On March 19, 2026, the USC Division of IT hosted its first annual AI Day, bringing together students, faculty and industry leaders to explore how artificial intelligence is shaping learning, research and innovation across disciplines. The event featured keynote speakers from Microsoft, OpenAI, Gartner, DataCamp, Boodlebox and Zoom, reinforcing USC’s commitment to connecting campus efforts with real-world applications and industry expertise. AI Day also created space for meaningful dialogue. Student and faculty panels explored ethical AI use and emphasized the importance of maintaining a human centered approach. Students shared growing confidence in using tools like ChatGPT Edu to support their academic work, while faculty highlighted the urgency of preparing students with AI knowledge from the start of their academic journey. A highlight of the event was the AI Day Poster Competition, which featured 35 presentations from across the university. Projects were organized into three categories: Teaching, Learning, and Student Support; AI Strategy, Operations, and Society; and AI for Health, Science, Engineering, and Cybersecurity. A special Zoom Choice Award recognized an additional standout project. Poster Competition Winners Category: Teaching, Learning, and Student Support Kasie Roark, M.S., Ph.D. Candidate, Biomedical Sciences Roark’s work through the USC School of Medicine Columbia AI Task Force is advancing how artificial intelligence is integrated into medical education and research. Her efforts focus on building AI literacy, ethical awareness, and practical application across students, faculty, and staff. Initiatives such as an AI in Medicine track, seminar series, and ethics programming are helping create a structured and responsible approach to AI in healthcare education. Category: AI Strategy, Operations and Society Keah Tandon, Ph.D. Candidate, Educational Psychology and Research Tandon’s research introduces a new approach to automating literature synthesis using an AI assisted pipeline. By transforming PDF annotations into structured datasets, this work helps students and researchers organize large