Rob Lowden, Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO), has big plans for the future of artificial intelligence in Ohio State academics. Credit: Courtesy of Indiana University.
Newly appointed Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO), Rob Lowden, has big plans for the future of artificial intelligence in Ohio State academics.
With more than 25 years of leadership experience guiding institutions through technological advancements, Lowden joined the university to increase the fluency of students’ AI-usage.
“Clearly it is a strategic component of the university’s direction where every discipline is going to be touched in this,” Lowden said. “Enabling that fluency to spot bias, to protect data and apply AI with integrity and knowledge within the disciplines.”
Lowden is a nationally recognized leader in IT and technology partnerships within higher education, according to a press release.
Before joining Ohio State, Lowden was vice president and CIO at Indiana University. There, he led IT innovation across nine campuses and medical education centers.
Lowden said Ohio State has taken a comprehensive approach to technological innovation which separates it from other universities.
“It was approached very thoughtfully and strategically with a great amount of inclusion, not just leadership and faculty, but really a broad sense of input and thoughtful thinking in how an organization of our size and magnitude would approach something like this,” Lowden said.
Lowden has worked with Ohio State to begin embedding AI education into the curriculum of all undergraduate programs regardless of major to equip students with the skill sets they need to succeed in their career field.
The initiative will equip students with the ability to use critical thinking when using AI, as well as understanding how to responsibly and fluently use it, Shereen Agrawal, executive director of the Center for Software Innovation, said.
“Our students go on to be leaders in their fields,” Agrawal said. “And I think that this just gives them a really solid understanding of another tool that can be at their disposal as they choose to use it to further advance their own discoveries in their fields.”
In addition,this program will allow students to take part in shaping the conversation of how AI will play a role in their respective fields, Lowden said.
Lowden is overseeing the Office of Technology and Digital Innovation, where he will work on shaping the university’s vision of AI and expanding the access to artificial intelligence systems and tools.
On Aug. 25, the university announced that all students, faculty and staff will have access to secure Google AI tools, including Google NotebookLM and Google Gemini. Microsoft Copilot will also be available in current applications offered through the university like Word, Excel or PowerPoint.
“I think the pace of this particular technology is radically different from anything we’ve ever experienced in humanity,” Lowden said. “Past technologies that typically advanced, you know, over a 12 month period, AI is doing that same level of maturity and advancement in 90 days.”
A new course, “Unlocking Generative AI,” will be offered to students of all academic fields, in addition to the General Education Launch Seminar teaching AI basics.
The launch seminar is part of Ohio State’s General Education Bookend, designed to help students explore their interests, build skills and set aspirations. Now it will allow students to start exploring AI and how to use it in their academics and professional careers, as stated on the Office of Academic Affairs website.
The expectation will be that students, faculty and staff alike will come together to share experiences and work together to make the program better for future students. The cross collaboration between disciplines will be the most important for the success of the initiative, Agrawal said.
“I think the academy is uniquely equipped to explore and experiment its core to the DNA,” Lowden said. “Those failures, those discoveries, all of those are literally the basis of what the academy was founded upon. So, the less mature nature of AI right now, I think we’re uniquely positioned, just with the culture of the academy to interact and embrace in a controlled, safer way, because it’s kind of what we do.”
