events

Artificial intelligence and the data centers that power the technology are portrayed as a major threat to the environment—consuming vast amounts of energy, water, and accelerating climate change. A burgeoning anti-Data Center movement is spawning across the country. Here in the California State University system and at San Francisco State University, 80 percent of students, faculty, and staff cite environmental impact as a major concern about AI.

This webinar hosts Andy Masley, an independent writer and researcher, focused on AI, environmental issues, and other topics, who explores the environmental impact of AI, media headlines, and emerging research. His work broadens the view of widely held assumptions highlighting where concerns are well-founded and identifying where the conversation may be missing important context.

This webinar is open to all San Francisco State University and California State University faculty, students, and staff. Come join this opportunity to learn more about this critical concern and to continue the conversations on our campuses and in our classrooms.

Description: This faculty-focused engagement offers a foundational overview of agentic AI, an emerging evolution of generative AI that autonomously plans and completes complex, multi-step processes. Participants will learn about agentic AI’s key opportunities and risks, experience its capabilities through demonstrations of AI agents completing real-world academic tasks, and participate in thoughtful discussion about this technology’s impact as it becomes more prevalent in higher education and society at large.  

Duration: 60 minutes

Description: This course explores image creation with generative AI. Participants will gain a primer on generative AI tools for image creation, considerations for using generative AI, and best practices for creating effective and accessible images for various use cases. Through hands-on activities, participants will develop skills in crafting descriptive prompts and selecting
appropriate visual styles to generate unique images with ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Adobe Firefly.

This course is an elective that counts toward receiving a digital badge for the AI Literacy Education Program.

*Disclaimers: 

• This course utilizes Adobe tools which are available to faculty, staff, and select student populations. Students will need to ensure they have access to Adobe apps before attending this workshop.
• Adobe Firefly and Express are accessed via the web. Participants do NOT need to download Adobe Creative Cloud.

Objectives: In this course, you will learn to:  

• Understand the basics of generative AI technology for image creation
• Write descriptive prompts and use visual style options to generate images
• Employ best practices for creating effective and accessible images

Duration: 60 minutes

Experience Level: Little or no familiarity with generative AI tools for image creation

What is “vibe coding,” and why is everyone talking about it? 

This 60-minute interactive workshop introduces participants to vibe coding — a new way of building software by describing what you want to an AI and refining the results together. Instead of writing every line of code yourself, you work at the intent level and use AI to generate, test, and improve your ideas in real time. 

This session is designed for beginners, non-CS majors, creatives, staff, faculty, and early developers. No prior coding experience is required. 

We’ll explore: 

• What vibe coding actually means (and what it doesn’t) 

• Where it works well — and where it doesn’t 

• Real-world use cases and current AI coding breakthroughs 

• The risks, limitations, and responsible ways to use it 

Participants will observe a live demo and have the option to try a guided mini activity with facilitator support. This is an exploratory, hands-on experience — not a deep programming course. 

What is “vibe coding,” and why is everyone talking about it? 

This 60-minute interactive workshop introduces participants to vibe coding — a new way of building software by describing what you want to an AI and refining the results together. Instead of writing every line of code yourself, you work at the intent level and use AI to generate, test, and improve your ideas in real time. 

This session is designed for beginners, non-CS majors, creatives, staff, faculty, and early developers. No prior coding experience is required. 

We’ll explore: 

• What vibe coding actually means (and what it doesn’t) 

• Where it works well — and where it doesn’t 

• Real-world use cases and current AI coding breakthroughs 

• The risks, limitations, and responsible ways to use it 

Participants will observe a live demo and have the option to try a guided mini activity with facilitator support. This is an exploratory, hands-on experience — not a deep programming course. 

This session explores how faculty can move beyond using AI as a simple tool and begin working with it as a structured research committee. Instead of shortcuts or text generation, you’ll learn how generative AI can simulate roles such as journal editor, reviewer, methodologist, and domain expert to strengthen research design, clarify contributions, and respond strategically to reviewer feedback.

Featuring: Dr. Nasrin Mohabbati
Assistant Professor of Information Systems | Founding Director, SMARTS Lab

Dr. Nasrin Mohabbati’s work in human-centered AI, large-scale optimization, and digital transformation bridges rigorous research with real-world impact.

Key Questions She’ll Explore:

• How can AI simulate an effective research committee?
• What structured prompting techniques improve rigor and output quality?
• How can faculty reduce wasted effort across the research lifecycle?

🗓 April 10, 2026
🕛 12:00 PM Pacific Time
🔗 Link: https://shorturl.at/7hOam
💻 Meeting ID: 830 5418 1383
🔑 Passcode: 886269

In this hands-on session, she will demonstrate how faculty can transform existing course materials into an interactive AI assistant. Using a simple syllabus as a blueprint, you’ll see how a custom GPT can answer student questions, explain project requirements, and provide 24/7 course support — all without programming.

Featuring: Yiwen Chen
Assistant Professor of Marketing | AI-Driven Pedagogy Innovator

Yiwen Chen specializes in AI curriculum integration and has designed several popular ChatGPT-hosted classroom chatbots at SFSU to enhance student engagement and administrative efficiency.

Key Questions She’ll Address:

• How can faculty quickly build a custom classroom AI without technical expertise?
• What course materials work best for creating an AI assistant?
• How can AI reduce repetitive student emails and administrative workload?

🗓 March 13, 2026
🕚 11:00 AM Pacific Time
🔗 Link: https://shorturl.at/gWiLi
💻 Meeting ID: 897 6336 5654
🔑 Passcode: 199670