WVU holds first AI Symposium for student researchers and faculty

Yahoo

02-05-2025

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — West Virginia University held its first-ever AI Symposium on Thursday for student researchers and faculty who do AI-related work on campus.
'AI—I certainly don't have to tell anybody, it's everywhere,' said WVU Statler College Associate Dean of Research Xingbo Liu.
Liu told 12 News that there's a lot of ongoing work regarding AI at WVU already, so organizers felt is was important to put together a symposium for WVU professionals to learn from each other regarding what they've done so far, and discuss what they can do in the future to collaborate in the area.
'AI is coming to you, you like [it] or not, right? And everything we do is AI,' Liu added. 'So we'd better know what can be done, how to use it in the right way to improve our lives.'
Senior Associate Vice President for Research and Graduate Education Ming Lei explained to 12 News how attendees of Thursday's symposium included investigators and researchers, along with students working on AI in different colleges/departments.
Presenters during the morning discussion included people from the WVU Health Sciences Center, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, and the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. During the afternoon, Lei stated that presenters were coming from law schools, chambers and the John Chambers College of Business and Economics.
By having speakers from each of these different departments, Lei stated that the goal was to provide a wide spectrum of experts that can provide answers to a diverse set of questions. Following the symposium, Lei stated that the next step is to build collaborations to increase the impact of AI research on campus.
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'Basically, to get everybody together and have a sort of like a landscape survey,' said Lei. 'What we have and from here, what are the questions we're interested in.'
According to Lei, organizers of the WVU AI Symposium wanted faculty and students to see real examples of how AI is changing everything. He said that everything has to start from somewhere and with this, all of the participants are able to get a better idea of who the other experts are on campus.
'That will be a good first step—a good foundation, to build collaborations,' said Lei. 'So that's one of the important takeaways.'
Liu told 12 News that despite this being the first-ever AI Symposium on WVU's campus, the idea is not completely new today. He stated that over 40 years ago, WVU had its first AI project in the science department around 1981.
'We have been doing AI for [a] long time, but doing it piece by piece,' said Liu. 'Right now, we're just trying to say can we do a more [strategic] approach?' He added that WVU is hoping to have another AI Symposium in the future.
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