelynn C Hipolito — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 17:23:17 +0000

Tech Expert, George �鶹��Ƶ alumna, and Costello Dean’s Advisory Council Member Kinsey Fabrizio talks about the AI Revolution and its positive disruption Katelynn C Hipolito Fri, 11/21/2025 - 12:23

As president of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, which represents more than 1,200 technology companies and owns and produces CES®—the most powerful tech event in the world, Kinsey Fabrizio, BA Government and International Politics; Spanish ’04, is a force in the tech world.

Kinsey Fabrizio, BA Government and International Politics; Spanish ’04. Photo by Hannah Patterson/Costello College of Business.

Since joining the association in 2008, Fabrizio has played a pivotal role in transforming CTA and CES. Fabrizio was awarded the Women in CT Legacy Award in 2023, recognizing her longtime leadership and contributions to the consumer technology industry. Most recently, Fabrizio was named one of Washingtonian’s 2025 Most Powerful Woman. She served on the Costello College of Business Management Advisory Council from 2023-2025, and is serving as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council.

�鶹��Ƶ George �鶹��Ƶ

What made you choose �鶹��Ƶ for your degree?

I grew up in Winchester, Virginia, and what I loved most about George �鶹��Ƶ was its capacity to really challenge me and expose me to diverse people, opinions, thoughts, and different ideas.

What was the most rewarding experience for you at George �鶹��Ƶ?

I remember a class my senior year that centered on conflict resolution and international politics, and I loved it! That class connected me to an internship that led to my first job. I got trained in conflict resolution and as a mediator, and it was just this amazing door that opened. That was definitely a moment that I'll never forget, and I think about that class often.

You have served on Costello’s Management Advisory Council in the past, and have recently joined our Dean’s Advisory Council. What do you think is special about Costello?

Costello is special because of its unique focus on the intersection of innovation and business. It’s tech-forward, dynamic, and truly one-of-a-kind. The more I’ve learned about Costello, the more impressed I’ve become. I’ve been able to learn from the really brilliant people that are part of this group and get exposed to a different part of the university while being able to give back and volunteer my time.

Kinsey Fabrizio, BA Government and International Politics; Spanish ’04. Photo by Hannah Patterson/Costello College of Business.

�鶹��Ƶ AI

Where do you see AI going?

AI is a foundational leap. It's as big a new technology and tool as the Internet. We're just at the very beginning of this AI revolution, but we're already seeing it improve lives. We're seeing it solve some of society's toughest challenges, from energy production to climate resilience to chronic disease management to efficiency for enterprises and businesses. AI is an amazing and powerful tool. Businesses are going to be able to optimize their strategy and their operations through AI by boosting efficiency and productivity. I don't think AI is going to completely replace a workforce, I think it's going to add value to the existing workforce. People using AI will make the workforce more efficient and more effective. You've probably heard it before, the saying that AI won't replace people, but people who use AI will replace people who don't. I think that's really important to keep in mind as we move forward. AI is something that we are going to integrate into our daily lives, helping us turn all kinds of data into action.

CTA supports establishing clear, effective guardrails for AI to encourage innovation while protecting consumers. What are your thoughts on the best approach to AI regulation moving forward?

We feel strongly about a light touch, risk-based approach to regulation that protects consumers, but also gives businesses clear rules of the road and doesn’t hinder innovation. One of the ways we think you achieve that is with a federal AI framework, rather than 50 different states with different sets of AI regulations. That is nearly impossible for companies, especially startups, to keep up with, and it would inhibit innovation. The AI Action Plan released by the White House this summer is a good blueprint. It looks at AI innovation in terms of acceleration and ensuring that the U.S. stays a leader. It focuses on streamlining outdated regulations and strengthening public/private partnerships, which is going to be great for AI advancement. It also rightly focuses on infrastructure and the need to modernize the energy grid.

Do you have any advice for higher ed when it comes to AI and technology?

AI is here to stay and it’s important to train students on how to effectively, efficiently, and ethically leverage AI because it is a powerful tool. AI could really accelerate research. It's important that higher ed leans into AI adoption and creates opportunities for students to learn and use these tools. Building AI into the curriculum is really important. So is training students on real world uses of AI , because when students graduate today and go into the workforce, AI is going to be a part of it. Preparing them in the best way possible is a responsibility of higher education.

The Costello College of Business is on the eve of its 50th Anniversary. Technology has grown immensely in the last 50 years. In what ways do you see AI and new technology having an impact on business for the next half century?

We’re just at the beginning of this AI revolution. As AI disrupts entire industries, businesses are trying to figure out how to embrace these new tools to advance and accelerate. A couple areas where we’ll see the biggest leaps forward are blockchain and quantum. AI is going to make blockchain technology more efficiently scalable. Think about financial transactions that can be more traceable and transparent, and health care data transactions that’ll be more secure. We’re years away from quantum technology being an everyday reality, but AI will offer testing platforms to develop quantum technologies in areas like cybersecurity, transportation, and biotech, and make it more scalable.

You work with some of the top leaders in technology, what are you hearing about the latest trends in AI and technology?

Across the business world, you’re seeing companies use AI to boost productivity. We’re also seeing AI used to enhance the customer experience, including as a frontline customer service tool. AI in health care is advancing lifesaving innovations and medical research. There’s also digital twin technology applied to manufacturing to create smart factories and even create models of entire cities. AI is really quick at solving complex problems that humans alone can't solve. AI chips are more advanced than ever, and agentic AI that can manage tasks semi autonomously with a little bit of human oversight expedites basic but necessary back office functions that every business needs. We'll see a lot of these—and some new and exciting applications of AI technology—at CES 2026!

Kinsey Fabrizio, BA Government and International Politics; Spanish ’04. Photo by Hannah Patterson/Costello College of Business.

Our dean likes to say, “Everything is business and that we are all in the business of some thing.” Please tell us about the business of technology and how you think the business college needs to be preparing our students for successful careers in the business of technology.

I think the business of technology is the most exciting business! I love tech and innovation. Think about the benefits of the Internet—everything from streaming content, to digital advertising, toplatforms that allow you to connect with anyone, anywhere. And these days, everything is tech! From entertainment, to health care, to enterprise, they’re all solving real world issues.

The business college needs to prepare students to embrace technology and to adapt. The job opportunities available to kids coming out of college today are going to look different than they do in a few years, and different again in the next 10 years. Making sure today’s business school students are ready to embrace tech and adopt new ways of doing things is critical. Ensuring that curriculums highlight new technologies and advancements is really important. It’s also important to find opportunities for tech leaders to connect with students through tech challenges, startup competitions, and hackathons, which I know George �鶹��Ƶ does already.

One more thing: we can’t forget the importance of being in person and engaging in the physical world, not just the digital world. You learn so much from observing a leader's body language, watching how they present themselves in a meeting, when they speak up, who they make eye contact with, and looking at how they bring different people into the conversation. CES is all about bringing people together to connect, discover, learn, and solve, so we see the value in those things every year at the show. In our world today, real-life, in-person connections give you a competitive edge. That includes CES, which is open to students! We love when people come to CES and get inspired by how technology is transforming the world, see new ideas, meet people, and network.

What advice would you give to George �鶹��Ƶ students who are about to graduate or fellow alumni who are already in the workforce?

First, align your work with something that you care about because that passion will carry you through challenges that you encounter in your professional career. Second, raise your hand for new opportunities in school or at your first job, even if they are outside of your comfort zone. When you are willing to say yes and try something that you wouldn’t naturally do, doors open. Third, seek out a mentor and don't be afraid to ask for constructive feedback. We all need it! It’s so important to get real feedback, because then you can identify what you're great at and where you have opportunities to improve and be the best version of yourself. Seeking out a good mentor is a great way to do that in the professional space.

In This Story

Kinsey Fabrizio, '04

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Impact Fall 2025

Dean’s Advisory Council

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Costello College of Business News

Costello College of Business Alumni

Costello College of Business Management Advisory Council

Alumni

Artificial Intelligence

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