Penn State Taps IBM to Develop AI Virtual Assistant to Foster Success for Student Body
Rhea-AI Summary
IBM has announced a collaboration with Penn State to develop MyResource, an AI-powered student concierge built using watsonx technology. The system, scheduled to launch in fall 2025, will serve nearly 90,000 Penn State students by providing streamlined access to campus resources including academic advising, health and wellness, and financial aid services.
The initiative arose from student leaders identifying needs for improved access to campus services, supported by university analysis. IBM consultants are utilizing watsonx Assistant's conversational AI capabilities and watsonx.ai for hosting and training foundation models with Penn State's data. The system will include AI guardrails to detect and remove potentially harmful language or sensitive data, while watsonx Discovery will enhance response quality and accuracy.
IBM plans to expand this solution to other U.S. higher education institutions in the future.
Positive
- New business partnership with major educational institution Penn State
- Potential for expansion to other U.S. higher education institutions
- Practical implementation of watsonx AI technology in education sector
Negative
- None.
News Market Reaction – IBM
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MyResource student concierge is being developed with watsonx, IBM's portfolio of AI products
The project stems from Penn State student leaders identifying a need for improved access to campus services, such as academic advising, health and wellness, and financial aid, while an analysis by the university discovered similar findings. In listening to students, Penn State and IBM are collaborating to create a concierge to help students navigate the many resources available to them, help increase support, and further advance satisfaction for the student body.
"At Penn State, student success is our priority, and this is an exciting step toward continuing to enhance the lives and experiences of students across our University," said Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi. "We're thrilled to collaborate with IBM to leverage advancements like generative AI, a critical tool to help us create a more student-centered experience, remove barriers, improve retention rates and further achieve a sense of belonging for all Penn Staters by allowing our students to navigate our institution seamlessly and intuitively."
"IBM is honored to co-create a solution with Penn State that will play a significant role in its goal to advance engagement from students through an AI-infused assistant," said IBM General Manager, Public Sector Frank Attaie. "Penn State students want quicker access to the important resources they need to be successful during their college experience and beyond. By integrating IBM's AI, Penn State can unlock new possibilities for its students."
IBM consultants and experts are leveraging the conversational AI capabilities of watsonx Assistant to build MyResource. Watsonx.ai will be used to host, train and tune foundation models with data provided by Penn State. This will help the system promptly generate answers and recommendations with AI guardrails to detect and remove potentially harmful language or sensitive data. The tool will also use the conversational search capabilities within watsonx Discovery to help improve the quality and accuracy of the responses given by MyResource.
As part of this collaboration, IBM plans to bring this solution to other higher education institutions in
About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.
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About Penn State
Penn State is a multi-campus, land-grant, public research university that educates students from around the world and supports individuals and communities through teaching, research and service. Penn State is an R1, a classification given by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Higher Education to the very best research universities in America, reaching a record
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IBM
Laura Gallardo
Laura.Gallardo1@ibm.com
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SOURCE IBM