AI Strategy

SFU's AI committee

To begin this work, an AI strategy committee was formed in the summer of 2024 to look at how the university can explore the opportunities and impacts of AI at SFU in four key areas: Learning and Teaching, Research, Operations/Administration and External Engagement.

AI Strategy core committee members:

• Chair: Dugan O’Neil, Vice President of Research & Innovation
• Learning and Teaching: Paul Kingsbury, Associate Vice President, Learning and Teaching, pro tem
• Research: Steve DiPaola, Professor, School of Interactive Arts & Technology and Parmit Chilana, Associate Professor, School of Computing Science and Co-director Visual and Interactive Computing Institute (VINCI)
• Operations/Administration: Brian Stewart, Chief Information Officer, IT Services
• Partnerships/External Engagement: Seychelle Cushing, Executive Director, SFU’s Partnerships Hub and Aftab Erfan, Executive Director of the SFU Centre for Dialogue

The committee also includes Mark Jordan representing the library and Fred Popwich representing the Big Data Hub.

Guiding principles for embarking on this work

• AI-based tools are just that - tools. Learning to how to use these new tools to be a leading research university, advancing an inclusive and sustainable future, should be our priority.
• Learning how to use AI-based tools requires understanding how these tools pose challenges, opportunities, and questions.
• AI-based tools are changing (and improving) rapidly. An agile and coordinated approach is needed to effectively integrate these tools into our work.
• There are risks associated (e.g., academic integrity, privacy and security, intellectual property rights, reliability, inequities). Understanding and using the tools ourselves will help us manage those risks.

It will also be a priority to keep these four areas connected to the university’s What's Next strategy and the Academic Plan to ensure that both knowledge-sharing and cost-sharing occurs.

Goals for the AI strategy

• Faculty and staff have the training and resources they need to provide high-quality education and research in the AI-enabled era;
• Students have the training and resources they need to use AI tools wisely, and in compliance with SFU rules;
• SFU takes advantage of new tools to enhance the student experience and operational/administration performance;
• Raise the profile of the university through AI thought leadership;
• Establish oversight for the introduction of AI enabled technologies in research, learning, and teaching and operations, as well as governance structures to guide decisions and policy amendments; and
• Evaluate revenue opportunities related to provision of services to external partners, or through increasing demand for existing education or training programs, or through creation of new education or training programs.