The Latest
What we're thinking + doing.
News & Updates
March 3, 2026 • A.I.I. Announcement
Expanding the Academic Recovery Project to Drive Student Success
Beginning in 2023, the A.I.I., in partnership with the University Innovation Alliance, launched a large-scale pilot to support students in high-enrollment gateway courses with elevated DEWI rates (D, E, Withdraw, or Incomplete). The initiative, called U Succeed, included a dedicated course section designed to foster community, expanded access to targeted resources and tools, and partial scholarships to offset the cost of retaking a course.
This spring, the A.I.I. is exploring next steps for the initiative, including further evaluation to assess its effectiveness, early scoping work to shift toward a more proactive support model, and continued dialogue with colleges across campus to share insights and identify future opportunities.
February 12, 2026 • A.I.I. Announcement
Student Listening Labs Explore University Communications
In partnership with the University Innovation Alliance, the A.I.I. hosted a series of Student Listening Labs to better understand students' experiences with University communcations across digital and physical channels. These structured design research sessions gave us a direct window into how students find, interpret, and engage with University messaging—surfacing gaps, preferences, and opportunities that are actively informing how we design and deliver communications to students across the institution.
January 17, 2026 • A.I.I. Announcement
Bringing Swoop to Life: Exploring a Holographic Campus Guide
What if our university’s mascot could step out of the screen and into our world? The A.I.I. has begun early-stage discussions on one of our most imaginative projects yet: creating a holographic, interactive Swoop.
This initiative would explore how to use our existing AI engine and knowledge base to power a three-dimensional, conversational Swoop that could be placed in key campus locations. Students, faculty, and visitors could interact with a life-sized Swoop to ask for directions, get information about campus events, or simply enjoy a futuristic, friendly campus interaction. We are excited to begin testing the ideas and technologies that could make this vision a reality, pushing the boundaries of how AI can create a more engaging and supportive campus environment.
December 9, 2025 • A.I.I. Announcement
From UGuide to UCompass: Charting a Personalized Student Journey
Building on the success of UGuide, the A.I.I. is now exploring its next evolution: UCompass, a personalized portal designed to guide students through their entire educational journey. Where UGuide helps students explore their options, UCompass will provide a proactive, individualized roadmap from orientation to graduation.
The vision for UCompass is to create a single, intelligent hub that brings critical information directly to the student. By tracking academic progress, key deadlines, and important campus activities, UCompass will deliver just-in-time information and personalized experiences tailored to each student’s unique path. Instead of searching for information, students will have a constant companion that anticipates their needs and helps them navigate every step of their university experience, ensuring they stay on track and fully engaged.
November 10, 2025 • A.I.I. Announcement
Swoop Bot's University-Wide Rollout Begins
Swoop Bot, the A.I.I's friendly chatbot designed to provide quick and reliable answers to general University questions, has initiated its phased rollout across key University sites. After a successful yearlong pilot phase, Swoop Bot is ready to support all students, faculty, and staff navigate the U with greater ease. To ensure the bot continues to improve quality responses, we have expanded our team of student trainers, who refine answers, correct inaccuracies, and help it handle a wider range of questions. We are grateful for their work, as well as for our partnership with Mainstay to make this real.
October 13, 2025 • A.I.I. Announcement
UBot Expands AI’s Role in the Classroom
UBot, a Socratic tutor designed to guide students towards understanding, is being implemented across campus in new ways. The Lab has expanded its capabilities to reach more students and is actively conducting research to better understand how students interact with AI-powered support tools, and how tools like UBot can be used to extend an instructor's reach and ability to help more students engage content in deeper, more meaningful ways. Findings from this work are shaping the next generation of UBot's functionality and contributing to a broader University Innovation Alliance's conversations about AI in student success.
September 25, 2025 • A.I.I. Announcement
A.I.I. Welcomes New Multidisciplinary Design Fellows
This fall, the A.I.I. is excited to welcome four new student fellows from the University
of Utah's Multidisciplinary Design (MDD) and Bachelor of University Studies (BUS)
Programs. The fellows will contribute to multiple Lab projects, lending their skills
in Design Thinking, UX/UI design, deep collaboration, Design Resarch, AI prompting,
and critical problem solving.
More importantly, they bring their lived experiences to the Lab's work, which helps
us stay grounded in students' real needs and ensures we represent their voices as
authentically as possible. This partnership with students is central to our mission
of building a more adaptive, student-focused university.
September 9, 2025 • A.I.I. Announcement
UGuide Gains Momentum
Building on its success as an AI-powered student exploration pathway, UGuide is being
updated to deliver a more personalized and responsive experience that helps students
find majors, resources, and opportunities.
This next phase will be guided by qualitative user research conducted in partnership
with the QUEST program. The research aims to better understand the information students
need when choosing a major, evaluate UGuide's effectiveness and accuracy of its recommendations,
and assess how the tool fits within the University's broader ecosystem of exploratory
resources and programs.
August 31, 2024 • A.I.I. Announcement
AI Outcome Assessment Pilot Launched
In partnership with the Office of Learning Analytics and Outcomes Assessment (LAOA), the Lab prototyped an AI-assisted approach to course outcome assessment, using AI to evaluate student work
against established rubric criteria. Rather than scoring submissions relative to one
another, this method employs an anchor-calibrated approach, where human reviewers
identify representative examples at each rubric level, enabling the AI to apply those
standards consistently across a large volume of student artifacts.
The pilot revealed important distinctions between AI and instructor evaluation. AI
offers efficiency and standardization, while instructors contribute disciplinary expertise
and assignment-specific context that AI cannot replicate. Key considerations moving
forward include anchor selection, data privacy, scoring transparency, and sustained
human oversight.
March 3, 2024 • @The U
New Academic Innovation + Intelligence Lab drives success for every student
The Office of Undergraduate Studies is pleased to announce the establishment of The Academic Innovation + Intelligence Lab (The A.I.I., or "A double i"), a cross-functional group that uses research, data, and intervention to clear paths for students to succeed.
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