Innovation Summit

The Center for Academic Innovation is excited to announce our 4th annual Innovation Summit, “XR, Generative AI, and the Future of Experiential Technologies Summit.” Over two days, this event will showcase the transformative impact of extended reality, generative AI, and innovative technologies on education. 

Hear from leaders in the field, including top voices from GRX Immersive Labs and Coursera on how their organizations are embracing the future of experiential technologies. During the event, you’ll join us for panels, fireside chats, networking, vendor demos, including the Apple Vision Pro, and a student showcase featuring projects spanning XR and virtual reality.

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Summit Agenda:

Day 1 –

8 a.m. – Sunrise Social + Registration.
Kickstart the day with breakfast while fostering connections in the Michigan League Ballroom

9 a.m. – Welcome Address and Opening Remarks

9:15-10 a.m. – Reframing Reality: A Filmmaker's Leap into XR and the Future of Storytelling
Alton Glass - Founder and CEO, GRX Immersive Labs
Join Alton Glass, award-winning filmmaker turned XR innovator, as he shares his transformative journey of learning, adapting, and transferring skills across evolving media landscapes.

10:30-11:15 a.m. – AI’s Role in the Future of Teaching and Learning
Brandon Blinkenberg, Nick Gaspar, Jeffery Drake, PhD, and Carson Waites
Join us for a conversation about generative AI's impact on teaching and learning. We'll discuss where this technology is headed and how it might change the way educators work. Can AI give teachers more time to focus on in-depth thinking and meaningful assessment? What are the limits of automation in teaching, and how do we preserve the human element? Let's explore these questions together and consider what the future of academic innovation might look like.

11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. – Building GenAI Professional Skills to Meet Emerging Workforce Needs
Chris Brooks, PhD, Sarah Dysart, PhD, Josh Pasek, PhD, and Rebecca Quintana, PhD
Join Drs. Brooks, Pasek, and Quintana for an enlightening panel discussion highlighting the intersection of their academic expertise and generative AI education. Discover their motivations, unique insights, and perspectives on how their open learning initiatives will shape current and future projects.

12:15-1:15 p.m. – Connect Over Lunch
Join us for a delicious lunch while making valuable connections with peers and industry experts.

1:15-2 p.m. – New Frontiers in XR Panel
Jiasi Chen, PhD, Giusy Falcone, PhD, Janet Johnson, PhD and Michael Nebeling, Dr. sc. ETH Zurich
Explore the future of XR with experts from across disciplines. Dr. Michael Nebeling leads a panel discussing XR’s role in education, collaboration (Dr. Johnson), space exploration (Dr. Falcone), and secure, networked AR glasses (Dr. Chen). Discover how XR is transforming these cutting-edge fields.

2-2:45 p.m. – GenAI in Healthcare: Transforming Education and Patient Care
Deborah Lee, PhD, Prashant Mahajan, MD, Rajesh Mangrulkar, MD, and Barbara R. Medvec, DNP
This panel explores the integration of Generative AI in healthcare, focusing on its transformative impact on health professional education and patient care. Experts will discuss how GenAI enhances learning and streamlines diagnostics, treatment, and operational efficiencies in clinical settings.

3-3:30 p.m. – The Law and Ethics of Copyright and GenAI
Ben Anderson, Raven Lanier, JD, Jessica Litman, and Kentaro Toyama, PhD
As Generative AI (GenAI) continues to evolve, the intersection of copyright law and AI presents complex challenges. This panel brings together experts in law and ethics to explore critical questions: Can GenAI outputs be copyrighted? Is training AI on copyrighted material fair use or infringement? And how should society handle attribution when GenAI-generated work is passed off as human-created?

3:30-4 p.m. – Enhancing Learner Experiences with GenAI Dialogues
Peter Arashiro and Victor J. Strecher, PhD
In 2020, Dr. Strecher launched an open online course called “Finding Purpose and Meaning in Life: Living for What Matters Most,” where he teaches about the positive effects of having a strong purpose in life on human well-being, and ways to identify and stay connected with your purpose. Join our session as he talks about a new GenAI tool that he's integrated into his course, his vision for how it will enhance the learning experience for his learners, and ways to consider the benefits and risks of implementing GenAI tools in learning experiences.

4-5 p.m. – Wrap-Up + Networking Reception

 

Day 2 –

8 a.m. – Morning Mingle
Kick off Day 2 by enjoying a light breakfast and networking with other attendees in the Michigan League Ballroom

9 a.m.-3 p.m. – Student Showcase and Experience Hall
Join us throughout the day in the Hussey Room at the Michigan League to review student work in XR and generative AI. Experiences will be offered in the Ballroom, including demonstrations from the Duderstadt Center, Ann Arbor Spark, and Center for Academic Innovation’s Creative Studios team.

9-10 a.m. – The Future of Learning: How Generative AI is Reshaping Education
Mustafa Furniturewala - CTO, Coursera
This keynote explores the transformative potential of generative AI in education, moving beyond the hype to delve into the practical applications and implications for learners and educators. We'll examine how AI-powered tools are changing the landscape of content creation, personalized learning, and the  nature of teaching and learning. Followed by a faculty panel featuring assistant professors Chris Brooks and Xu Wang from the University of Michigan.

10-11 a.m. – Enhancing Education with XR and Apple Technology
Apple, Inc.
Apple devices enable faculty and staff to improve their research and productivity, and offer students unparalleled learning experiences through simulation of intricate concepts and real-world scenarios. This session will explore the use of iPad and Apple Vision Pro for collaboration, design, and immersive simulation to accelerate learning, boost understanding, and enhance education.

11:30 a.m.-12 p.m. – LearningClues: Course-Specific Personalized Student Support Using GenAI
Kevyn Collins-Thompson and Perry Samson
LearningClues helps students get maximum insight into instructor-provided content. The system automatically ingests and indexes all course content and videos in participating Canvas courses, provides a conversational interface for questions, and includes an adaptive learning environment that tracks student progress, providing proficiency metrics per course learning objective. A research pilot is currently underway at the University of Michigan.

12-12:30 p.m. – GenAI at Michigan - Year 1
Don Lambert, U-M ITS
Come explore Michigan’s journey as the first university to offer a custom suite of generative AI tools to its entire community. In this talk, we’ll highlight the launch of these tools in 2023, the major upgrades we made last summer, and how they’re transforming learning and work across all U-M campuses. Get an inside look at what’s next and see how GenAI is shaping the future at Michigan!

12:30-1:30 p.m. – Networking Lunch
Join us for a light  lunch while making valuable connections with peers and industry experts.

1:30-2:15 p.m. – Transforming Online Learning Using Impactful XR & Virtual Production Tools
Led by the Center for Academic Innovation’s Creative Studios team

2:15-2:30 p.m. – Closing Remarks

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About Our Keynote Speakers

Alton Glass - Founder and Chief Executive Officer, GRX Immersive Labs

Alton Glass, a creative entrepreneur and immersive storyteller, stands at the forefront as CEO of GRX Immersive Labs, a future-forward studio powering emerging technologies to innovate storytelling, accelerate immersive education, and amplify culture. His narratives aren't just stories; they're experiences. Passionate about empowering others, Glass is reshaping the contours of digital storytelling, ensuring voices are heard and new perspectives are brought to life. Recognized as an alumni of the Oculus Launch Pad and Unreal Engine Virtual Production Fellowship, he co-created the immersive experience "The March" for TIME magazine, vividly recreating the 1963 March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.'s timeless speech. His innovative spirit was further showcased at Tribeca Immersive in "POV: Points of View," a sci-fi VR exploration of implicit biases in AI and policing. Through "Arts Beats and Tech," his collaboration with Verizon, he's building bridges between creativity, technology, and learning, empowering a new generation of innovators. With each project, Glass's commitment to empowerment and immersive storytelling aims to inspire creators to design the future. Glass's contributions have been recognized with the Culture Creator Award for Technology and as an Accenture Breakout Star for Tech by Black Enterprise.

 

Mustafa Furniturewala - Chief Technical Officer, Coursera

Mustafa is a seasoned Chief Technical Officer (CTO) with a proven track record in the tech industry, particularly in product development. As an engineer, he has honed his skills in diverse areas such as Web Applications, Distributed Systems, Cloud computing, and iOS Development, all while maintaining a deep commitment to Agile Methodologies.

Presently, Mustafa is the head of the Engineering and Technology team at Coursera (NYSE: COUR), where he is leading the overall technology strategy. This includes overseeing infrastructure, engineering, services, data, security, and IT. 

He is a member of the executive team at Coursera. In addition, Mustafa is spearheading the Generative AI strategy, as one of the enable innovations at Coursera.