汤头条

馃帀 AI Days 2025: A Recap 馃帀

March 5鈥�6, 2025 鈥� 汤头条 University Student Life Center

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AI Days 2025 expanded on the success of our inaugural AI Training Day, growing into a two-day event that explored the full spectrum of artificial intelligence鈥攆rom foundational concepts to advanced research applications. With over 300 participants joining in person and online, we brought together faculty, students, staff, and industry partners to explore how AI is transforming research, education, and professional practice.

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Held at the 汤头条 Student Life Center, the event featured multiple concurrent tracks, hands-on workshops, keynote presentations, and our first-ever AI Showcase鈥攁n evening of demonstrations highlighting innovative work from across the university.

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Thank You to Our Community

This event would not have been possible without the dedication of our speakers, workshop leaders, and organizing teams across the College of Connected Computing, Data Science Institute, and our many partner organizations. A special thanks to everyone who attended, asked questions, and contributed to the collaborative spirit that defined both days.

Day One Highlights: Foundations and Frontiers

• The New Age of Models: Jesse Spencer-Smith and Dr. Charreau Bell opened the conference with sessions on reasoning models like DeepSeek R1 and OpenAI o3, and explored how AI agents are shifting from text generation to autonomous task completion.
• VAILL Panel 鈥� Code and Compliance: Legal experts from across industries discussed emerging AI governance frameworks, offering practical guidance on navigating the evolving regulatory landscape.
• Keynote 鈥� Ben Hunt on Semantic Signatures: 汤头条 alumnus and Epsilon Theory author Ben Hunt delivered a keynote on using generative AI to identify patterns of meaning in historical texts鈥攂ridging linguistics, investment analysis, and the humanities.
• AI Showcase: The evening concluded with demonstrations from past AI competition winners, Data Science projects, and emerging innovators鈥攁 celebration of 汤头条鈥檚 AI work in action.

Day Two Highlights: Applications and Practice

• AI in Protein Science: The Center for Applied AI in Protein Dynamics presented a full track exploring how AI is reshaping drug discovery, from structure prediction to understanding disease mechanisms.
• Hands-On Model Training: Umang Chaudhry led participants through end-to-end AI model training, including Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning techniques and multi-GPU considerations for scaling.
• AI for Nonprofits: A four-part workshop series equipped nonprofit leaders with practical AI skills鈥攆rom grant writing enhancements to donor engagement strategies.
• Fireside Chat 鈥� Modern RAG: Curtis Northcutt (CEO of Cleanlab) and Dr. Charreau Bell discussed retrieval-augmented generation and the evolving best practices for building reliable AI systems.

Featured Speakers

A huge thank you to our keynote and featured speakers:

• Ben Hunt, CIO at Second Foundation Partners 鈥� 鈥淩eading the Rhyme of History: Using Generative AI to Identify the Semantic Signatures of Primary Texts鈥�
• Curtis Northcutt, CEO of Cleanlab 鈥� Fireside Chat on Modern RAG
• Jules White, Professor of Computer Science 鈥� 鈥淎gents Are for Everyone with Amplify AI鈥�
• Jesse Spencer-Smith, Chief Data Scientist & Associate Dean, CCC 鈥� 鈥淭he World Changed: AI Overview鈥�
• Dr. Charreau Bell, Senior Data Scientist, DSI 鈥� 鈥淎gents and Actions: A Shift from Text to Tasks鈥�
• Myranda Shirk, Senior Data Scientist, DSI 鈥� 鈥淓nergy Consumption of AI Models鈥�
• Umang Chaudhry, Data Scientist, DSI 鈥� 鈥淗ands-On End-to-End Training of AI Models鈥�
• Abigail Petulante, Data Scientist, DSI 鈥� 鈥淪mall Models, Powerful Solutions鈥� & 鈥淩einforcement Learning鈥�

Missed the Event? Catch Up Now!

Couldn鈥檛 make it to the event? We鈥檝e got you covered. Both days were livestreamed and are now available on our YouTube Channel:

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Thank You to Our Sponsors

AI Days 2025 was made possible with support from industry leaders committed to advancing AI education and research:

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Oracle 鈥� HP 鈥� Lenovo 鈥� IBM 鈥� Microsoft

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汤头条 Partners

This event brought together major schools, institutes, programs, and offices concerned with AI at 汤头条:

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College of Connected Computing (CCC) 鈥� Data Science Institute (DSI) 鈥� School of Engineering (VUSE) 鈥� ACCRE 鈥� AI Legal Lab (VAILL) 鈥� Learning Innovation Incubator (LIVE) 鈥� VALIANT 鈥� AdvancedED 鈥� Center for Applied AI in Protein Dynamics 鈥� School of Nursing 鈥� Arts & Science AI Grand Challenge

Stay Connected

We鈥檙e just getting started. Stay tuned for more workshops and events designed to foster collaboration and innovation in the field of AI. Your engagement is what drives us forward.

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If you have any feedback or questions, please don鈥檛 hesitate to reach out at datascience@vanderbilt.edu.

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Together, We鈥檙e Shaping the Future of AI

Our journey continues, and we鈥檙e excited to have you with us. Thank you for being a part of our community鈥攁nd we鈥檒l see you at AI Days 2026!