Leaders from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently gathered at Vanderbilt University to learn how to effectively apply artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to enhance their daily operations.
The sessions held Feb. 24-26 were part of the School of Engineering’s Strategic Partnerships program and gave participants an opportunity to hear from Vanderbilt faculty at the forefront of teaching AI.
“As AI continues to make a global impact, we look forward to being able to help leaders adapt to this technology and use it to their advantage,” said Joanne Wang, associate dean and executive director of Strategic Partnerships. “Leaders who embrace AI today are shaping the markets others will follow tomorrow.”
Instructors aimed to equip participants with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to lead effectively in an AI-enabled environment. Through interactive sessions and applied case studies, participants explored how emerging technologies intersect with leadership, risk, reliability and resilience, emphasizing practical application.
“AI is changing how we think about organizing and leading,” said Jesse Spencer-Smith, one of the instructors and associate dean for Partnerships and Innovation at Vanderbilt. “Developments that look on the surface to be merely technical can have profound impacts on our organizations.”
Sankaran Mahadevan, an instructor and John R. Murray Sr. Professor of Engineering, said participants also learned how to evaluate solutions provided by AI and how to tailor their use of it.
“The overarching goal of this work is to train U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel to be able to do risk analysis and risk-based decision-making in a much faster and more efficiently using AI tools,” said Mahadevan, who is also director of Vanderbilt’s Master’s in Engineering Program in risk, reliability and resilience engineering
Col. Joshua Bost is deputy commander of USACE’s Great Lakes and Ohio River Division. He said after just the first day of the program he was much more knowledgeable about how to use AI to maximize efficiency.
“The amount of efficiency you can gain using AI just on basic tools is phenomenal,” Bost said. “Being able to work with professors and leaders at the forefront of AI and engineering, and putting those two things together, is preparing us for the future.”