generative AI – Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

ChatGPT Under the Hood: The Future of Generative AI

In this session, we will explore cutting-edge advancements shaping the landscape of Generative AI. Beginning with the concept of Digital Twining and the role of a Digital Instructor. The session will then introduce CyGPT, a customized ChatGPT tool designed specifically for ISU courses, showcasing its potential to enhance interactive learning environments. A compelling case study will be presented, demonstrating the practical application of ChatGPT in the SE 317 course.

Dr. Ashraf Gaffar has been working with AI for the last 25 years. His research includes creating large data corpuses (repositories) and structuring and encoding them using different formal methods including AI and non-AI techniques. He has been working with ChatGPT since its inception in 2017. He built several AI systems for multiple enterprises including Honeywell, Deutsche Bank, Mayo Clinic, and General Motors. He received multiple academic and industrial awards for his work including Superior Academic Achievement and two SAP MVP awards, and currently has 5 US patents. Dr. Gaffar is a Teaching Professor at Iowa State University and is a certified project manager (PMP) since 2008.

Dr. Mohamed Selim is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. Known for his dedication and excellence in teaching, Dr. Selim was honored with the ISU Early Achievement in Teaching Award for his outstanding contributions in Teaching in 2021. This recognition followed his receipt of the College of Engineering’s Early Achievement in Teaching Award in 2020, further attesting to his consistent excellence in education. Beyond his teaching prowess, Dr. Selim serves as a lead co-PI for the ARA living lab, an NSF funded project.

If you need a reasonable accommodation, you may find more information on the University Human Resources Disability Accommodation page. For graduate student assistants and undergraduate students, please get in touch with Student Accessibility Services.

* This is a Hybrid Event. Please choose how you will attend from the RSVP options below.

** After you’ve RSVP’d, please take a moment to add this event to your personal calendar.

ChatGPT Under the Hood: Generative AI in Education

In this session, we’ll discuss the imperative to regulate AI in education, navigate emerging challenges in digital technologies, and explore both the potential and limitations of Generative AI tools, particularly in fostering creativity. Privacy and copyright concerns related to AI-generated content will be addressed, along with insights into recommender systems for personalized learning experiences. The session will also touch on conceptual blending and the importance of common sense in optimizing AI’s educational contributions.

* This is a Hybrid Event. Please choose how you will attend from the RSVP options below.

Future Events:

The Future of Generative AI, March 28th from 3:10 – 4:00 pm

** After you’ve RSVP’d, please take a moment to add this event to your personal calendar.

Leveraging Generative AI for Accessible Education

Join us for an interactive presentation showcasing Microsoft Copilot* with ChatGPT 4 for text generation and DALL-E 3 for image creation. Discover how these AI tools can elevate accessibility in your courses, online environment, and instructional materials. Following a live demonstration, engage in hands-on exercises within breakout rooms. We’ll then reconvene to brainstorm and discuss potential applications and further innovations in educational accessibility.

*Microsoft Edge browser offers additional features that may be helpful in some of the optional activities, but is not required for participation.

Presented by Jamie Niman, CELT Instructional Designer

Note: This Event Will Be Recorded

ChatGPT Under the Hood: Introducing Generative AI

Curious about the magic behind ChatGPT? Is it really magic or just myth? Or both?

Join us for a journey into the technology powering this AI application. Explore the GPT training process and unravel the secrets behind coherent conversations. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast or just intrigued by AI, this session offers a brief dive into this mysterious world.

If you need help registering for events or if you require reasonable accommodation to participate in CELT’s events or training programs, please reach out to us at celt@iastate.edu.

Note: This Event Will Be Recorded

* This is a Hybrid Event. Please choose how you will attend from the RSVP options below.

Future Events:

Generative AI in Education, February 29th from 3:10 – 4:oo pm
The Future of Generative AI, March 28th from 3:10 – 4:00 pm

Series, Webinar: Advantages, Questions, and Fears Around AI Uses in Creative Practice

In our Chat GPT Teaching Talks Series, faculty members discuss their strategies while teaching in this new educational landscape of Chat GPT or generative artificial intelligence that uses machine learning to generate human-like text in response to users’ prompts. Johnny DiBlasi and Olmo Amato, both with the College of Design, will present our fourth talk in this series:

Over the last few years, and now with the explosion of AI tools as seen with the release of ChatGPT, AI is inching closer and closer to becoming more embedded in our daily lives. How will these technologies affect our lives, industries, economies, health, etc? These big questions are coming up, and in a lot of ways, the development of these technologies is happening in big part as a vehicle to start considering these issues as a society. Some of the initial designed uses of these technologies such as ChatGPT and Dall-E 2 are to be creative for us – to generate novel text and images. These generative AI models have sweeping implications for creative practitioners in the arenas of image making and wordsmithing. Assistant Professor in Art and Visual Culture, Johnny DiBlasi and Olmo Amato, Instructor of Photography at the ISU Rome Program will present their research and creative practice which employ generative AI in their art making processes in different ways.

Learn about the history, ethics, and contemporary practices surrounding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence by visual artists as well as ways to leverage AI in your own creative projects.

Note: This Webinar Will Be Recorded

Johnny DiBlasi is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher whose practice sits at the intersection of art, science, and technology and explores various processes and forms. He works with computational media, data, networks, and artificial intelligence to create interactive installations or computational works that fuse site-specific data structures into a physical architecture. Through various works, he explores the aesthetic possibilities of data gathered in real time and how these aesthetic experiences can connect an audience to the pulse of the landscape in which they coexist. DiBlasi exhibits his works and installations nationally and internationally, and in 2021 he was awarded a Fulbright US Scholar Award for his research and creative project conducted in Vienna. DiBlasi is Assistant Professor of Scientific Visualization and Digital Media in the Department of Art and Visual Culture at Iowa State University. He earned an MFA from the Photographic and Electronic Media program at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD. DiBlasi teaches studio courses in video, 3D modeling, web design, creative coding and interactive media. Recently, he co-founded a new arts collaboration named [phylum] which brings together other artists and researchers working at the intersection of science and technology. Prior to teaching, DiBlasi worked as a photographer and web designer.

Olmo Amato earned an M.Sc. in Neurobiology from Sapienza University of Rome. In addition to his studies, he dedicated himself to photography and experimentation with digital manipulation techniques. As a photographer and filmmaker, he has worked with fine art printing and post-production. He teaches basic and advanced photography at ISU Rome, the Pantheon Institute and the Adams Center for Experimental Photography. Since 2019 he has held seminars and workshops on the relationship between photography, visual perception and neuroscience.

He utilizes analog and digital photography techniques in his works, combining archival photos, original shots and artificially generated images through photomontage. In 2018 he won the Setup Prize as Best Artist under 35, the MalamegiLab Prize and Tiziano Campolmi Prize in 2019, and his works were presented at various international and Italian festivals, galleries and contemporary art fairs.

Together with Samuele Sestieri, he wrote and directed the film “The Bear Tales” which was selected for the 33rd Turin Film Festival at the 2016 Rotterdam International Film Festival and numerous other international film festivals.