Tech leaders unveil AI innovations at GVSU's Tech Week event

Some of Grand Rapids’ most innovative tech executives, CEOs and entrepreneurs gave a glimpse into their cutting-edge projects that are shaping the future of the region’s tech industry. 

The Tech Week GR event — “Tech Talks: AI & Data,” presented by GVSU and The Right Place — drew a sold-out crowd to the Consumers Energy John G. Russell Leadership Center on September 18 to hear seven speakers share their insights and applications of artificial intelligence, software engineering and data storage. 

President Philomena V. Mantella, co-chair of Tech Week GR’s Advisory Board, welcomed the assembly of tech leaders to the event, underscoring the university’s commitment to developing the next generation of tech talent.

“We're making sure all of our students graduate with digital literacy as a core competency,” Mantella said. “We're making sure that we are increasing the amount of hard tech graduates that are coming out of GVSU by three-fold, and we're positioning ourselves to be a solution partner with you from an applied research and innovation standpoint.”

Joseph Van Harken, GVSU’s innovator-in-residence, introduced his venture, ProfAI — a student-driven project that leverages AI and deep fake technology to enhance faculty lectures. 

Van Harken said he was first approached by Chandresh Baid, assistant professor of management at the Seidman College of Business, to create content that would assist students in their learning.

Essentially, the AI can analyze an hour-long class lecture and break it down into more digestible, 5-7 minute mini-lectures. ProfAI also generates a digital video avatar of the professor that mirrors their appearance and voice. 

Initial trials with Baid’s students were revealing, Van Harken noted. “They watched every video all the way through which was up from the previous videos that have been done,” he said. “Most importantly, their anecdotal feedback was that they weren't afraid of the AI technology, and they had more respect for Dr. Baid that he was leaning into using this.”

AI is also playing a major part in helping younger generations learn through Michael Hyacinthe’s work. Hyacinthe, founder and CEO of Wimage and a lead instructor at GVSU’s Michigan Veteran Entrepreneur Lab , showed how he is integrating AI with his PBS children’s show, “Wimee’s Words.”

By utilizing AI with the show’s lead character, a robot puppet named Wimee, Hyacinthe said he’s using creativity to facilitate learning. Children can chat and interact with Wimee, thanks to his AI functionality. 

To bring AI Wimee to life on the screen, Hyacinthe said, “we wanted to program Wimee with heart before hardware.” 

“We all know that AI typically learns from the data you feed it,” Hyacinthe said. “However, Wimee had a predetermined personality that we had to teach AI and focus on creating an emotional connection with children.” 

College of Computing Dean Marouane Kessentini said hearing the visionary applications of AI from the speakers will help shape the college’s curriculum.

“We want to move from having professors thinking about what should be best in terms of training or research to actually hearing about your relevant problems,” Kessentini said. “We were hearing today about problems that are very important for society, and actually, our job is to try to innovate with you.”