New AI Center in Service of the University Community and Digital Transformation

The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) is soon to launch its Artificial Intelligence Expertise Centre (AI Centre) as part of SofIA's mission to organize, prioritize and integrate artificial intelligence into all the university's core processes. The centre will make a significant contribution to improving students' experience, teaching and research, and administrative processes.

The launch of the AI Centre is part of the UOC's digital transformation strategy. It comes in response to a clear commitment: to use technology to improve teaching, learning and work at the UOC, based on an approach that is ethical, responsible and aligned with its mission.

"The AI Centre will let us ensure AI serves the university effectively every day, with a real impact on teaching, administration and students' experience. We want to maintain the human aspect in our work by boosting the skills of the members of our community," said Ricard Gómez, the UOC's Deputy General Manager for Digital Transformation.

The creation of the AI Centre is a strategic step in consolidating the UOC's digital university model. This helps position it as an institution that is committed to responsible technological innovation, aware of both the opportunities and the risks presented by AI, and committed to an ethical and transparent use that is in the public interest.

From strategy to action

The AI Centre will turn the opportunities that AI offers into concrete and useful solutions for the university community, including:

• Defining common standards for the use of artificial intelligence at the UOC, in areas including security, data quality and use, ethics and regulatory compliance.
• Prioritizing AI projects according to their real impact, feasibility and alignment with the university's strategic objectives.
• Supporting academic and administrative teams in identifying and developing specific use cases, providing specialist knowledge and working methodologies.

The work of the AI Centre will focus on two main areas of action in response to the university's major strategic challenges and its day-to-day needs.

The first area will focus on far-reaching transformation projects related to the educational model, the student experience and improving the university's services. These initiatives, which generally cover a range of areas and require a comprehensive vision, will enable the university to offer students a more personalized experience and optimize the support services.

The second area will focus on improving efficiency and productivity in everyday tasks. This includes AI solutions that help automate administrative processes, improve student services and streamline certain teaching tasks. The aim is to save time and resources, and optimize procedures.

Increased oversight and human supervision

One of the main characteristics of the new AI Centre will be the enhanced governance of artificial intelligence. In a context of rapid technological change and with new European regulations around the corner, the UOC aims to make sure that AI is used based on clear criteria of responsibility, transparency and security.

The AI Centre will apply the measures defined by the Information Security Office, assessing the risks, protecting personal data, ensuring against bias and guaranteeing that AI systems clearly explain how they make their decisions. It will work alongside the Data Office to ensure that the information used for these solutions is of high quality and managed appropriately.

"Artificial intelligence is an opportunity to implement the Strategic Plan more effectively, transforming how we teach, learn and work. The centre will give us the capabilities we need to make AI a tool for transformation," said Enric Espejo, director of Technology at the UOC.

Training and cultural change: preparing people to work with AI

In addition to developing technology, the AI Centre will also play a key role in training UOC staff and boosting their skills. The university believes that integrating AI is not just a technical challenge, but also an organizational and cultural one.

Accordingly, the UOC's Personnel department will create artificial intelligence literacy programmes adapted to the different employment profiles of teaching and research staff and administrative staff. The aim is for people not only to learn how to use specific tools, but also how to identify opportunities to use them, evaluate the results and make informed decisions.

This training will be a crucial factor in the natural integration of AI into the university's work, and in preventing this technology from being used uncritically or irresponsibly.

In the first phase, the AI Centre will work with a centralized model that will concentrate expertise and lay the foundations of the new system. The centre will have a specialized team in the first year, including employees working in areas such as artificial intelligence, data, security, ethics and change management. The plan for the centre involves recruiting specialized talent gradually, with a blend of new employees and the reorientation and training of existing UOC staff.