Questions about AI? Edinboro professor will direct new PennWest Center for AI

EDINBORO — Pennsylvania Western University is creating a Center for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies to help students, staff and others to use AI responsibly and to best advantage.

The center will open in spring under the direction of Camille Dempsey, a nationally known expert and consultant in AI and education technology and an associate professor of education at PennWest in Edinboro. It will be located in Edinboro's Baron-Forness Library with affiliate centers on PennWest's Clarion and California campuses and online.

"AI is transforming the way we live and work," Dempsey said. "PennWest has a strong cluster of AI-related talent, and the center will leverage that talent to benefit our community of educators and community stakeholders."

The center will provide faculty with tools and training to integrate AI into their teaching. It also will help students become proficient users of AI and will help schools, nonprofits, government and industry partners to effectively use emerging technologies.

The center additionally will help campus and community address the economic, ethical, cultural, educational, political and legal challenges posed by AI.

The center will be "an accessible and impactful resource" for the university and region, said James Fisher, PennWest interim provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Dempsey is a faculty research fellow in artificial intelligence through the International Society of Technology in Education and is an AI alliance catalyst fellow with EdSAFE, an advocacy organization. She also is a Google AI Mastermind for Women and a Google Educator Group leader.

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Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com .

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Questions about AI? Edinboro professor will direct new PennWest Center for AI