AI Research Between UW and Cardiff Faculty Grows Strategic Partnership

William Cain, a University of Wyoming associate professor in the Learning, Design and Technology Program, is advancing the next phase of the strategic partnership between UW and Cardiff University in Wales through an international research collaboration examining how generative artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping teaching, learning, assessment and educational design.

Working with Irena Spasić, a professor in the School of Computer Science and Informatics at Cardiff University, Cain is contributing UW expertise in learning design and generative AI to the project "Assessment Design in the Age of Generative AI." This research addresses an increasingly important challenge for universities as AI changes how students learn; how instructors design assessments; and how institutions define meaningful academic work.

Through the UW-Cardiff partnership, Cain and Spasić discovered an overlap between her work on generative AI and assessment in data management education and his work on generative AI, learning design and prompt engineering, including research examining how human knowledge and critical judgment shape effective interaction with AI. These conversations developed into their joint research project, with Cain as the UW co-lead and Spasić as the Cardiff co-lead.

During the spring 2026 semester, the collaboration received funding through the UW and Cardiff Seed Grant, with support from UW Global Engagement, to advance the project into its next stage. Cain's portion of the funding -- $7,000 -- supports the reciprocal phase of the project where Cain visits Cardiff University in spring 2027. This summer, Spasić visited UW for research discussions, development of future projects and broader engagement with UW colleagues. Cain's visit to Cardiff will continue that exchange.

While at Cardiff University, he will work directly with Cardiff researchers to advance the project, develop related research questions and explore opportunities for continued collaboration between the two universities.

"Generative AI is asking universities to reconsider some of our most fundamental assumptions about learning and assessment," Cain says. "This collaboration gives us an opportunity to bring different disciplinary and international perspectives together and think carefully about how assessment and learning should evolve as AI becomes part of higher education."

The project positions UW faculty within an international research conversation about the future of learning and assessment while demonstrating how the UW-Cardiff strategic partnership is translating institutional connections into sustained faculty research and reciprocal academic exchange.

Cain credits Isadora Helfgott, an associate professor of history at UW, and Jeff Hamerlinck, associate director of UW's School of Computing and director of the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center, for helping host Spasić during her Wyoming visit. Cain also credits UW Global Engagement for supporting the collaboration and preparations for his upcoming Cardiff visit.

The five-year strategic partnership between UW and Cardiff University began in 2023 with the goal of better enabling collaboration. It expanded a 2021 memorandum of understanding on software program innovation and includes areas for collaboration in energy, health, computing, music, natural resources, conservation, entrepreneurship, digital humanities, agriculture, range management and plant health.

To learn more about the strategic partnership, visit www.uwyo.edu/global/global-partners/cardiff-university-partnership.html.