FALL/WINTER 2025 | 15 scholarly articles. They also interact with an AI tutor she designed. In all of these practices, Cereghetti reviews transcripts of students’ interactions with AI and critiques the results, using it as a jumping-off point to explore places in which AI helped facilitate learning and where it fell short of the mark, so students can help develop better judgment and prompting strategies that might help them in other contexts. Like Khan, Cereghetti believes that rather than prohibiting AI, students will be better served by using it with the permission and guidance of faculty, who themselves are also perhaps experimenting with how best to use it. “I don’t believe in fighting against it,” she says. “If we want students to think critically, we have to show them how to use AI well— not just tell them not to use it.” Beyond the Walls of Campus Cereghetti’s experimental approach underscores a broader truth at Lehigh: AI isn’t being inserted into the curriculum in a way that replaces traditional teaching methods. Rather, it’s being integrated with inquiry that represents the best practices of academic learning. In addition to the specific areas in which students will be exposed to AI tools in class or within CCPD, Urban has also spurred a campus-wide conversation around the future of AI for learning. As part of Lehigh’s 2025-26 Compelling Perspectives series, Lehigh has invited media innovator and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and technology pioneer and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to lead conversations on the broader implications for AI and the future, as well as Senator Dave McCormick to discuss the government’s role in supporting AI and innovation. In addition, as part of the Donald M. Gruhn ’49 Distinguished Finance Speaker Series, the university invited Carter Lyons ’97, Co-CEO of Two Sigma Investments, to campus in October to discuss AI in the workforce. The events reinforce the idea that AI is not just confined in computer labs and classrooms, but is now part of Lehigh’s intellectual fiber. “Many of our larger public lectures this year will be at least in part about AI,” says Urban, “whether that’s from a technical perspective, or an ethical perspective or from an application perspective. That’s very intentional. We’re trying to create an environment in which students, faculty and staff have many opportunities to learn about and hear about different perspectives on these tools and their use.” In October, Lehigh’s Center for Advancing Community Electrification Solutions (ACES) hosted “Innovating Energy and Water Solutions for Tomorrow’s AI Data Centers,” a day-long symposium that brought together leaders from education, industry and government for discussions that centered on infrastructure, including water and electric use, in regard to data centers and the growing demand of AI. Urban is looking beyond campus itself to position Lehigh as a hub for AI education in the Lehigh Valley, which could support local companies, school districts and other organizations in their own use of AI. “I want us to be a resource to institutions and individuals who are right now wondering if they are even going to be able to keep up,” Urban says. “It’s our responsibility to share our expertise broadly, so others are also able to lead—or at least not fall behind.” Support from the H.S. Lee Family Foundation, Inc., will enable these goals to take root. Through this funding, all graduate students and faculty will gain access to advanced AI tools, allowing the integration of artificial intelligence into courses and research at an accelerated pace. With this approach, graduate students and faculty can remain on the forefront of AI innovations, making them valuable partners for competitive organizations and industry. This gift will also support an AI prize that incentivizes graduate students to design breakthrough AI applications and cultivate the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders. For Lehigh students and graduates, Urban says, he wants to ensure that no one outcompetes them when it comes to learning and using AI tools. “What do I want our students to be?” he asks. “Among the best in the country when it comes to using AI in the context of their discipline, and in solving the problems of the greatest interest.” L Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global and founder of the Huffington Post, discussed the human side of AI during the first event in Lehigh’s 2025-26 Compelling Perspectives series in November.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTA0OTQ5OA==