AI Info Sessions
The Office of the Chief AI Officer new series - AI Info Sessions - is designed to help the University of Arizona and the local community build confidence, fluency, and shared understanding around responsible artificial intelligence. Each virtual session is intended to spark curiosity, create a common language, and bring clarity to responsible AI and what “AI at work” looks like.
We invite you to join sessions that will address topics such as:
- AI basics and advanced capabilities
- How secure AI works
- What we mean by responsible AI
- Licensed campus AI tools and resources
- AI for Research
- Terminology shaping today’s AI landscape
- AI for Project Management
- Copyright and data privacy considerations
The first AI Info Sessions kicks off the series on Thursday, December 11 at 2 PM on Zoom.
Join Tyson Swetnam for a practical walk through of how to use U of A NetID with university-licensed AI tools, how to craft strong prompts, and how to make sense of essential concepts like human in the loop and prompt engineering.
Attend a session
AI Info Sessions takes place every other Thursday from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM via Zoom. Each session will explore a unique responsible AI-related topic designed to inform and inspire. While the Spring semester dates are set, the specific topics for each session are still being finalized—stay tuned for updates.
Mark your calendar to join us for the AI Info Sessions
- January 8, 2026
- January 22, 2026
- February 5, 2026
- February 19, 2026
- March 5, 2026
- March 19, 2026
- April 2, 2026
- April 16, 2026
Ask, Learn, and Connect
Whether you are faculty, staff, a student, or a member of our local community, you will find opportunities to learn about different aspects of responsible AI in a supportive, interesting, and conversational environment. Each session wraps up with a live Q&A, and recordings will be available on ResponsibleAI.arizona.edu.
If your department or team would benefit from a tailored group session, request a session through our online request form.
Bios for AI Info Sessions presenters
Amanda Harrell is a Program Manager within the Office of the Chief AI Officer and a Career Coach. She has been with the university since 2017 and spent 6 years with Student Engagement & Career Development where she designed and launched a TRIF-funded summer internship stipend program. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Arizona. Prior to her time with the university, she lived in San Francsico and worked in retail management, where she led customer experience, employee training programming, and talent development for multiple major retailers. Her side projects include writing, improv, and a food blog.
John McCary is an Adjunct Professor within the College of Information Science and on the Operations team within the Office of the Chief AI Officer. He teaches the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) course within the College of Information Science and holds an MA in International Security Policy from Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program at the School of Foreign Service.
John is a decorated combat veteran and a former commissioned Foreign Service Officer in the State Department. He was profiled in the Oscar-nominated documentary, Operation Homecoming. He worked at the artificial intelligence (AI) office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he designed and led development of the classified TIGR software and hardware suite. John is a Certified Ethical Hacker and has developed multiple intelligence and analysis software for national security entities. He is a dedicated father of two who in his free time, enjoys exploring with his kids, muay thai, and country two-stepping, all activities that keep him light on his feet.
Dr. Enrique Noriega-Atala is a research scientist at AI2S, specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and its applications across interdisciplinary domains. His work bridges AI research and practice through collaborations with the College of Medicine, College of Public Health, Department of Linguistics, College of Information, and Department of Computer Science, among others.
He served as Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) on the ASKEM program, where he led an NLP team in developing a neurolinguistic information extraction system designed to identify and ground mathematical components of epidemiological models within scientific literature—enabling modelers to aggregate, extend, and compose new models more effectively. Enrique holds a Ph.D. in Information from the College of Information and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Computer Science.
Dr. Tyson Swetnam is a Research Associate Professor of Geoinformatics and the Director of Open Science. Tyson holds joint faculty appointments at the University of Arizona in the College of Agriculture Life and Environmental Science and the College of Information Science.
Tyson co-leads the CyVerse cyberinfrastructure project which supports multiple NSF Synthesis Centers in the Life Sciences, as well as AI Institutes in Precision Agriculture, and the NIH Superfund DUST Center at the University of Arizona.