10/21/2026
The pumpkin spice lattes aren’t the only exciting return this fall. The University of Florida’s AI Days are back for a fifth year, uniting over a thousand bright minds over seven days from various disciplines and majors across campus to discuss the future of artificial intelligence in teaching, learning, and research. UF launched its inaugural AI Days in 2022, prior to the release of ChatGPT, and the event has grown every year since.
On Friday, October 23rd, the individual colleges around UF put on their own college day AI activities, including panels, lightning talks, poster showcases, AI demos, workshops and more. Participating colleges include Agricultural and Life Sciences, Education, Engineering, Health and Human Performance, Journalism and Communications, Medicine, and Public Health and Health Professions.
Monday, October 26th showcases students from many majors coming together in cross-discipline teams and individually to compete in Gator Create, Gator Tank, and Gator Hack.
Gator Tank, a la Shark Tank, is a pitch competition, where student teams develop business ideas integrating artificial intelligence to bring their projects to life. Warrington College of Business Clinical Professor Brent Berthy organized this year’s competition, with the top four teams presenting at AI Days for the chance to take home microgrant prizes.
Gator Hack is a 48-hour hackathon organized by Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Senior Lecturer Sanethia Thomas, Ph.D. and graduate student Matheus Kunzler Maldaner. This competition kicks off Friday, October 23rd at 5pm and runs until Sunday, October 25th. The top ten teams are announced and selected to then present on Monday, October 26th in front of the AI Days audience and judges, with winners announced that afternoon at the awards ceremony.
Gator Create encourages students to explore their creative potential with human-centered AI across various aspects of arts, applied design, and humanities disciplines, incorporating generative AI tools into their workflows.
Tuesday, October 27th, brings the focus to AI research and teaching. Keynote speaker, C. Edward Watson, Ph.D., Vice President for Digital Innovation with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) discusses “Grading and Assessment in the Age of AI: Rethinking Practice in Service to Student Learning.” College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Professor Sid Dobrin presents “Navigating the New AI Learning Continuum” and College of Medicine Research Assistant Professor Zhenhong Hu presents on “PRISM-ICU: Physician-curated Reasoning and Instruction-tuned Specialized Model for Intensive Care”. And don’t miss an exciting panel on Sports AI Innovation Ecosystem @ UF, highlighting the amazing multi-disciplinary work of AI-Powered Athletics.
Wednesday, October 28th centers around student workforce readiness. The day begins with a talk on ethics in academia and industry, followed by lightning talks on AI learning experiences that students can participate in to develop transferrable skills. UF’s Career Connections Center will host a panel on AI and the Future of Work, featuring industry partner perspectives. This day wraps up with a networking mixer, where students can enjoy lunch and talk directly with various industry and campus partners about opportunities to prepare for the AI-enabled workforce of today.
Thursday, October 29th brings research to the forefront with From Computer to Discovery: Large-Scale Computing and AI Research Symposium. The focus of this day shifts to ambitious projects that require intensive artificial intelligence resources, where researchers from across UF will showcase their scientific discoveries, innovative methods and outcomes from these projects.
More information, schedules and registration can be found at ai.ufl.edu. Registration is also available at the event check-in.
