AI Faculty Fellows
Reporting to the Office of the Provost
Work Streams
The Fellows organize their work into six work streams.
Improving Research and Creative Work
Using AI to support research & creative work across disciplines.
- Discipline-specific applications & implications of AI on research
- Tailored for needs of unit/college — led by faculty liaisons in Summer CoP
- Keep pace with speed of change
- Resources/Cyberinfrastructure: hardware (on-premises or on-cloud), AI agents (local or commercial), AI sandboxes, etc.
- Services: AI consultants program, AI training, AI evaluation services, etc.
Improving Teaching
Helping faculty use AI effectively and responsibly in teaching.
- Synchronous (In-person/Zoom) + Asynchronous (Canvas, Skillsoft, LinkedIn Learning, etc.)
- Required annual training vs. voluntary workshop model
- Personalized support
- Engagement and motivation
- Scaffolding and feedback
- “Teachable” agents
Student Training and Career Preparation
Equipping students to use AI effectively and ethically in their academic work and professional futures.
- Survey alumni/industry partners
- Partner with career/internship offices; embed AI skill-mapping
- Co-host college/major forums with student government
- How-to videos and quick-start guides for self-paced onboarding
- Train student “AI ambassadors”
Course Policies & Assessment
Develop a shared infrastructure for AI course policies + authentic assessment.
- Available now in Resources as the AI-Use Policy Statement Generator
- Fully staffed on-campus testing center
- Creative technological and pedagogical solutions for online asynchronous instruction (remote proctoring, switch to “hybrid” modality with in-person testing, browser lock-down functions, extra support for online instructors, etc.)
- Campus-level support (not unit/college specific)
Ethics and Environment
Study and develop best practices to address ethical and environmental concerns around AI while enabling use of AI.
Faculty Role in New Vision of Education
In a collaborative process between faculty shared governance and university leadership, establish a renewed vision of education across all disciplines in the age of AI to re-establish the role of the faculty.
Resources
Tools, reports, and supporting materials from the AI Faculty Fellows initiative.
A web-based tool for instructors who decide to create course-specific AI-use policy statements to be included in their course materials.
Open the toolDescription of AI Use Policy Indicators: video tutorial, presentation slides, infographic, and website.
In Summer 2026, AI Faculty Fellows convened 25 faculty liaisons from across the university for a six-week Community of Practice on generative AI. The program set aside dedicated, compensated time for faculty to develop AI guidance grounded in their own disciplines and the needs of their home units and programs. Each liaison produced three deliverables: a unit orientation to bring colleagues up to speed on generative AI in their field, a disciplinary resource addressing a specific need of their unit/program, and a strategic memo of priorities and recommendations for Academic Year 2026-27. Alongside these materials, the Community of Practice established CU Denver's first cross-campus network of faculty liaisons to serve as informed points of contact around generative AI.
View the reportEvents
Faculty town halls hosted as part of the AI Faculty Fellows initiative.
In this all-hands faculty townhall the AI Faculty Fellows facilitated a discussion about the promises and perils of AI in higher education from faculty perspective.
View the slidesIn this all-hands faculty townhall the AI Faculty Fellows facilitated a discussion toward forming an institutional strategy around AI in higher education.
View the slidesMeet the Fellows
Five faculty members from across CU Denver lead the AI Faculty Fellows initiative.
Farnoush Banaei-Kashani is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, with secondary positions in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences and the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. His research and teaching focus on introducing enhanced AI and Data Science methodologies inspired by a wide range of applications. As a sample, his work toward teaching AI to be creative was featured in a recent story.
More informationSoumia Bardhan is associate professor of Communication and serves as director of International Studies. An award-winning social scientist and rhetoric scholar, she examines how media, technology, and communication shape global political and cultural systems. Bardhan is founding director of the AI and Communication Certificate at CU Denver. As CETL Faculty Fellow, she led a campus-wide initiative on responsible AI integration in teaching and served on the Provost's AI Working Group on Research. Bardhan is an alumna of the AAC&U Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum.
More informationCameron Blevins is Teaching Professor of History and Director of Digital Initiatives for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at CU Denver. He administers the Digital Studies Certificate, which helps students learn digital tools while understanding the relationship between those technologies and wider society. An award-winning scholar of US history and digital humanities, his research covers the history of communications, critical data studies, public history, and the history of gender and sexuality.
More informationLorne Bregitzer is an Associate Professor of Music Technology in the College of Arts & Media at CU Denver. A veteran audio engineer, producer, and educator, he is both an Ableton Certified Trainer and an Avid Certified Instructor, and has engineered sessions for artists including Eminem, Blues Traveler, NSYNC, TV on the Radio, Styx, Henry Rollins, and Method Man & Redman — work that earned him a Platinum record for D’Angelo’s Grammy-winning album Voodoo. At CU Denver he teaches audio production, sound design, synthesis, and advanced mastering, and is the author of Secrets of Recording (Focal Press).
More informationBud Talbot is a science educator, teacher, and researcher. He currently teaches pre-service and in-service science teachers, undergraduate peer Learning Assistants (LAs), and doctoral students in STEM education. Talbot’s research focuses on peer learning support in undergraduate science courses across the disciplines, although his experience and particular interest is in physics education research (PER). Talbot has also served as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation in the Directorate for STEM Education, Division of Undergraduate Education. Prior to entering academia, he taught physics, physical science, and earth science in grades 7–12 for seven years in US public schools.
More information