The benefits of rapid prototyping
Even on a shortened timeline, rapid prototyping allows the AICIC team to experiment throughout the project cycle and share those learnings with partners in real time. In turn, this allows the customer to be more involved in the development process during the entire experience and learn about what solutions are possible for their pain point.
What makes rapid prototyping even more appealing is that cloud computing enables technologists to scale up, test, and then scale back. This makes the cost of rapid prototyping and innovation more accessible with the use of the cloud.
Additionally, with AWS’ fully managed services, it’s easy to prototype because the team doesn’t have to start from scratch when it comes to knowledge needed and technology solutions available — they can utilize AWS’ established suite of tools. All these benefits result in a 30-40% productivity improvement with students’ use of Amazon Q Developer and other AI code generator services. “We also develop reusable components and frameworks that give us huge reuse potential and help deliver more projects in a shorter amount of time. This creates a healthier flywheel effect,” said Arunachalam.
But one of the greatest may be that it is a way to show leadership in companies, organizations and institutions what’s possible. “It enables you to show the art of the possible quickly to then gain additional buy-in and continue to innovate by taking the solution into production,” said Schwab.
Examples of successful product development
The first project in which the AICIC team implemented rapid prototyping was for Phoenix Children’s Hospital. They used the new process to build a tool that lets administrators query medical documents using natural language processing, a machine learning technology that allows computers to interpret and understand human language.
While the new approach took some time to implement, the AICIC team was able to use components of rapid prototyping learned from the Phoenix Children’s Hospital project for their next partnership with the Arizona Department of Homeland Security (AZ DOHS). This project included the development of the Cyber Homeland Information Portal (CHIP), a prototype solution that uses generative AI to provide real time support for organizations participating in AZ DOHS’s Cyber Readiness Program on cyber security tool implementation.
Another unique use of rapid prototyping was helping Stephen Carradini, Assistant Professor at ASU’s College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, with his water chatbot to teach users about Arizona’s water position. While Professor Carradini had completed excellent research, he didn’t have a scalable deployment strategy for the bot, which caused him to seek a more cost effective approach.
The AICIC team found a more efficient way of deploying solutions, including a serverless architecture structure, optimizing Large Language Model (LLM) calls and figuring out better caching strategies in just three days. “When you get the right team that’s willing to move fast and think innovatively, you can sometimes achieve these rapid prototypes very quickly,” said Schwab. “It’s not about starting from scratch. It’s about leveraging what you have to be able to then accelerate innovation.”
Another bot that the team worked on was for a leading airport on the East Coast. The bot was designed to help travelers determine if they would be able to make their flights. The bot takes into account their location, their airline and gate information, the security wait times, whether or not parking is available at the airport/terminal and more. The bot is able to add up all these factors and see if you’ll be able to board the plane on time. “It was very well received by the customer,” said Arunchalam, whose student worker team completed the work in 3-4 weeks. “That’s the real power of technology: LLMs and Amazon Bedrock were used to accomplish this use case.”
And while the AICIC has been using rapid prototyping for the past eight months, they anticipate that productivity is going to accelerate even further — as much as ten times — in the next eight months.
“We’re proud of the work that the AICIC is accomplishing through rapid prototyping,” said John Rome, Deputy CIO and Strategic Partnerships of ASU’s Enterprise Technology. "This innovative process provides our students with invaluable opportunities in problem-solving, strategic thinking, and leveraging AWS services, equipping them with essential skills that will serve them well beyond their time at ASU."
The AICIC is a no-cost, no-contract program available to the public sector. Learn more about the qualification criteria to build a rapid prototype with the AICIC team.