AI Discovery Day

Afternoon colloquium 

• Room A = STC 0060
• Room B = STC 0020
• Quiet room = STC 0040

Title: Bringing Student Perspectives into Waterloo’s GenAI Conversations 
Presenters: Angela Rooke and Elise Vist 
Talk format: Facilitated Discussion 
Description: Waterloo students have told us that the increasing use of GenAI is creating uncertainty, mixed messages, and concerns that classrooms are becoming more centred on suspicion than learning. Yet students' questions and worries about GenAI are rarely considered in institutional conversations about these new technologies. This session will bring student perspectives into Waterloo’s GenAI conversation by sharing what we are hearing from students, the academic support units developed in response, and the gaps that still remain. We will explore how people who meet, teach, and interact with students can better centre student experiences while continuing to foster learning and trust. Learning outcomes include understanding key themes about GenAI that emerged from interactions with students over the past year, learning about current student-facing GenAI support initiatives, and identifying opportunities to build more student-centred, non-judgmental conversations about GenAI. 

Title: Why the Wise Turtle Needed a Fox - A Jungle Fable on LLM Model Training and RAG 
Presenter: Shah Chandon 
Talk format: Demonstration 
Description: Explaining RAG in a fun way, contrasting it to model training. 

Title: A Simple Framework for AI at Waterloo 
Presenter: Andriana Vanezi 
Talk format: Lightning Talk 
Description: As AI adoption accelerates across the University, questions about data use, privacy, security, and institutional responsibilities are becoming increasingly common. This lightning talk shares a practical approach to assessing AI use cases, navigating requirements, and using AI tools with confidence. Participants will leave with a simple decision-making model they can apply in their own work. 

Title: AI Adventures with Slate 
Presenter: Jason Santo 
Talk format: Demonstration 
Description: Slate by Technolutions is a CRM and relational database used for strategic enrolment management, including applications, admissions, marketing, and recruitment. At the University of Waterloo, Slate has two instances: one for Graduate Studies, managed by GSPA and IST Student Systems, and one for Undergraduate Studies, managed by the Registrar's Office and IST Student Systems. Slate includes AI-powered tools that function as a developer assistant. In GSPA, we've been testing Slate AI for use cases such as UI development and dashboard creation. This session will demonstrate some of our successes, challenges, and opportunities, presented by a GSPA Graduate CRM Specialist in Marketing & Recruitment. 

Title: Thirsty, Hungry, and Exhausting: How AI Accelerates Unsustainability 
Presenter: Mat Thijssen 
Talk format: Facilitated Discussion 
Description: Mat will share how the current buildout of AI infrastructure is impacting water, energy, and supply chains globally, derailing significant progress needed for climate action and energy resiliency, directly and indirectly. He will pose questions for attendees on how, and if, it is possible to layer sustainability considerations into the development of AI technologies, and what that means for Waterloo. 

Title: Evaluation of an AI-based Virtual Standardized Patient for Pharmacy Education 
Presenters: Robin Andrade and Tom McFarlane 
Talk format: Project Showcase 
Description: Students face challenges applying pharmacy concepts to patient care environments, often falling short of preparing them for clinical scenarios. Standardized patients are trained to portray a patient role, assess clinical skills, and provide feedback on student performance. Pharmacy students request more opportunities to practice with standardized patients to improve clinical and communication skills; however, challenges such as time, budget, and class sizes limit in-person practice. Introducing AI-driven Virtual Standardized Patients can enable students to engage in realistic patient interactions, mitigating some of these barriers. 

Title: An Experiment in AI-Enabled Education: Recentering Students and Professors 
Presenter: Victor Cui 
Talk format: Project Showcase 
Description: Astelle is a cross-disciplinary University of Waterloo initiative that explores how generative AI can support personalized learning while keeping both students and professors at the centre of the educational experience. Developed through the Teaching Innovation Incubator and involving faculty from multiple disciplines, the project uses a digital twin approach to provide students with tailored course support, feedback, and learning pathways. Astelle is designed to help instructors better understand student needs, reduce repetitive administrative tasks, and adapt teaching in real time, with the goal of creating more engaging, responsive, and student-centred learning environments. 

Title: No shortcuts: a human-first approach to content and information architecture in the age of AI 
Presenter: Joe Kwan 
Talk format: Lightning Talk 
Description: We're in the middle of the most significant change in how users find and consume information since the iPhone was released. We are putting serious thought around how best to support our campus content creators, who are now faced with the challenge of creating information for real people that also needs to be citation-optimized and discoverable by AI. Find out how we're thinking about tackling this challenge and share your thoughts about what's important to you as a web content creator. 

Title: Resources, Conversations, Culture: CEE's Grassroots Approach to AI Readiness 
Presenter: Tonya Elliott 
Talk format: Lightning Talk 
Description: Many staff are wrestling with competing feelings surrounding AI: curiosity and skepticism, excitement and concern, possibility and responsibility. This lightning talk highlights CEE's grassroots approach to AI readiness, including staff-created resources, themes emerging from monthly drop-in sessions, and conversations with managers about culture and change. We'll share what's worked, what's surprised us, and practical ideas that other units might adapt for their own teams, all while exploring the overarching question of what it means to have a healthy relationship with AI. 

Title: AI Beyond the Classroom: Insights from Co-op Students in the Workplace 
Presenters: Katie Knapp, Justin Kieffer and Tonya Elliott 
Talk format: Facilitated Discussion 
Description: As AI becomes more embedded in both our classrooms and workplaces, Waterloo co-op students are encountering mixed and sometimes contradictory messages about it. Drawing on recent Work-Learn Institute research, we'll explore findings showing that AI use is extremely common during co-op work terms, that students have nuanced views about its role in their work, and that much of the guidance they're following comes from informal workplace conversations rather than academic courses or formal workplace training. Together, we'll discuss what these findings reveal about the evolving role of AI within Waterloo's co-op ecosystem. 

Title: AI Learning in Motion: Preparing Students for an Evolving Workplace 
Presenter: Erin Jobidon 
Talk format: Project Showcase 
Description: As AI technologies continue to evolve, so do the skills students need to use them effectively and responsibly. This session highlights CEE's efforts to support AI readiness through student-focused programming designed to bridge classroom learning and workplace expectations. We'll share works in progress as well as lessons learned and student feedback from recent pilots focused on developing AI-related skills in an environment where both the technology and the workplace are constantly in motion. 

Title: Rethinking First-Year Programming Education When Every Student Has Access to a Coding Agent 
Presenter: Carol Hulls 
Talk format: Workshop 
Description: AI-assisted coding is challenging the purpose, knowledge and skills taught, and structure of introductory programming courses. Students are questioning why they need programming fundamentals, and assessment is a challenge, as instructors can no longer assume unsupervised work reflects a student’s own knowledge and skills. This facilitated, participatory discussion will bring together instructors to identify essential learning outcomes and promising approaches to code comprehension, testing, debugging, practice, assessment, oral verification, and responsible AI use. The goal is practical direction for upcoming course redesign and the beginnings of a community of practice, rather than a general debate about the impact of AI. 

Title: The Student-Lens Agent: AI as Critic, Not an Author 
Presenter: Abhay Chopra 
Talk format: Project Showcase 
Description: Our Curriculum Development team designs learning for thousands of students across a variety of work-integrated learning contexts, but student feedback can be challenging to engage throughout the process when working at high volumes. The Student-Lens agents were built in Microsoft 365 Copilot and grounded in 12 WEA student interviews and 9,902 PD course survey responses. Now, as curricular materials are being created, the student lens can be engaged at any stage: each draft can be read the way a specific student would read it, with flags for where real student voice would provide valuable insights. This session will share what worked, what didn't, and how this approach can be transferable to other contexts. 

Title: You Have a Task. Which Copilot Should You Use: Chat, Researcher or Analyst? 
Presenter: Gwendoline Nubila 
Talk format: Lightning Talk 
Description: Microsoft Copilot offers different capabilities for different kinds of work, but users may not always know when standard Copilot Chat is sufficient or when a specialized agent is required. This lightning talk will compare Copilot Chat, Researcher and Analyst using practical university work scenarios. It will explain what information each can access, how Microsoft Graph grounding changes the experience, what Researcher and Analyst add, and how to match Copilot capabilities and licensing to the work users need to perform. The session will also highlight the importance of permissions, source quality and human oversight when using AI with organizational information. 

Title: Waterloo Region AI Coalition 
Presenter: Richard Florizone 
Talk format: Lightning Talk 
Description: The Waterloo Region AI Coalition (WRAIC) brings innovators, businesses and non-profits together to turn AI potential into real productivity, keeping talent and opportunity in Waterloo Region. 

Title: Exploring GenAI-Integrated Learning with Axiom 
Presenters: Stephanie Boragina and Rebecca MacAlpine 
Talk format: Lightning Talk 
Description: Sharing the UW tool Axiom that is currently being piloted to explore activity and assessment opportunities that are possible in a GenAI-integrated learning environment.