Artificial intelligence at Barnard: How ATLIS is guiding AI use on campus

With AI use becoming more prominent in academia, Barnard’s Academic Technologies & Learning Innovation Services (ATLIS) team strives to promote the future of ethical AI usage on campus.

Artwork by Vernon Demir/The Barnard Bulletin

By Jazmine Cardenas

November 14, 2025

Beginning August 1, as part of an add-on to Barnard’s Google Workspace for Education services, the College provided students with access to Gemini and NotebookLM. Gemini is a generative AI assistant that can generate text, images, code, and perform other tasks while NotebookLM summarizes text and offers a Gemini-powered podcast creation tool. 

Several members from Barnard’s Academic Technologies & Learning Innovation Services (ATLIS), formerly known as Instructional Media and Technology Services (IMATS) academic technology team, offered input on the newly implemented AI services.

“Developing ‘authentic intelligence’ is one of President Rosenbury’s strategic goals. [AI services align] with that vision for sure,” Melanie Hibbert, Director of Academic Technology Services, told The Bulletin, referring to Barnard’s “Bold History, Fearless Future” goals. “You don’t need to have all the machine learning definitions memorized in order to critique AI or evaluate it, but it’s helpful if you have a basic understanding of how the models have been trained to make an informed opinion about things.”

Marko Krkeljas, former Senior Software & Applications Developer and Technical Manager of the Computational Science Center, agreed.

“Students can bring a kind of critical lens towards a lot of different things, and that includes AI,” he said. “There’s going to be this tension […] between having this critical lens while at the same time acknowledging the capabilities of these systems as they grow [and] as they get better at what they’re capable of doing.” 

At colleges and universities, generative AI use raised concerns regarding cheating and a decrease in effort from students. However, there have been efforts to increase optimism and openness with AI. 

The ATLIS team encourages students to use AI for technological exploration, especially on academic assignments. Krkeljias recommended that students “figure out ways to be creative with it.”  

“It can be something that’s really interesting, but someone has to make it right,” Krkeljas said. “This really goes to show that the possibilities are endless with AI.” 

“Playing around with AI is a great place to start,” added Hibbert. “It can be really fun too.”

ATLIS has been hosting weekly Generative AI Interactive Studios, a series of workshops held from October 13 to November 17. In these workshops, students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to “experiment with generative AI tools, explore their uses, and get guidance from staff.” 

The workshop on October 27 lasted roughly an hour and featured live demonstrations on a large screen as attendees worked on projects. ATLIS supported attendees with exploring, experimenting with, and troubleshooting their creative ideas. 

“I think just having some guidance on how to navigate these tools [like Gemini, NotebookLM, ChatGPT, and Adobe Firefly] will be very helpful,” Dawn Zee (TC ’26), ATLIS’s graduate student assistant, told The Bulletin. “It could help [students] better understand the advantages as well as disadvantages of AI.”