Bucknell University
PA · AI Readiness #203 of 227
AIREDEX™ Score: 4.9 /10
Bucknell's Dominguez Center for Data Science, led by director Kelly McConville, recruited from Harvard, anchors the university's AI work across all three colleges with active student projects and data literacy workshops open to undergraduates.
Bucknell undergraduates can engage with AI through the Center's Spring 2026 industry projects, including classification automation work with Emberline and user retention modeling with ShiftMed, as well as a Humanities AI course in the catalog and an annual AI Symposium that draws faculty and students together. The university-built BisonBot chatbot is available to the campus community, and a five-person faculty team participated in the national AAC&U Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum for 2025-26.
Pillar grades
- Commitment: C+
- Curriculum: D
- Partnerships: C+
- Research: C
A(I)ttitude™: neutral
Selected Highlights
- Dominguez Center for Data Science explicitly names AI in its mission, draws from all three colleges (Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Freeman Management), has a named inaugural director (Kelly McConville, former Harvard Statistics Co-Director), and documented active Spring 2026 projects.
- Bucknell sent a named five-person cross-disciplinary team (Baker, Karcher, King, Furlong, Bailey) to the AAC&U Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum for 2025-26, confirming participation in a national AI higher education initiative.
- Three distinct AI policy instruments confirmed: (1) Library/IT Generative AI Guidelines, (2) Provost's Faculty Guide on AI tools, (3) WAC Council Statement on Generative AI in W Courses -- covering governance, ethical guidelines, and named programs.
- BisonBot is a university-built AI chatbot developed by Bucknell L&IT, live since May 2023, available to all Bucknell community members via the L&IT support portal.
- Annual L&IT AI Symposium confirmed for 2024 and 2026 as a named recurring institutionally organized event; Dominguez Center hosts data and AI literacy workshops open to faculty, staff, and students.