The incorporation of AI into IT is ushering in an era of informed, efficient operations and decision-making that will redefine the educational landscape, IT operations and processes at uOttawa. AI will be a tactical means to support our academic, research and administrative stakeholders in achieving their goals.
Artificial Intelligence & IT
As the digital horizon expands, the University of Ottawa stands at the forefront of a transformative era, when artificial intelligence (AI) becomes a pivotal force in shaping the future of higher education.
“An effective AI strategy is not focused on how to leverage AI in our organization, but how AI can help our organization realize its business vision and strategy.”
Martin Bernier & Daniel Trottier
— CIO & DCIO
A Paradigm Shift
Cybersecurity & AI
Information Technology Strategy for AI
Alignment with Strategic Objectives
- AI initiatives must deliver administrative, academic and research missions, business value and align with uOttawa’s strategic objectives. AI use cases that enable or create business capabilities aligned with the organization’s academic, administrative and research initiatives will be prioritized.
Security and Privacy in Mind
- Ensuring robust security and privacy controls is paramount to Information Technology’s AI strategy, where the responsible and ethical use of data is foundational. Transparent practices, continuous risk assessment, and proactive measures to safeguard user information in order to foster trust in uOttawa AI-powered solutions.
Integrate With Existing Governance and Processes
- Constructing an AI roadmap for uOttawa by integrating AI into existing student experience/academic, research mission and administrative processes for efficiency. Ensuring AI governance aligns with overall institutional governance.
Buy Over Build
- Information Technology will prioritize the sourcing of existing market solutions over the in-house building of machine learning models.
Ensure Robust Data
- The AI strategy will emphasize the collection, storage, and utilization of high-quality data, and will establish robust data governance and compliance practices.
Information Technology is basing its AI approach on three fundamental pillars to support objectives achievement of academic, research and administrative stakeholders.
Leverage AI off-the-shelf solutions at uOttawa
- Leverage tools that come with AI
- Microsoft Copilot for Enterprise
Building our own AI powered solutions
- Leveraging AI to build our own solutions.
Owning AI models in the cloud platform
- Once we reach a certain level of maturity, we will build University-owned models as required.
Responsible AI in IT
Safety
- AI models and system should be driven by safety guardrails throughout their entire lifecycle.
Fairness and Bias Detection
- AI models, systems and data used to make predictions should be fair anf free from bias.
Transparency
- Models and systems should provide meaningful information that is transparent and explainable to end users.
Security
- Al models and systems must embody security at its core.
Respect for privacy
- AI models and systems must embody resilience while maintaining privacy throughout their entire lifecycle.
Reliability and Validity
- AI models and systems should perform reliably and provide valid results as expected.
Accountability
- AI models and systems and their respective decisions will have accountability clearly attributed to individuals and organizations.
AI News
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence
AI Revolution: Shaping the Future of Post-Secondary Education and IT Operations
About artificial intelligence, and what role it should have in IT operations and projects.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence
Driving Better IT decisions using AI in Higher Education
The infusion of AI in higher education IT will be a game-changer. Its ability to predict issues, optimize resource allocation, enhance user support, a…