Miami creates new Center for AI

Miami University is creating a center focused on how artificial intelligence is changing teaching, research and the broader university community.

Trustees approved the Miami Center for AI on Sept. 25. Dennis Cheatham, an associate professor of graphic and experience design, will direct the center.

The center will provide AI resources and guidance, connect Miami researchers and faculty with outside partners and coordinate the university’s AI initiatives. One of its first tasks will be forming internal and national advisory boards and exploring a physical space. The center also will develop programming to complement existing resources, including the Center for Teaching Excellence and Howe Writing Center.

“I’ve worked with so many brilliant people who are doing the work,” Cheatham said. “I’m excited to share their work with the world.”

The center will look at AI’s effects across fields including engineering, cybersecurity, government, art, entertainment and public discourse.

Cheatham said the center won’t set university AI policy but will help support those efforts. It also will take over support for an AI conference planned for April on Miami’s Oxford campus. Miami’s IT Services previously organized an AI symposium.

“In 2027, the AI center will start supporting that event,” Cheatham said. “We’re excited to build a conference and invite industry partners and external parties to engage with our faculty and staff as we investigate how AI is affecting teaching, learning and research.”

The center will be housed in the Office of the Provost as Miami expands its AI offerings. The university recently launched AI in the Majors, an initiative designed to help undergraduate students develop AI skills connected to their fields of study.

Cheatham said the center also will tie AI research to Miami’s teacher-scholar model, in which faculty research informs classroom teaching.

“These technologies are challenging us to evaluate many things,” he said. “For me, it’s a chance where the university, in a very Miami way, can answer the question of where authentic teaching is moving forward. This is the moment where Miami shares with the world what we’re learning.”