"Everything AI"

As the old saying goes, being in the right place at the right time has its benefits. 

This couldn't be truer for Auburn University's Asim Ali, who seems to have a knack for seizing opportunities. 

“I feel like I was made for this moment,” said Ali. “The vowels in my first name and my last name are both ‘AI.’"

As Executive Director of the Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, Ali oversees a team of more than 90 professionals. Their main mission – provide professional development programs, services and resources to enhance instructional innovation.

“At the heart of what we do is educating and empowering faculty, staff and students to do their best work possible," said Ali.

At nine years old, Ali moved with his family from New Jersey to Alabama after his father was hired at Tuskegee University to help spearhead the college’s aerospace engineering program. 

“I remember telling my cousins that we're moving to a place called Alabama,” Ali recalled. “They were like, ‘where is that?’” 

In Auburn, Ali flourished.

He graduated from Auburn High School and went on to earn his undergraduate degree in software engineering at Auburn. He took a full-time position in 2004 as an information technology specialist in Auburn’s College of Education. He held that role for ten years, during which he earned his master’s in information systems management and a Ph.D. in adult education.

Eleven years ago, Ali founded Auburn Online for enhancing online and hybrid teaching methods. This initiative proved to be exceptionally timely when COVID-19 struck in 2020.

“After the pandemic, then right along came AI,” Ali said.

Today, Ali co-leads work on artificial intelligence (AI) for the Office of the Provost.  

“We can't ignore it, it's going to be here,” said Ali. “So, let's be dang good at it – that's the approach we're taking.” 

Thanks to the partnership with Auburn’s Office of Information Technology, the Biggio Center is fully funded to build a framework for how to engage the entire campus on AI research, infrastructure, ethics and cultural impact.

Ali says the Auburn Creed with its emphasis on human touch uniquely positions the land-grant institution to be a groundbreaking leader in defining the use of AI.

“We don't want a chatbot replacing people – that's not Auburn, that's not who we are or how we operate,” he said.

Numerous Auburn instructors and students are taking full advantage of AI technology in virtually every college. The Biggio Center has created Teaching With AI and How To AI courses and has even launched a new AI course for K – 12. They’ve also developed a course for the Southeastern Conference AI Consortium, making it available for all 16 universities in the SEC to use, as well as the Alabama Community College system.

For Ali, his job remains all about paving the way for students and colleagues to blaze their own trail to success – one byte at a time.

“It’s a blessing to be at this institution that I love, working alongside incredibly talented people who are invested in the work they're doing,” he said.

Visit Auburn’s Biggio Center website for a list of AI resources.

Check out our "Everything Auburn" Podcast website here!

Transcript

0:05

Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Everything Auburn podcast. I'm Dalton and that's my co-host Carter. Hey, Carter. Welcome back. Welcome. I was worried you're gonna do another nickname like you did last time. Really? That was C-Money last time. Welcome back. Thank you. It is a very hot campus, dude. Summer in Alabama. Welcome to it. Very thankful for the. I don't know who invented, air conditioning, but we're grateful. They're my favorite person. They're my favorite. But welcome back. We had another great guest here, another member of the Auburn family here in the studio. Yeah. For another wonderful podcast. Yes. Today we have Asim Ali. Right. Give it up for Asim. Yeah. There's great rejoicing. Welcome there. How are you doing? Great to be here. Thanks for having me. What a great, fun way to be spending time indoors in the air conditioning. Not great tree melting outside. Isn't it a great treat? Well, welcome to it. Thanks for joining our rinky dink little production here. And, having a little chat with us, teaching us what to do. These chairs are. I don't know about rinky dink. This is. We're getting comfortable. There's cushioning. We're getting better every week. Cushioning, air conditioning. What more could you. What are you looking for, man Yeah, exactly a happy man. Exactly. All right. Well, awesome for everybody who doesn't know. Tell the people what you do here on campus. Yeah. Asim Ali, I'm the Executive Director of what we call the Biggio Center. It's our central, unit and the provost office. So we serve all of campus work with all faculty, all departments, on campus, essentially in supporting their teaching and learning. And so that includes, lots of different units. The teaching and learning aspect has, basically supporting faculty in how they think about their teaching, how they think about how to improve their teaching. So that's our educational development unit overseen by Doctor Lindsey Decapolis. We've got a unit called Biggio Tech, which is our support for canvas, the learning management system suites. Brandon Simmons oversees that area. We've got a testing center. A lot of students, when they hear Biggio they're like, oh, yeah, I give tests and they're like, why does a testing center need an executive director? That's the first thing I think of. Yeah, when I was a student. But, you know, that's a great way. It's got academic testing in a certified environment. So faculty can basically send students there and not have to worry about the production aspect of testing. And so we have students that go there. And Emily Camp does a great job of overseeing that area. Then we've got Auburn online. So I founded Auburn Online about 11 years ago. And that unit now is overseen by Saundra Bowers. And that's our instructional designers, creative designers, developers, and videographers that essentially partner with faculty to, figure out how to improve online and hybrid teaching and any kind of, instruction. So in 2020, we combined all those units together. And I wonder what, well, what happened? You know, we were actually quite prescient. And so, like, I started this job in January of 2020 and, six weeks in, you know, got into a nice meeting and they were like, hey, we're kind of monitoring this thing. Just be on the lookout. And then like, three days later was like, hey, we're going to be teaching remotely and afters for the first year, then spring break. You know, just that that first week of March, it was it was just a it was craziness. It was like, hey, we don't know what's going to really happen. Just be ready. And so we had actually, had gotten the whole team together and said, all right, we're going to figure out how to support folks through this. And we got to do it in a way that they can't make it to us. And so, it was actually really quite great. We created, you know, it was not at the time, but in retrospect, that's that's great. You know, just a remarkable team. All hands on deck. They're so talented. We created zoom rooms where people could drop in and just get help on how to do any aspect of of their teaching. Just some people were trying to figure out for the very first time how to do certain things. So that was really gratifying. And all of that process was, some of the steps that we took, first of all, supporting faculty, supporting students. Just the feedback that we got was so, great. In terms of finding that there was somebody there to help them through all of the just everything that was happening. And then there were some other institutions that reached out to us and said, hey, we're using the ideas that you have been sharing about what you what you're doing at Auburn. And we're doing the those here. And so, you know, our folks around the SEC that we used to get together with, really appreciate it. But anyway, we, we grew out of that and that helped. And, you know, and if you're wondering what happens after the pandemic, then right along came AI. And right. And so haven't been busy at all with that I would imagine it's you know, it's interesting how it's just a lot of being in the right place at the right time for, you know, just our strategy and a lot of thinking through how we want to support faculty and support students. This at the heart of what we do is how can we the be the best supporters and empowerment, empowerment of our faculty to do the best work that they can do? And, if that's your end goal, then the other things kind of just fall into place. I'd be really curious what you think, because my perspective on it, I have never seen something that changes as rapidly. Like, technology has always been fast. Sure, but it's like every other week. Yeah, there's some other new AI gimmick. More technique or thing or new model, and it's just. And everything just turns upside down, like once a month. Just everything just keeps on changing. Yeah. The the use cases keep evolving and the capabilities of the technology is certainly continuing to evolve. It's, the technology, the heart of what's going on has been around for a while. The the core technology has been there. I think there's a lot of value in everyone. For those of you that are, you know, just listening out there, thinking about how do I advise my children to think about what to major in and things like that? I think the core of understanding how technology works and how AI works, the the core concepts are going to be the same. It's just what's changing is how do we use it, what are the new capabilities of it? And that does feel like because there's so much investment in what's going on. And that's really what's driving a lot of the news around just in your face all the time. Kind of an aspect of it. But, but I think the core things of what is it that we have to do, serve our faculty, serve our students, make sure that they're having the best experience possible and the best teaching and learning outcomes possible. AI is just another tool that's going to help us, you know, with a means to an end kind of an aspect. So, we can't ignore it. It's going to be there. So let's be dang good at it. Right? And, that's really the approach that we're taking before we get too far into to the deep, dark hole that I could talk about all day long, which is I, my thing that I really love to talk to people about is how they got to where they're at. Yeah. And as a one time alum, two time alum, you are the first hat trick, three time alum. Like, I'm really curious what your Auburn story is. Yeah, I'm happy to share. Man, I love Auburn. It's just it's one of my favorite stories to share. I moved to Alabama when I was nine years old. My dad, was on faculty, got hired at Tuskegee University to help start up the aerospace engineering program there. And, early 90s moved to Alabama from New Jersey. I remember telling my cousin to move into a place called Alabama. And they were like, where is that? I think it's I think it's in the US. And so, yeah. So move to, you know, Alabama when I was really young, graduated from Auburn High School, grew up in Auburn. You know, shout out to my, friends. I just it was a great experience going through the Auburn City school system. And actually, I wasn't going to go to Auburn University at first. You know, I ended up applying to a couple other places and, I remember, like about 2 or 3 weeks before high school graduation, I was like, who am I kidding? Like, this is this is where I want to go to college, you know? And so I walked into, Mary Martin. That's where admissions used to be met with Mr. Burgess. His wife was the English teacher at Auburn High and, walked in made an appointment, walked in with Mr. Burgess and said, I want to I want to apply to go to Auburn. And he kind of looked at me like he gave me one of those, like he said, you guys, you know, if I had a dollar for every Auburn High student, that doesn't even apply here and then all of a sudden wants to go here, you know, it's a hard college to get into. We don't just let anybody who walks off the street get in. And I was like, yes, sir. And he goes, what did you do on? What did you get on the act anyway? And I told him and he goes, fill out this form and pay $25. You'll be welcome. Yeah. So I started off as a pre-med major, and, Auburn had just started their software engineering program around that time, so I think a couple years old. So I ended up changing majors into software engineering and just didn't look back. It was a really great experience. Graduated with my undergraduate degree in software engineering and took a job at Auburn and was like the best option at that time. Of the kind of work that I wanted to do. I worked in the College of Education as the I.T. guy and did a did that for about ten years. During that process, I, finished my master's degree in the business school Information Systems Management. That's right. I teach a class every semester there as well. It's just an awesome time if we get a chance to talk about that with you guys. And then, you know, I did a presidential fellowship with President Goos early around 2011, and, and really, during that process, working with the folks that worked on the president's cabinet a little bit, interacting with the leaders of this campus at that time, I said, you know, this is this is really, compelling work. I think the mission sells itself, but also just the environment and how we do it and where we do it. I felt like I really had something to contribute there, and I wanted to figure out how that would go. And, and so I wanted to get a PhD because that's, you know, that's the currency of, of having leadership, roles. And, my first visit was to computer science, and I was like, hey, I think I'm interested in getting a PhD. And they're like, yeah, sure. You know, quit your job. We'll take you on. And I was like, yeah, no, I'm not trying to do that. It's the same thing in business. And so, there was a guy in the College of Ed, doctor, Jim Whitty and, you know, kind of explained to him what I was experiencing is you should get a PhD in adult education. And, I said, was that mean? And he kind of explained, you know, this idea of, you know, how you think about how adults learn and it's relevant for a higher ed, context, for sure. So I was Doctor Jim with his 100th, PhD graduate. Oh, wow. Did you get, like, a koozie with it? So hundredth customer. He gave me a cool. He's a blacksmith as well. And so he gave me a cool blacksmith. Knife. That was really cool. Oh, man. Yeah, yeah, I think I'm the only one who has one of those. So every hundred. Yeah, every hundred years gets a. Yeah. He's a he's, phenomenal dude. Excellent. You know, to it just he was so supportive. So I have three degrees in three different academic areas, which is, you know, also like career suicide if you're trying to stay in academia because know no man's land. Yeah. But you've kind of managed to combine all three, though, haven't you? Yeah. You know, really worked out. It's, being in the Biggio Center and then, you know, working certainly to found Auburn online, which was just a privilege of a lifetime trying to think through what the culture of a work organization should be that doesn't exist before. How do we want people to be collaborative and creative together? What does that look like? Being able to do that, you know, it really it relies on all three of those areas and the work that we've been able to do. It's really just I mean, it's I couldn't have planned this at all. It's, you know, I'm, I'm one of those people that just, you can think about it all you want, but really, it's on, you know, whatever God plans is really what happens. And he's the best of planners, and that's. I'm living a dream. And I tell you what else is really cool? A university not unlike any other large organizations, kind of like, you know, turn a cruise ship. You know, and you've had such a cool, like, angle and a forefront of what's happened in the last several years, you know, with online. And then obviously, I stuff recently to be able to kind of dictate some of that direction and what we're doing and, and make some meaningful change and set some guidelines and boundaries and help people learn and go into the future. Is is really impressive. But that's a hard thing to do in a large organization. Yeah. Period. And I tell people it's kind of funny. I was kind of like, I feel like I was made for this moment, the vowels in my first name and the vowels in my last name are both AI AI. And it's kind of like, I don't know if my parents knew I was going to, but, I love it. It's, I, I don't have the brainpower to figure out what might I have to like? I don't have to, like, draw that out later to figure out what might say, but I'm sure it's just like, yeah, mukduk something, you know, something that doesn't flow like it doesn't work. And you know what else? What else flows is the acronym that we have, which is I tell you, which is flow. So. Well, you said it nailed it just perfectly. But I would really love for you to talk about how Auburn really became a leader in the AI space, not just in higher ed, but just in general, if you don't mind. Yeah, absolutely. Happy to share that. So the AI that you initiative is, has actually predates the ChatGPT stuff, you know, being publicly available. There are a couple of faculty on this campus, doctor Hari Narayanan, who's the department chair in computer science and software engineering. And then doctor Jerry Dozier, who is, I had both of them, by the way, my undergrad. So that's a really interesting experience to be able to. You've gone through so many different colleges, you know, a lot of faculty because you've had a lot of them. I gotta tell you, professors, the best introduction I ever got was, Provost Vinni Nathan when she was introducing me one time, my wife actually got her master's in, apparel, design and merchandizing in the Consumer design and sciences program. And so Doctor Nathan was like, you know, Asim And his wife, they have degrees from four different colleges. They've got three kids. So we're trying to figure out how to knock out the other colleges as well. But, yeah. No, I mean, the bigger your family gets, we're going to start adding more colleges. Yeah, yeah. No service. That's good, that's good, I like it. You know, I think we're done, y'all. Thanks for coming. Thanks for watching. Bye bye, friends. We're, We're done on that. Yeah. So, you know, doctor Hari Narayanan and and Doctor Dozier use the mission enhancement funds. We have internal funding program to basically put together the framework for how to engage the entire campus on artificial intelligence. And there's multiple different committees around research and infrastructure and ethics and cultural impact of it. And there's a committee on education. So I chair the education committee. There's folks across campus that are working with us, a lot of folks in the Biggio Center who are engaged in that work. And essentially what our charge is, I kind of have thought about it from three different areas. One is when we think about AI, literacy is very important. And this idea that we should know what is artificial intelligence, how does a the basics of how it works? What are those? And then how is it going to impact me in terms of how I can use it? What are the use cases where the implications of that? And so I literacy is very important for us. We create opportunities for students for faculty, for professionals on campus, across wherever department they may be working in. We've gotten into the K through 12 space. And what we want to do there is basically make sure people understand what AI is, how does it impact you and how to use it. We look at AI tools. What are those resources and tools that people need access to so that they can experiment. They can try things they can critically think about. Is this a useful resource, or is this something that's not going to be as useful? Make that determination for themselves. And then the third aspect is collaboration. And we really want to create the opportunities that allow people to say, hey, I want to do research with others in this area. I want to do some kind of experimentation in the classroom or some kind of work in terms of professional opportunities, partnerships with businesses and those kinds of things. So we think about how do we create just experiences for our academic community to be engaged in that way? And that's the approach we've taken. It's a lot, though. I can only imagine that that is a rather busy job. It is a busy job for, it would be difficult if someone wasn't inspired to do it. I, you know, for me, like, this is, it's a blessing to be in this time and in this place and at this moment, being able to have the opportunity to really be at this institution that I love, working with people who are incredible to work with, who are very talented and and interested in the work that they're doing. And my job is literally to provide them with the resources and the and create some pathways for them to be able to do their excellent work. And that's really what we've been able to try. And sometimes we try some things and say, okay, that's not really going to work broadly. Let's, you know, try something different. Sometimes we try things and say, this is this has got potential. And so then we try to figure out how to incorporate that into, you know, the programing that we're providing for folks. So let's let's you know let's get into it. Right. Yeah. What do you what do you use an AI for? I mean that's one of my favorite thing. I just I mean, we only got a, you know, we only have so much time, right. What like, what are your costs? Yeah. So what I tell people to do is think about the work that you do in the kind of three buckets, right? There's a bucket that's like you're kind of tedious, repetitive tasks. Those are the kinds of things that I really good at. And so we call it AI automation bucket. Let's like I do that right. Do you need to come up with an outline for an article you just read that's going to help you better understand some work that you're working on? Now? If it's for an assignment in class, let's make sure we're doing that in the ethical way. And the fact that writing papers with it. Right, exactly. But if you and I are meeting and, you know, say we're in a research group together and we got to understand this new research paper that just got published. Okay. Let's run that through a couple of AI tools that let us interact with this and dive in deeper and identify some related research with this topic, the thing that we could do, but I can do it better and faster. So let's use it for that. That frees up our time to do things in the second bucket, which are what we would call AI augmentation task. Right? These are things that I can do, but humans do it better if we work with AI to do it. So things that I could do, but I can help me do it better. Let's use AI for those things as well, in judicious ways, and certainly in ways that we evaluate what the output looks like. And that what that really does, though, is it opens up time and opportunity for us to focus on what's in that third bucket. And that's the bucket of you need a human to do this. And AI is not going to be able to do this right now, and AI is not going to be able to do this anytime soon. And what I want to be able to think about is how do we teach the concepts that we're teaching in that mindset as well? Maybe you say, hey, you know what, I want to I want you to understand how I does this better. I want to understand how to augment the work that you're doing with AI on this. But let's really focus, make sure you're understanding how to do these skills really well, because I is not going to do that. And this is going to be your competitive advantage when you're out in the field trying to work and trying to get jobs and trying to advance in your careers. And it just so happens, you know, for my friends in the humanities and liberal arts on this campus, I really see that that's going to be the resurgence in terms of the skills that we look for, empathy, working with others. I tell you one thing that I really like the augment side, because that's one thing that's frustrated me. And we also met earlier. Right, is that people use AI and everyone is using it different. We're all figuring out together, right? Everyone's a different steps of the journey. But I think a lot of people use AI as like a final product. Personally, I don't really like that. Right. Because it's not I like the augment thing. Like I can do steps two through seven for me, really well. And they can do that in, you know, a couple minutes. I've still got to do steps one, eight, nine and ten though. And it just speeds that process up and kind of that ingesting. But it's not a final product. Yeah. And you know it helps me maybe think a little bit outside the box and connect to a couple things I didn't think about or bring a little bit more, but it just helps me do some of the more menial stuff faster. But it's not the final product and there's still me there. You talk about, you know, for you, I like how you talk about it's not you're not just a videographer, you're a storyteller. Oh, and I'm a man. Yeah. Just open the can of worms. I know how long. Yeah, let's be a two hour long podcast. But how? Well, you're able to take the pieces and put them together to weave that story. I mean, there's not an AI that does that, right? Right. Now, there are a lot of, you know, repetitive tasks like writing a press release or something like that. But that's not what PR is all about. You know, there's a lot more and it's a lot of relationships. It's a lot of what people are. You know, Orban, with our creed, when we talk about the human touch and just the importance of what we talk about the Auburn family like that, we are in our institutionally, we're so uniquely positioned to really make sense of this, what AI is, and not that it should take over society, but how do we make sense of it in a way that, you know, judiciously and, and, and understanding how to use it and critically think about what the output is. And I don't want a chat bot replacing people that's not Auburn and that's not who we are, and that's not how we operate. But now whoever is answering those questions for students, if they have access to AI tools that help them do their, you know, do their work faster or better so that it's an easier caseload for them then that kind of stuff. And you know that that's a quality of life improvement that we should absolutely approach. And look at in your role and kind of what you're doing with a you and I or I and I you see, I did it too. That's, that's is what that is what are some of those first steps that students, faculty, staff, people on here on campus that tools that are resources, places they can learn those kind of entry points to anybody who wants to kind of get involved with using AI here at Auburn. Yeah, we've got a lot of resources available. We've created a resource called teaching with AI, which is an online course, that the big data center created. We actually launched that course early in, the spring of 2023. And, it's a, it's an online course that allows faculty to go through and understand how to teach with and make sense of AI, partner with their students in terms of understanding the technology. Better, better. We actually we partnered with the Southeastern Conference. They expressed an interest. There's a group called the Southeastern Conference AI consortium, that's overseen by the academic side of the SEC. And, and so, you know, Doctor Laney, who? Powell. Who's the, AI academic, I mean, the academic commissioner for the Southeastern Conference said, hey, we've got to say AI consortium. Let's figure out what kind of resources we can provide for all of the member institutions. And so, they, chose to use the AI course from Auburn. We modified and created as an AI as a SEC version of it, and then that course was available for everybody in the Southeastern Conference to use. It was used by the entire all of the instructors that teach in the, Alabama Community College system. We've actually made the version available broadly. And so we've got over almost 14,000 or more, faculty from around the world who've engaged with this course. And, essentially they learn how to use AI and make sense of it for their classroom. Through this resource, there's a group called edge, which is the largest professional association for people who are interested in educational technology. And so educators reached out to me. They said, you know, we were going to develop our own course, but yours is good. Can we just licensing it from you and use that as our. And so that's, you know, if you are associated with educators and you sign up for the edge of course, teaching with a AI course that's actually the Auburn course facilitated by educators folks. And so it's really elevated the Auburn brand considerably from that perspective. We've got a resource called how to AI that's available for any learner we desire for students. But, you know, all of us are lifelong learners. Anybody who's just interested in how do I code with this? How do I create text? How do I create graphics or video? Ethically? What are the you know, what are some prompts for creating a tutor or bot or something like that? You can go to this, you know, how to AI resource and basically go through a, an engaged way of learning how to use these tools and, in a very safe way. And so you're not giving up your data to someone just because it's an Auburn, freely available resource. All these are on our website. Somebody goes to Big Auburn Edu, they can find the AI section, and there's, lots of stuff listed there in terms of things that are available. We've got a new course available for K through 12. For teachers, there's a tremendous, focus in terms of making sure that teachers and administrators have the resources they need and understanding. So we actually partnered with, a lot of K through 12 teachers and, and a lot of, K through 12 librarians and said, okay, let's figure out what's the best resource. And we weaved it together as a story of basically having an innovation team at a school that you're a part of. And so when you sign into this course, you're basically a part of that innovation team. And now you go through understanding AI, making strategic decisions for this school, for your teaching, for partnering for you know, and and communicating with your students and, and with their parents. And it kind of goes through those key uses, of AI through this course. The only Auburn really like emphatic thing in there is there's an eagle that flies around. But the school hey, we got but, we got it, we got it, we got it, you know. Right. We got to do it. Right? Right. That's cool. That reminds me, like, I remember, like, growing up, and, you know, I would do math different ways than my parents would or whatever, and I'm imagining it. My own kids like, oh, my gosh, they're going to be so fluent in AI. Like, if they're going to be learning it. Oh yeah. And so we want I mean, you know, that is part of it is we want the students are coming and there's a that's our future students. Right. They're coming in and we want them to have, that we want them to first of all understand it, have access to it. It's the future workforce. You know, we want to make sure that we have the workforce in the state of Alabama that's going to be ready for the coming economy. And AI is absolutely a part of that economy. Yeah, I know it's kind of adjacent to AI. It's not necessarily AI, but it's adjacent. Another thing that you've been doing a lot of work in is, VR work. Yeah. And VR and AR, and they kind of go hand and there's some AI stuff right out there, but there's also a lot of work you're doing there for Auburn students and faculty. And that also adjacent area. We've got this awesome initiative called UX. I work with Alicia Baggage Testing over in it, so I want to give a shout out to Jim O'Connor, who's the CIO at Auburn. He's the one who, you know, kind of came up with got to figure out how to fund this. Coming on the off the heels of the pandemic, we had to figure out how to make learning more, immersive. And, you know, and so he, he kind of gave us the green light to just figure things out. And he that, you know, he provides the resources for it. And, and so, it's a great partnership between Office of Information Technology and with the big center. And what we really do is we say, okay, we're not going to build a virtual Metta World of Auburn. That's just not it. There's no that's not where the tech is headed. That's there's not a lot of learning gain there. What we really look at is, you know, when you're sitting in that chemistry class or when you're sitting in a, you know, in any other class, there some of those concepts where it doesn't really quite make sense. What's being explained, or maybe two dimensional paper is not the best way to understand a concept. And so we asked the faculty to submit proposals on those learning outcomes. How so? That's at the heart of it is the learning outcomes. Very cool. What what would you you know, what are those learning outcomes that you think would be good candidates for creating an immersive learning experience around. And then we've got this team in Auburn online that basically develops virtual and augmented reality experiences. You know, Alex Atari, who leads that team, does a great job of basically working with the faculty, saying, okay, let's create a fully accessible and, you know, the way that the storytelling aspect comes into it. How do we create an immersive experience that makes this make sense? Better? And, it's really been impressive to see. It runs the gamut from the sciences, engineering. There's lots of stuff going on in building science. And, and some of the other programs and architecture. I've seen some stuff here. Yeah, it's very cool. I'm a visual guy. Shock, surprise as a video guy. Right? I'm a visual guy. And that is so helpful. It really is. Because, like, reading in a book has always been my Achilles heel in academia. Is is just because I'm so visual, it's hard for me to kind of tangibly translate that, but be able to see it, hold it right, manipulate it is so helpful. Yeah. We're also seeing I play a role in that because we can create characters and we can create experiences that are AI driven essentially within a virtual environment. So if we create, for example, an experience in a class which harkens back to maybe the 1950s or something, we can create period appropriate characters that can communicate in that way. If we want to use AI to, you know, graphically experience what certain environments may look like, and then so that allows us to speed up the development work. So I think it's really, as AI continues to grow and as you know, it starts to become more and more a part of our everyday lives. You said that you teach some classes here on campus, so why should somebody take that classic. It sounds like something I would want to take. Yeah. Why not sign up for my class? It's, So I teach one class every semester. It's, intro to information systems management, and it's, students that are either minoring or majoring in anything in business. And, so my students have about 130 students, and they are from all different majors. And, you know, sometimes if you just use the textbook, it may have an example of something. And if you're a finance major, you may look at that example and say that, that, really apply to me. I don't really understand this, this concept. So I can use AI to create content with my students, where I say, okay, let's use this concept and actually create a case study that's relevant for you in finance and create another case study that's relevant for you in marketing. And so now you're getting content and learning opportunities that are relevant for you. And then I have them actually use AI in the class so they can develop their skills, as they're going through the class and better understand the professional impact that the technology will have, on their careers, on their, you know, as the, as they think about what they want to do after, college. My goal is for my students when they go in for a job interview, for them to confidently be able to say, because I've had this class, I understand the emerging technology of our time and the impact it's going to have in terms of the profession that I'm seeking to be a part of. I want them to be the best candidate for that job. And, I want them to be in a position where they actually shape the future and say, oh, here is what I think the best uses of this technology will be. And, I get the opportunity to do that with these students through the way I teach using AI, you know, or helping them understand how to understand AI in the context that they're in. Awesome. Well, wonderful. I mean, this this is great. And hopefully they'll come back lessons come back and get two, three, 4 or 5 degrees, you know, from every college on campus here. Truthfully, I could talk about AI all day. I'm sure you could. I know the three of them. I mean, this could go on for hours, but unfortunately I cannot. But I want to thank you for coming and sharing some of your thoughts and all the work that you and your team does, to help push Auburn forward and push the rest of the world. And, you know, my pleasure. Rising tide lifts all boats. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. It's really been an exciting, time to have just this conversation and chill out with you guys. It's great. You know, we love it. You know, this is what we live for. This is. This is awesome. So thank you for coming. And thank you for listening. We'll be back again next month with another wonderful member of the Auburn family. And, we can't wait to talk to you. Then, if you like what you heard, go back and listen to the old ones. We got so many back there that we've done in the past down here in this, awesome studio. But until next month. We'll see you then. I'm Carter, War Eagle. I'm Dalton, War Eagle. I'm Asim, War Eagle.