UC 1819 Innovation Hub workshop spreads AI awareness

Motivated by this potential, Rob Richardson, a lifelong Cincinnatian and 1819 Innovation Hub startup partner, has embarked on a mission to introduce his hometown to AI’s merits — along with its downsides.

Richardson, who leads customer loyalty-focused tech startup Disrupt Now and founded the MidwestCon data hackathon, believes in AI’s potential.

“AI is the new electricity that everyone has to have access to and knowledge about,” he said. “No matter what you’re doing, you need to understand … how to use artificial intelligence in a way that supports.”

Leveraging the University of Cincinnati’s partnership with Microsoft, Richardson initiated collaboration with the tech giant. Community members and students from Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) participating in a September data hackathon could join the workshop.

With Cincinnati ranking as one of the hubs of the emerging Silicon Heartland, Microsoft found UC’s 1819 Innovation Hub particularly appealing. That’s why the company agreed to set up a training session with Disrupt Now in 1819’s Esports Innovation Lab to equip the region’s talent with AI tools and expertise.

“We’re thrilled to introduce Microsoft’s cutting-edge artificial intelligence advancements to the Greater Cincinnati community,” said Chris Carper, Microsoft’s director of customer success. “AI is set to transform nearly every aspect of our lives, and we aim to establish Cincinnati as a front-runner in this pivotal field.”

Richardson and Microsoft both hope to train the next generation and underrepresented groups on critical skills such as knowledge of AI. Students from CPS and community members hoping to level up their technological skills were especially encouraged to attend.

Richardson planned out the Disrupt Now and Microsoft AI training seminar to be accessible to all groups.

“This training is for people that are in high school, people that are in college, career professionals — anybody who wants to try to understand, learn and grow,” he said.

The four-day, sold-out event included the following seminars:

• June 24, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.: Build your own intelligent copilot with Azure OpenAI
• June 25, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.: Build intelligent apps with Microsoft’s Copilot Stack and Azure OpenAI
• June 26, 1-5 p.m.: Customer support conversation summarization with Azure OpenAI
• June 27, 1-5 p.m.: Automated machine learning using AML

While many people look to the West Coast when thinking about AI advancements, a robust tech scene is bubbling up in Cincinnati. The Queen City has garnered accolades for its vibrant tech ecosystem, reasonable costs and thousands of innovative graduates coming from UC’s campus.

Richardson believes that AI knowledge and responsible safeguards are crucial to Cincinnati’s future as a center of innovation.

“There’s hardly anything that [AI] doesn’t touch, that it doesn’t impact,” Richardson said. “So, for us, it’s imperative to make sure we are competitive as a region … and that people are able to get this AI training.”

Featured image at top: Speaker at MidwestCon. Photo/Disrupt Now