ASU and AWS collaborate to promote AI transformation on a global scale
Today, Arizona State University (ASU) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the next phase of the ASU Cloud Innovation Center, powered by AWS: together, they will advance the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the public sector.
The announcement came from the mainstage at AWS re:Invent today, Monday, Nov. 27 in Las Vegas. The annual event for AWS draws thousands of participants every year.
The launch of the ASU Artificial Intelligence Cloud Innovation Center (AICIC), powered by AWS, expands the effective use of AI for public sector organizations on a global scale—including global government agencies, education institutions, and nonprofits – to address their mission-related challenges and uncover new opportunities.
“AWS and ASU share a belief that the public sector should have access to the same tools as the world’s most innovative companies in order to build a better world,” said Kim Majerus, Vice President of Global Education and US State and Local Government at AWS. “The ASU AICIC will help public sector organizations worldwide collaborate in order to solve constituent challenges using AI.”
The rapid pace of digital transformation, specifically in AI, offers nearly limitless possibilities for organizations to scale, innovate and enhance productivity. And across metro Phoenix, ASU helps to lead the way.
“At ASU, we’re recognized as a global leader in AI transformation. Our work in this space is deeply grounded in the ASU Charter to advance access and discovery, while remaining socially embedded in the communities we serve here in Arizona and globally,” said Lev Gonick, ASU’s chief information officer. “Today, this announcement with AWS to launch the AI Cloud Innovation Center at ASU represents our dedication to leveraging AI, in all forms, for public interest — whether that be the ethical use of AI or enhancing systems and processes that address community priorities.”
Longtime partnership helps to fuel innovation
Under its global Cloud Innovation Center (CIC) program, AWS brings together nonprofit, education, and government organizations to collaborate on solutions that address challenges and real-world problems that matter most to communities. Universities bring their expertise, while AWS provides resources to work through challenges to find new ways to innovate and deploy technology solutions together.
The ASU CIC was one of the first to be established under the AWS program back in 2018.
The launch of the AICIC today builds up the success of the five-year collaboration between AWS and ASU. In its first iteration, the ASU ClC, powered by AWS, focused on smart city transformation. Under this mission, the ASU Smart City CIC helped develop more than 50 technology solutions, supporting projects in the areas of justice and public safety, education, healthcare, and community improvement.
The CIC will now be dedicated to helping public sector organizations—including healthcare systems, education accessibility and environmental sustainability, along with startups—innovate with AI to deliver on their missions and meet the changing needs of their constituents.
Located at ASU SkySong Innovation Center, the AICIC uses Amazon’s “Working Backwards” innovation methodology to offer no cost design thinking and prototyping services. Organizations who participate shorten the process to AI deployment that advances their mission.
ASU student interns, technologists at ASU Enterprise Technology and AWS technical experts will collaborate to design AI solutions using cutting-edge cloud computing technologies. The AICIC will leverage AWS’s leading, comprehensive set of machine learning and generative AI services—including Amazon Sagemaker, Amazon CodeWhisperer, and Amazon Bedrock—to build these new solutions.
Work is already underway
The AICIC has already helped create and deploy a generative AI-powered chatbot that helps local organizations get real-time support to address cybersecurity risks, a resume analyzer for ASU, and a tool to query medical documents for a local medical center.
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Visit the AICIC website at cic.asu.edu.