By Kasturi Datta |
Syracuse University is using Microsoft Surface devices and AI-powered platforms to deliver personalised learning at scale for its 22,000 students while improving visibility into how campus resources and classrooms are used in real time.
To personalise learning during busy lectures, the campus is using Microsoft Surface devices with built-in neural processing units to capture real-time student responses to polls and activities during a lecture. These responses are processed using small language models built on Microsoft Foundry, alongside an inquiry-based learning platform that synthesises student input for instructors.
“Surface allows us to run AI where learning happens – on the device itself,” says Eric Sedore, associate vice president for information technology and chief technology officer at Syracuse University.
The university is also using Microsoft Fabric’s OneLake to centralise its Wi-Fi and sensor data, creating a real-time viewing system for how campus spaces are being used and replacing previously siloed systems used for storing its academic and operational data.
Data from OneLake is analysed using Microsoft Power BI to help students locate available spaces more easily, while Microsoft Purview is used to maintain data privacy.
“When we started putting the pieces together, it became clear we needed an ecosystem that could bring everything into one place,” says Jeff Rubin, senior vice president and chief digital officer at Syracuse University. “Microsoft Fabric gives us a way to bring that data together and actually use it."
Microsoft’s Fabric Real-Time Intelligence service provides insight into how campus spaces are used following the introduction of the new systems. The university has seen an increase in occupancy accuracy from 80 per cent to 95 per cent, helping identify space-use gaps, reduce costs and address bottlenecks in shared services.
Syracuse partnered with PwC to scale its deployment of Microsoft Surface devices across campus. “The partnership with PwC was key for us, not only from their capability standpoint, but from acceleration,” said Sedore. “It's hard to bring transformation when you're going very slowly, and so between Microsoft, PwC, and Syracuse, we had a nice combination of technology and accelerator and ideas and challenges that we needed to solve.”