University of Massachusetts Amherst

UMass Amherst runs a paid 16-week internship where computer science undergraduates build AI tools to improve real university operations — from teaching and advising to administrative tasks. Each team works with a faculty or staff mentor on a real campus problem and delivers a working tool by the end of the program.

UMass Amherst integrated Gradescope, an AI-assisted grading tool, into its Canvas learning management system as an optional tool for faculty. The AI groups similar student responses together so instructors can review and grade an entire cluster at once, rather than evaluating each submission individually. Gradescope has been available to Amherst faculty through the IDEAS instructional design team and is actively promoted campus-wide.

UMass Amherst provides Microsoft Copilot Chat to all students, faculty, and staff through the university's existing Microsoft 365 agreement. When used through the university's license, Copilot is the only AI tool that UMass officially recommends for use in assignments that require students to submit AI-assisted work.

UMass Amherst built a secure AI chat tool — available to all students, faculty, and staff — that lets users chat with multiple AI models and build custom AI assistants for specific tasks. Users can access models from OpenAI, Anthropic (makers of Claude), Meta, Cohere, Mistral, and DeepSeek, all through a single university-managed interface. The platform launched in September 2025.

UMass Amherst Dining Services piloted AI-driven robots that use cameras and computer vision to automatically identify and sort recyclables from general waste. The technology, developed by UMass engineering alumni, lets a single waste bin receive all materials and then sorts them automatically — removing the burden from individual users to sort correctly.

UMass Amherst runs a central "AI at UMass" website and a series of cross-campus working groups that coordinate AI research, teach faculty about AI tools, and develop ethical guidelines for how AI should be used at the university. These groups span the arts, computer science, social sciences, and public interest technology.

UMass Amherst established a formal university policy on the use of generative AI in academic work. The default rule is that using AI to do your academic work for you counts as cheating — unless the instructor of a specific course explicitly says otherwise. The policy took effect Fall 2025 and was developed by a faculty task force that studied the issue throughout 2023–2024.

UMass Amherst leads a research center called MassAITC, funded by a $20 million federal grant from the National Institute on Aging, that develops AI tools using wearable sensors and contactless monitoring devices to improve care for older adults and people with Alzheimer's disease.

UMass Amherst operates a university-wide analytics platform called Flagship Analytics, powered by Tableau, that gives administrators and faculty interactive visual dashboards covering enrollment trends, student success data, research metrics, and financial aid patterns. It is used to support data-informed planning and decision-making across the institution.

UMass Amherst uses a platform called Navigate360 to help academic advisors identify students who may be struggling before problems become serious. The system pulls together data about each student's academic history and engagement, flags students who may need support, and helps advisors manage appointments and follow-ups.

UMass Amherst instructors use Perusall, an AI-supported reading platform integrated with Canvas, where students annotate course texts together online. Perusall's AI automatically scores each student's participation — evaluating the quality and depth of their annotations — so instructors don't have to grade hundreds of comments by hand.

UMass Amherst's Canvas course platform now includes an AI-powered search tool called Smart Search that helps students and instructors find relevant course materials more accurately. Unlike a standard keyword search, Smart Search understands the meaning of what you're looking for — so searching for "exam review" might surface a document titled "Test Preparation Guide" even if it doesn't contain the exact words you typed.

UMass Amherst's instructional design team published a formal framework for how fine arts faculty should teach with and about generative AI tools. The guide helps art instructors address questions of authorship, creativity, and the role of AI in the creative process.

UMass Amherst built its own secure AI platform where students, faculty, and staff can generate images using generative AI. Launched in September 2025, the platform runs inside the university's own computing environment so that user data stays private and is never used to train any AI model.

UMass Amherst computer science students built AI-powered tools for Massachusetts state agencies that help members of the public access government services more easily. Projects completed in 2024–2025 include an AI assistant to help people apply for environmental permits, a caller-routing tool for unemployment assistance, and an HR chatbot for a state technology office.