2026 AI Summit: AI Exploration Zone

Step away from the screen and contribute to a living map of AI’s evolution in academia!

Take a break from the digital world to help us grow something tangible. This collaborative experience is your chance to leave a mark on the Summit:

• Craft Your Vision: Create a personalized leaf to add to our collective “AI Tree”—a physical representation of how technology should root and grow at UNC Charlotte.
• Reflect & Connect: Step away from the screen for a hands-on, “unplugged” moment to reflect on the evolution of intelligent systems in education.
• AI Imagination Poll: Scan the live QR code at the installation to join a real-time poll. See how your digital aspirations align with the rest of the Niner community.
• Make Your Mark: Every leaf added represents a unique perspective on the intersection of human creativity and AI.

Challenge your digital fluency in this interactive, fast-paced simulation designed for the modern scholar and educator!

Think you have the digital fluency to beat the clock? Step into this fast-paced simulation designed to test your mastery of AI-integrated productivity.

• Pick Your Path: Choose a tailored Faculty or Student track based on your real-world workflow.
  • Stage 1 – Build: Construct a high-speed, “smart” information library.
  • Stage 2 – Deploy: Launch custom AI agents to extract deep insights and verify citations with surgical precision.
  • Stage 3 – Create: Generate professional-grade slide decks or portfolios in record time.
• Beat the Buzzer: Complete the circuit and hit the buzzer to claim your prize and official “AI Master” bragging rights!

Step into JazzSpace—where Afro-Caribbean rhythms, artificial intelligence, and physical architecture converge!

Explore the friction between computational generation and physical fabrication. Discover how sophomore architecture students utilize AI as a cultural design tool, translating the abstract syncopation of jazz into physical, climate-resilient architectural proposals for San Juan, Puerto Rico.

• The AI Atmospheric Loop (Digital Display): Watch a continuous visual screening of “The Human Anchor” alongside computationally generated spatial atmospheres and digital exhibition graphics.
• Physical Tectonic Models: Examine highly detailed architectural massing models crafted by featured sophomore students Scarleth Bonilla-Hernandez and Fabrizio Farfan.
• Live Student Engagement: Chat directly with Scarleth and Fabrizio as they facilitate the booth, answer rapid-fire questions, and explain their process of moving from AI prompting to physical architectural fabrication.
• QR Resources: Scan to access the full digital portfolio and Kyle A. Spence’s Mint Museum Keynote on the intersection of AI, Jazz, and Critical Design Futures.

Unlock a new dimension of creativity where play, imagery, and poetry converge!

Step into a digital playground where technology meets the artistic spirit. Rediscover the joy of creation through three unique AI “Gems” designed to spark your imagination:

• Pictionary Reimagined: Can you stump “Pic-to-Bot”? Have fun trying to stump this snarky art critic with your hand-drawn masterpiece!
• Lyrical Weaving: Turn a single thought into a masterpiece. Use AI to co-write verses and explore the boundaries of poetry.
• Ever-Evolving Play: Dive into a collaborative game that shifts and grows as you interact with it.
• The Goal: Experience a new dimension of creativity where AI serves as your collaborator, not just a tool.

Learn how this initiative is building a future-ready foundation for every Niner!

See how we are building a future-ready foundation for every Niner. This booth introduces the Foundational AI Skills Course—a groundbreaking pilot spanning all 17 UNC System institutions.

• Empower Your Students: Grab the resources you need to help your students master AI as a tool for academic and career success.
• The Workforce Edge: Discover how we’re equipping students with the “AI Literacy” required to thrive in the modern professional landscape.
• The Six-Module Blueprint: Get an inside look at the core curriculum, covering everything from responsible prompting and ethical evaluation, to disciplinary use-cases of AI, leveraging the Digital Promise AI Literacy Framework: Understand, Evaluate, Use.
• Statewide Impact: Learn how this initiative ensures no student is left behind as AI becomes a cornerstone of higher education.

Discover how AI supports personalized learning, improves student engagement, and provides educators with actionable insights that enhance teaching and learning outcomes.

• Machine Learning & GenAI with Sharpen Advantage: Learn how Sharpen Advantage uses predictive and generative AI to support student learning while giving institutions insight into student study habits. With research‑backed, vetted content for faculty, it reduces the burden of evaluating non‑academic AI sources and provides measurable ROI by showing how engagement with the platform impacts learning outcomes
• Gen AI & the Connect eBook AI Reader: Explore how generative AI can support instruction and learning, including the AI Reader in the McGraw Hill Connect eBook, which helps students summarize key ideas, clarify complex passages, and study more effectively. With over 48 million generations this year, our data indicates students are reading—just differently.
• Machine Learning & ALEKS: See how machine learning powers adaptive learning in ALEKS, identifying what students know, what they are ready to learn next, and guiding them through personalized pathways toward mastery with ~95% accuracy.
• Learn More!

Stop by our booth to see how faculty and students teach and learn at 2x the speed and 2x the engagement.

Reading about Pencil Spaces is one thing — experiencing it is another. We’ll put you in the seat of both instructor and student, walk you through AI features that handle the busywork, surface what’s actually happening in your classroom, and let faculty focus on what they do best: teach.

Key Features:

• Distraction alerts: Real-time signals when student attention drifts, so faculty can re-engage in the moment.
• AI autograding: Assessments turned around in minutes, with feedback faculty can review and refine.
• AI lesson generation: Go from outline to a fully scaffolded, ready-to-run lesson in one click.
• Personalized instruction: Every student gets content paced and pitched to where they actually are.
• Real-time coaching for students and faculty: A live AI co-pilot surfacing the next best move as class unfolds — for the learner and the instructor.
• AI instruction: Specialized tools to teaching AI.