University of California-Riverside
Riverside, CA · AI Readiness #76 of 227
AIREDEX™ Score: 7.8 /10
UC Riverside built The Grove, a custom campus AI assistant developed with Google, giving undergrads a school-specific tool for everyday use. A formal undergraduate AI credential would bring the student-facing program in line with the campus's research depth.
UCR's RAISE Institute anchors the research layer, with faculty-led AI projects spanning computer science, engineering, and the social sciences. The Google enterprise partnership that produced The Grove extends beyond the tool itself to shared research infrastructure. Institutional governance is nascent: no named AI executive and no formal AI strategy document are in place.
Pillar grades
- Commitment: B-
- Curriculum: A-
- Partnerships: B+
- Research: B+
A(I)ttitude™: progressive
Selected Highlights
- UCR Provost published Generative AI Guidelines; UC Responsible AI Principles adopted system-wide with UCR participation; data classification-based AI usage guidance from ITS — multiple institutional-level documents with stated goals, governance commitments, and ethical guidelines.
- USDA/NIFA AI for Sustainable Agriculture grant of $10M (third-largest in UCR history) documented with named PI (Elia Scudiero); NSF MRI equipment grant #2215705 of $942,829 also documented — combined documented AI-related dollar figures reach $10M+ bracket.
- RAISE Institute is provost-funded, cross-campus (all 7 schools/colleges, ~100 faculty), with named co-directors Amit Roy-Chowdhury and Vassilis Tsotras, active grants portfolio, and launched August 2024.
- UCR built 'The Grove' — a custom Gemini Enterprise-based campus AI assistant launched April 29, 2026, connected to UCR data sources; UCR was first U.S. university with campus-wide Google enterprise AI agreement covering students, faculty, and staff.
- XCITE AI Literacy Series (named, multi-session, certificate-eligible, biweekly, faculty-facing with student component); The Grove Workshop Series (named, April–May 2026, ITS-run, open to all); LinkedIn Learning and Google Cloud Skills Boost available university-wide — multiple distinct named components confirmed.