Campus AI Development Across campus

12 — Across campus

Where AI development is happening

Development with AI isn’t confined to IT. Published cases show it in at least six parts of the institution, and each part tends toward different bands. For recommended practices by role, see campus practices.

Campus unit01Vibe coding02AI-assisted03Agentic04Spec-driven05Multi-agent
Research computing
USC CARCUtah CHPCAalto
Research labs and RSEs
ReSA statement
Central IT: providing tools
CWRUManchester
SyracuseTennesseeUChicago
Central IT: building systems
Administrative units
UChicago analysts
Emerson GRID, Zero, IR hub
Teaching and faculty
HKBU SmartTextbook
Students

Filled cells mark published cases. Empty cells mean no public account yet, not that it isn’t happening. No campus case reaches band 05.

Research computing

Running coding agents on shared HPC clusters for code, job scripts and Slurm management.

Support:
Center staff build the guardrails: cluster rules files, permission policies, audit logs.
Watch:
Agents acting on shared systems, and sensitive-data environments.

Cases: USC CARC, Utah CHPC, Aalto

Research labs and RSEs

Analysis code, data pipelines and research software, by faculty, postdocs, grad students and research software engineers.

Support:
Mostly self-supported; research software engineers where they exist.
Watch:
Reproducibility, and researchers losing touch with their own code.

Cases: Illinois survey, ReSA statement

Central IT: building systems

Production systems built by IT leaders with AI, such as identity and help desk platforms.

Support:
A shared environment with sign-on, logging, version control and separate development and production.
Watch:
Review and governance keeping pace with the speed of change.

Cases: Emerson College

Administrative units

Facilities, budget and institutional research systems, plus everyday analysis by analytics staff.

Support:
Central IT provides the platform, data standards and security safeguards.
Watch:
Institutional data, and tools that outlive their builder.

Cases: Emerson College, UChicago

Teaching and faculty

Teaching tools built by instructors for their own courses and colleagues.

Support:
Usually none formally; faculty build on their own time.
Watch:
Accuracy of generated content, student data, accessibility.

Cases: Hong Kong Baptist University

Students

Access through campus-wide licenses. No published operational case yet.

Support:
Campus-wide licenses at Syracuse and UChicago include students.
Watch:
Academic integrity, and learning the skill before delegating it.

Patterns so far

  1. 01Research computing leads on guardrailsThe most detailed agent controls on campus come from HPC centers, because agents there act on shared systems.
  2. 02Domain experts build at band 04 when IT provides the platformAt Emerson, the people who know facilities, budget and identity built production systems. IT’s contribution was the environment and standards.
  3. 03Central IT mostly provides tools, rather than building with themMost published IT cases are about licensing and supporting tools. Fewer show IT teams building with them.
  4. 04No campus has reached band 05No public account describes agents running deployment and operations with governance and measured outcomes.