Pace’s Actionable AI Conference | Program

Program

All sessions take place in Willcox Hall on the Pace Westchester Campus.

Participants can choose which breakout sessions that most align with their interests and needs. Sessions explore AI in action across ethics, data analysis, research, marketing, chatbot development, and beyond. Sessions in the W Rooms have limited seating so it is recommended to note alternative sessions you may be interested in.

Full Program

8:15–9:00 a.m. | Breakfast and Registration, Friedman Room
9:00 a.m.–9:50 a.m. | Opening Remarks and Keynote Speaker, Friedman Room
10:00 a.m.–10:50 a.m. | Breakout Sessions A
- Data Analysis Without the Headache, Friedman Room
- What Does an AI Ethicist Do All Day?, Room W30
- The Art of the Ask: AI Prompting Strategies, Room W34
- The Future of AI Research, W35
11:00 a.m.–11:50 a.m. | Breakout Sessions B
- AI in the Workplace Crash Course: A Guide to Essential Tools, Friedman Room
- What Does an AI Ethicist Do All Day?, Room W30
- AI-Powered Search: Two Great Research Assistants, Room W34
- Copilot to Classroom: Deploying AI Tutors That Stick, Room W35
12:00 p.m.–12:50 p.m. | Breakout Sessions C
- Featured Session: Pathways to Careers in Artificial Intelligence, Friedman Room
- Using Custom Bots As a Content Tool for Marketing and Communications, Room W30
- How to Navigate AI in Higher Ed, Room W34
- AI in the Workplace Crash Course: A Guide to Essential Tools, Room W35
1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. | Lunch and Learn, Friedman Room
- Lunch, Pick up in hallway
- Enhancing the Student Experience with AI-Driven Tools and the LMS, Friedman Room
2:00 p.m. | Closing Remarks, Friedman Room
2:10 p.m.–3:00 p.m. | Tabling and Networking, Friedman Room

Schedule subject to change.

Featured Topics

Reimagining Higher Ed in the Age of Generative AI

Higher Education stands at an inflection point in this New Era of innovation and economic growth, where AI is rapidly transforming how education is delivered, research is conducted, and institutions operate. Explore practical generative AI applications driving agentic and multimodal experiences that redefine interaction. We will share how the latest AI models, hypercomputing infrastructure, and no-code agent tools empowers students, faculty, researchers, developers, and admins to achieve deep personalization, extreme productivity, and research.

Pathways to Careers in Artificial Intelligence

This session will describe the efforts of five colleges developing career pathways from 2-year programs to 4-year programs in CS/AI. It will introduce overarching frameworks and principles shaping their workforce development approach; point to legacy materials shaping content for AI Literacy and AI applications across careers; provide a high-level overview of their program development process; and describe recent research defining the work of the AI-Enabled Software Developer and the AI-Enhanced Data Practitioner.

Enhancing Student Engagement with AI-Driven Tools and the LMS

Discover how AI-powered features in Learning Management Systems (LMS) are transforming student engagement, course outcomes, and retention. In this session, explore the latest evidence on AI adoption in education, highlighting how tools like chatbots, predictive analytics, and personalized feedback drive measurable improvements in learner interaction, time-on-task, and test scores—while reducing dropout rates. The presentation addresses practical strategies for integrating AI responsibly, including ethics, privacy, and assessment redesign, and offers a four-step playbook for rapid implementation.

Breakout Sessions

Breakout Sessions A, 10:00 a.m.–10:50 a.m.

Data Without the Headache: AI Tools You Can Use Today
Friedman Room, Matt Ganis
AI is no longer just for data scientists. Today, higher education professionals can use AI-powered tools to explore, analyze, and visualize data—without writing a single line of code. This session will introduce accessible AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot and Julius that can help uncover trends, predict outcomes, and make data-driven decisions faster. Through demonstrations and practical examples, participants will learn how to get started using AI in their own work, while keeping in mind the ethical and responsible use of data. Designed for non-technical professionals, this session will leave you with concrete tools and ideas you can apply right away.

What Does an AI Ethicist Do All Day?
Room W30, James Brusseau
We teach, so we will look at how to build an AI ethics course for computer science students. We also work for private industry, so we will discuss the experience of building an AI ethics audit (as is sometimes required by law) for new AI tools. Finally, we open new innovation opportunities. We will document how ethics can locate problems, and then how philosophical tools can be joined with AI to resolve them.

The Art of the Ask: AI Prompting Strategies
Room W34, Johnni Medina
AI is only as good as the prompts you give it. Learn how you can use communication strategies to get more creative, effective results from generative AI. Open to all levels of learners, this session includes foundational techniques plus a few pro-level tips to help you to prompt more intentionally and intuitively.

The Future of AI Research
Room W35, Christelle Scharff
This talk will explore research in AI, moving beyond the hype of Large Language Models (LLM) to highlight emerging directions such as Neurosymbolic AI, Embodied AI, and Quantum AI. It will emphasize the importance of collaboration, community building, open source innovation, tech transfer, ethics, and the disruptive role of AI in education. The talk will also contrast academic and industry research trajectories and provide insights into shifting funding landscapes. Finally, both the talk and the conference will serve as a platform to introduce the Pace AI Lab and launch Who’s Who in AI at Pace, a showcase of the multidisciplinary initiatives shaping AI across the university.

Breakout Sessions B, 11:00 a.m.–11:50 a.m.

AI in the Workplace Crash Course: A Guide to Essential AI Tools
Friedman Room, Hetal Mistry and Joe Seijo
Curious about how AI is changing the professional landscape? In this dynamic crash course, we’ll dive into how AI is transforming everyday tasks in the workplace. From automating repetitive processes to sparking creativity in brainstorming sessions, this session will equip you with practical, real-world tools to harness AI’s full potential. Whether you’re looking to save time, enhance productivity, or innovate in your role, you’ll leave with actionable strategies to navigate the AI-driven landscape and stay ahead of the curve.

AI-Powered Search: Two Great Chatbots/Research Assistants
Room W24, David Sachs
AI search has come a long way. Two great AI research assistants (Perplexity and NotebookLM) offer amazing resources to faculty, staff, and students. They are fast, powerful, and relatively inexpensive. This session will focus on the ease and power of Perplexity and NotebookLM that will enable you to do well documented and accurate AI research across any subject.

Copilot to Classroom: Deploying AI Tutors that Stick
Room W35, Gabriel Terrizzi
Unlock how AI tutors move from demo to daily use. In this fast-paced session, we’ll show how to design, build, and deploy tutors with Microsoft Copilot Studio—covering conversation design, grounding with your institutional content, guardrails, and smooth rollouts. We’ll dig into some analytics, plus simple quality-loops you can run with your team. You’ll leave with practical templates, checklists, and deployment patterns—as well as a candid look at challenges like privacy/FERPA, bias and hallucinations, accessibility, and when to escalate to a human. Perfect for faculty, student-success teams, and IT leaders who want actionable steps to put AI tutors to work in Higher Ed and beyond.

Breakout Sessions C, 12:00 p.m.–10:50 p.m.

Pathways to Careers in Artificial Intelligence
Joyce Malyn-Smith, Friedman Room
This session will describe the efforts of five colleges developing career pathways from 2-year programs to 4-year programs in CS/AI. It will introduce overarching frameworks and principles shaping their workforce development approach; point to legacy materials shaping content for AI Literacy and AI applications across careers; provide a high-level overview of their program development process; and describe recent research defining the work of the AI-Enabled Software Developer and the AI-Enhanced Data Practitioner

Using Custom Bots as a Content Tool for Marketing and Communications
Room W30, Johnni Medina
When resources are limited but expectations are high, AI can be a powerful content partner. Discover how Pace’s marketing and communications teams are using custom-built bots—developed in-house without coding—to help content stay on brand, elevate key messaging and brand drivers, optimize for SEO, and support more strategic, consistent storytelling. This session includes real examples, demos, and practical guidance on how to approach and implement a similar AI strategy in your own department. No AI experience necessary and lessons extend far beyond the marketing team.

How To Navigate AI in Higher Education
Room W34, Matthew Ganis, Beth Gordon, Davis Sachs
Join two AI pioneering faculty members and the Chief Information Officer from ��ý as they lead an engaging exploration of artificial intelligence’s transformative impact in higher education. This presentation will offer practical guidance, insightful strategies, and real-world examples to help educators, administrators, and technologists harness the potential of AI. Discover how to navigate the challenges and opportunities of integrating AI into curricula, campus operations, and student experiences, and leave with actionable ideas for fostering innovation and responsible adoption in your institution.

AI in the Workplace Crash Course: A Guide To Essential AI Tools
Room W35, Hetal Mistry and Joe Seijo
Curious about how AI is changing the professional landscape? In this dynamic crash course, we’ll dive into how AI is transforming everyday tasks in the workplace. From automating repetitive processes to sparking creativity in brainstorming sessions, this session will equip you with practical, real-world tools to harness AI’s full potential. Whether you’re looking to save time, enhance productivity, or innovate in your role, you’ll leave with actionable strategies to navigate the AI-driven landscape and stay ahead of the curve.

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