UBalt is launching an AI center that focuses on access, not just innovation
Announced July 28, the Center for AI Learning and Community-Engaged Innovation (CAILI) will serve as a space where AI technology is not only studied, but actively applied to address local needs.
CAILI, led by Jessica Stansbury, UBalt's director of teaching and learning excellence and the center's inaugural director, wants to ensure AI doesn't widen the existing digital divide.
'It's not that CAILI is just a place for AI innovation,' Stansbury told Technical.ly. 'It's more that CAILI is a place of AI innovation with and for Baltimore.'
Stansbury and her colleagues believe CAILI will set itself apart from other university-run centers — like the two-year-old Johns Hopkins Data Science and AI Institute, for example — by prioritizing public understanding and practical engagement over research.
'We're really looking to make sure that people are aware of what AI is, that folks are AI literate, particularly with respect to working professionals and people who are going to need to manage how others are using AI in the workplace,' said Aaron Wachhaus, associate provost at UBalt.
Created with collaboration, with goals to boost community impact
The center, which will be supported by the provost's office for the first three years, was born out of two years of AI-focused initiatives and research within the university.
Initial efforts included 'Learn with Me' sessions for faculty and students exploring tools like ChatGPT. By mid-2023, UBalt had joined a national research initiative led by an education research nonprofit Ithaka S+R, collaborating with other institutions to explore AI in higher education.
The university hosted its first AI Summit in June 2024, which brought together students, faculty, local organizations and industry leaders to collectively define 'AI literacy.' The summit became a catalyst for deeper community involvement and helped shape the vision for CAILI.
'We can't be blindly developing curriculum if we don't understand how it's impacting the community and industry,' Stansbury said. 'So we brought everyone to the table.'
Those conversations led to the creation of a free AI in Practice webinar series, featuring industry experts discussing the use of AI in higher education. UBalt partnered with JHU and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County on the series.
'I really firmly believe, not only with my faculty background, but my administrative background, that this is a space where we cannot afford to compete,' Stansbury said, underscoring her commitment to cross-institutional partnership.
Helping Baltimoreans understand and navigate AI
While CAILI doesn't yet have a physical space, it will operate through open-access venues like the university library and travel to partner organizations for lunch and learn workshops.
Stansbury is still recruiting partners for the center, but hopes to develop AI literacy workshops at libraries in the future.
Stansbury also wants to use the center to address the ethical concerns surrounding AI use. UBalt has already experimented with new educational tools like MoodleBox, a platform that allows students to interact with multiple AI engines. Last fall, students in an AI ethics and philosophy course used the tool to explore generative AI models and learn about biases within the technology.
Dean Merritt, a UBalt alum and vice president of sales at Baltimore-based SaaS company Mindgrub, has participated in AI in business panels hosted by the university.
He sees UBalt as uniquely positioned to help Baltimoreans understand and navigate AI, given its strong ties to the local community and its focus on serving working adults and nontraditional students.
'The university as a whole has always been very accessible to all levels of education, all generations, those that are working and trying to learn and level up their careers as well as those who are going into it full-time,' Merritt said. 'It's a great place to focus on the real-world application of AI.'
Maria Eberhart is a 2025-2026 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs emerging journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported in part by the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation and the Abell Foundation. .
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