Academic and Emerging Technology

The 2026–27 Academic & Emerging Technology Pilot builds on significant work already underway across Richmond. Faculty and students are experimenting with AI, research computing, digital scholarship, creative technologies, and new approaches to teaching and learning. Expertise exists across academic departments and programs, the Faculty Hub, Innovation Studio, Weinstein Learning Center, Boatwright Library, Information Services, Center for Liberal Arts and AI, and other areas of the University.

The pilot, co-lead by Andrew Bell and Andrew Ilnicki, will connect and amplify this work around two complementary goals:

1. Expand Technology Literacy and Exploration: Create accessible, hands-on opportunities for students to learn, experiment, and build with AI, creative technologies, and other emerging tools. Support faculty as they explore how these technologies are transforming teaching, scholarship, and creative work.
2. Strengthen UR’s Academic Technology Ecosystem: Connect expertise and initiatives across campus, improve communication and referral pathways, share what we are learning, and make academic technology resources and faculty work more visible.

Guiding Principles

• Mission before technology. Technology should serve Richmond’s liberal arts mission, not drive it.
• People before platforms. Success is about teaching, learning, scholarship, creativity, and student development—not software adoption.
• Faculty and students as partners. Create opportunities for faculty and students to learn, experiment, and build together.
• Build capacity, not dependency. Develop the confidence and judgment to adapt as technologies continue to change.