Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) marked the official opening of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Corridor on Monday.
“It’s something, that is a technology that is here to stay,” CCSU President Dr. Zulma Toro said. “It’s something that we need to expose our students to.”
The 5,000 square-foot facility is located inside of the Vance Academic Center and holds 110 AI-capable computers, two dog robots, a holographic synthetic human and many other tools and pieces of equipment to help assist with AI research.
“Our goal in an applied learning situation is for students to do a little bit of concepts and theory, and then learn by doing,” CCSU Chief Information Officer George Claffey said.
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A CCSU representative said the investment totaled to $950,000, with $700,000 coming from the school and the remaining amount coming from in-kind donations.
Dell, Presidio and NVIDIA also partnered with the school, providing discounted rates and consulting.
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“I’m really proud to be at a university that’s on the cusp of that and integrating that into education,” senior Taylor Doyle said. “It’s interesting to learn, especially as we progress, how many disciplines AI can be integrated into.”
The school said students from all types of majors should be able to utilize the facilities.
“Employers are asking our graduates to be able to use AI as a tool to help them in their jobs, so we want our students to have that knowledge," Toro said.
