Two Stony Brook Faculty Named AI Champions by CAA Academic Alliance

When Stony Brook University's athletic conference, the Coastal Athletic Association, issued a call to build a conference-wide network about AI-related best practices, Stony Brook faculty answered.

Two were selected to help build the network, joining a group of about 20 faculty from across 13 universities on the East Coast.

The two faculty members are Margaret Schedel - professor of music in the College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Music, core faculty member of the Institute for Advanced Computational Science and chair of the School of Communication and Journalism's Department of Journalism - and Samita Heslin, clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine in the Renaissance School of Medicine.

In addition to taking on a leadership role in the network, Heslin will also receive an award from the network in recognition of her efforts to demonstrate how responsible artificial intelligence can be applied across clinical care, research and interdisciplinary education to improve efficiency, reduce burnout and enhance communication with patients.

"We received over 50 applications - incredible ideas and projects from all areas -from the humanities, engineering, medicine, and the arts." said Amy Cook, vice provost for academic affairs. "We know that there are champions and leaders all over campus and this demonstrates the quality and breadth of the work being done by Stony Brook faculty and staff to think intentionally, ethically and creatively about the role generative AI will play in research, teaching and administrative work."

"The sub-committee members of the AI Teaching and Learning Advisory Group that reviewed the applications were impressed and the decision was not easy," she said. "We are proud that Drs. Schedel and Heslin will be representing Stony Brook in the AI Champions Network and very excited that Dr. Heslin was one of five selected to receive an award."

The AI Champions Network is a new initiative to bring together faculty and staff from across the CAA who are using artificial intelligence to support student or institutional success. The network will help members share ideas, connect with each other and bring those ideas and concepts back to support their home institutions. In selecting inaugural members, the Alliance looked for those who were already engaged in projects to integrate artificial intelligence into their teaching, research or work at the university.

Heslin's work integrates Stony Brook Medicine and the broader university campus, and demonstrates how responsible AI can be applied across clinical care, research and interdisciplinary education. She recently led an AI-enabled ambient documentation project in the emergency department to help with clinician workflow and documentation burden. She also leads development of AI triage and AI-driven medication safety initiatives. These projects have brought together colleagues in clinical practice, biomedical informatics and computer science.

Heslin is also developing an interdisciplinary course, Digital Health and AI, that will provide learners with training in AI literacy, implementation and clinical use cases.

Schedel has used artificial intelligence for years in composition, research and teaching. Through a SUNY grant, Schedel; Nicholas Johnson, director of AI at Stony Brook Libraries; Brooke Belisle, associate professor of art in the College of Arts and Sciences; and Kim Riegel, assistant professor of physics at Farmingdale State College, are developing a "Co-Intelligent Classrooms" project that empowers instructors to design AI-supported activities that keep critical thinking at the center. The adaptable model emphasizes that AI should support, not replace, faculty expertise and student learning and helps instructors to identify bottlenecks in their courses that can be solved using AI without compromising on student learning and thinking. In this way, Schedel champions AI that is grounded in an instructor's teaching and pedagogical values rather than the technology itself.

Heslin and Schedel were among 50 Stony Brook faculty and staff who applied to join the CAA Academic Alliance's AI Network. As Stony Brook faculty and others continue to explore applications for AI that empower student learning, Cook says she plans to bring the applicants together to discuss additional ways to collaborate and connect across the university community.