CSUSB faculty among 63 Artificial Intelligence Educational Innovations Challenge grant awardees

Three initiatives led by Cal State San Bernardino faculty members have been awarded grants from the California State University’s first-ever Artificial Intelligence Educational Innovations Challenge. They are among 63 faculty-led projects selected for their potential to enable transformative teaching methods, foster groundbreaking research and address key concerns about AI adoption within the academic environment.

Receiving awards are:

• Michelle Russen, hospitality management, and Sung Hee (Wendy) Paik, marketing. Their project, “Enhancing Hospitality, Sports & Entertainment, and Marketing Concentrations with AI,” aims to “develop and implement six AI-integrated courses within CSUSB’s Marketing, Sports & Entertainment, and Hospitality Management programs within the Marketing Department.” The project “also supports faculty development, interdisciplinary collaboration, and long-term scalability across the CSU system.”
• Melissa Murphy, health science and human ecology. “Clinical Reasoning in Practice: AI Patient Scenarios for Enhanced Critical Thinking” will create “innovative AI-driven virtual patient scenarios and interactive chatbot models tailored for Nutrition and Health Science courses at CSUSB. Students will engage in immersive, dynamic patient-care simulations, actively applying diagnostic reasoning, ethical decision-making, and effective communication strategies. A crucial secondary focus is developing student capabilities to critically evaluate AI-generated interactions, addressing validity, reliability, and ethical implications in AI healthcare applications.”

• Ece Algan, communication and media/faculty director, University Faculty Mentoring Network; coPIs FCE Director Bradford Owen, communication and media/director, Faculty Center for Excellence; and Fadi Muheidat, computer science and engineering /director, Teaching Resource Center. Through the CSUSB Faculty Center for Excellence, they proposed “Empowering AI Literacy Through Critical Thinking and Ethical Engagement in Lower Division Courses,” which is “a multidisciplinary initiative in which twelve faculty members will redesign undergraduate courses to integrate AI literacy, critical thinking, and ethical AI use. Courses will embed AI-supported strategies such as research topic development, argument analysis, evaluation of AI-generated content, and data modeling. Students will learn to use generative AI tools effectively while developing the capacity to question outputs, reason ethically, and apply AI responsibly within disciplinary contexts.”

  Faculty participating in this project are Dawn Howey, sociology; Sailesh Maharjan, psychology; Sabrina Roberts and Mariam Beltemidze, communication and media; Cary Barber, history; Jesus Canelon and Essia Hamouda, information and decision sciences; Elizabeth Castillo, management; Matteo Crismani and Katy Wimberly, physics; Samantha Juan, nursing; and Teresa Perry, economics.

The three CSUSB initiatives are among a list that includes designing a generative AI assistant tailored to the university’s computer networks course at Cal State Bakersfield to creating a new theatre arts course where students use AI to co-create original theatrical works at Stanislaus State.

“CSU faculty and staff aren’t just adopting AI — they are reimagining what it means to teach, learn and prepare students for an AI-infused world,” said Nathan Evans, CSU deputy vice chancellor of Academic and Student Affairs and chief academic officer. “The number of funded projects underscores the CSU’s strong commitment to innovation and academic excellence. These initiatives will explore and demonstrate effective AI integration in student learning, with findings shared systemwide to maximize impact. Our goal is to prepare students to engage with AI strategically, ethically and successfully in California’s fast-changing workforce.”

Launched in April, the AIEIC invited faculty from all CSU campuses to develop innovative instructional strategies that leverage AI tools. The response was overwhelming as CSU faculty submitted more than 400 proposals representing over 750 faculty members systemwide. Each campus will have at least two projects. The Chancellor’s Office will award a total of $3 million to fund the winning proposals.

The AIEIC was designed with three main goals in mind. First, it aims to encourage CSU faculty to explore AI literacies and competencies, focusing on how to help students build a fluent relationship with the technologies. Second, the challenge addresses the need for meaningful engagement with AI, emphasizing strategies that ensure students actively participate in learning alongside AI. Third, it examines the ethics of AI use in higher education, promoting approaches that embed academic integrity.

Awarded projects span a broad range of academic areas including business, engineering, ethnic studies, history, health sciences, teacher preparation, scholarly writing, journalism and theatre arts. Several projects are collaborative efforts across multiple disciplines or focus on faculty professional development — equipping instructors with the tools to navigate course design, policy development and classroom practices in an AI-enabled environment.