Centralized support and coordination for AI at UB

The Office of AI Innovation & Integration serves as a single point of contact to coordinate AI resources, needs and opportunities across UB research, academics, operations and industry partnerships.

The office connects people and ideas, helps guide projects from concept to implementation and ensures responsible use of AI through best practices aligned with university goals.

Teacher lectures to a diverse class on AI with futuristic holographic interface and data visualization.

Focus Areas

Person holding a lightbulb with AI icon emitting colorful digital swirls. AI innovation concept.

The Office of AI Innovation & Integration serves four primary focus areas:

  1. Academic – Support the use of AI in teaching, learning and student support
  2. Research – Strengthen AI-driven research, innovation and industry collaboration
  3. Operations – Improve how the university works using AI across administrative areas
  4. Economic Development and Commercialization – Drive transformative AI impact across industry, market and community

In addition, the office is a conduit for the most up-to-date regulations and guidelines established by SUNY covering AI use, ethics and intellectual property protection; for best practices to manage risks related to data, privacy and security; and for reporting standards required by federal, state and private research funding sources.

Neeti Pokhriyal, Director

Neeti Pokhriyal.

Neeti Pokhriyal, PhD, is a computer scientist with expertise in policy-relevant research related to the responsible design of AI in critical contexts of national security and societal well-being. Prior to UB, she led studies and analytical work leveraging AI for national security at the RAND Corporation in Washington, DC. She has received prestigious policy fellowships, including the AAAS Science and Technology Policy fellow (STPF) (2022), and Mirzayan Policy Fellow at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2022). As an AAAS STP fellow, she contributed to the National Science Foundation's National AI Research Institutes program and was in the leadership team of the ExpandAI program. She completed her postdoc at Dartmouth College and her PhD in computer science at UB, where she was awarded the Chih Foundation Research Award.

Advisory Committee

Four senior leaders serve as an advisory committee to the office:

Graham Hammill

Senior Vice Provost, Faculty Affairs
Dean of the Graduate School

Laura Hubbard

Vice President,
Finance and Administration

Bill McDonnell

Associate Provost

Heath Tuttle

Vice President and
Chief Information Officer

CONTACT

For more information, please contact UB-Research@buffalo.edu

516 Capen Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-1611