NEWS AND EVENTS

Cal Poly’s Digital Transformation Hub Experiments with Generative AI Technology to Revolutionize Procurement Process

November 5th, 2024

SAN LUIS OBISPO – Cal Poly’s Digital Transformation Hub (DxHub), in partnership with AWS, is revolutionizing procurement by leveraging generative AI. The university’s procurement process, which struggles with high request volumes and specialized knowledge gaps, is being improved with ScopeBuilder, an AI tool that helps create high-quality Statements of Work (SOWs) and RFPs. Developed by student Gus Flusser, ScopeBuilder uses AI to generate content based on user input and past contracts, ensuring accuracy and adherence to industry standards. The tool promises to streamline procurement and may serve as a model for other institutions adopting AI in procurement.

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Chatbot Helps Small Business Navigate Choppy Waters of Cybersecurity

July 23rd, 2024

SAN DIEGO – Small businesses and resource-constrained organizations that can’t afford full-time cybersecurity help can now get the next-best thing: a chatbot trained on the fine points of cybersecurity.

San Diego’s Cyber Center of Excellence (CCOE) and the federally funded San Diego Regional Cyber Lab have teamed up to provide a consultant powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that can help businesses, small government agencies and even consumers shore up their defenses against bad actors.

The Digital Transformation Hub at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo created the program in partnership with AWS. The university provided the minimum viable product using several AWS programs as building blocks.

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Snopes Launches FactBot, an AI Service to Fact-Check Your Questions

July 10th, 2024

After months of fine-tuning, Snopes has launched FactBot, its first-ever artificial intelligence (AI) tool to fact-check your burning questions about online rumors.

As many of you know from the recent popularity of ChatGPT, AI models today often hallucinate wrong information. The wrong answers often sound believable, so it can be difficult to determine what is real. Another wrinkle: AI models are trained in the past, so even if an answer was correct at the time, it may be outdated now. Neither is good for fact-checking.

Enter FactBot. Working with programmers from California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) and Amazon Web Services (AWS)— a partnership through the Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub — we set out to find a solution.

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The transformative power of generative artificial intelligence for the public sector

April 25th, 2024

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has recently captured widespread attention, and for good reason. This emerging technology has the potential to transform customer experiences, create novel applications, help people reach new levels of productivity, and much more. In fact, according to research from Goldman Sachs, generative AI could drive a 7 percent—or almost $7 trillion—increase in global GDP and lift worker productivity by 1.5 percentage points over a 10-year period.

The AWS Cloud Innovation Center (CIC) at California Polytechnic State University enabled students and staff to build a secure, cloud-based tool that makes cybersecurity recommendations for public sector organizations.

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Higher education utilizes cloud and student engagement to drive sustainability improvements

December 20th, 2023

Sustainability is becoming a priority topic across public sector organizations. As Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers and education industry experts highlighted earlier this year in the “Innovation drivers in higher education” report, student demand for comprehensive sustainability strategies is a key factor in driving this change.

Higher education institutions have utilized digital technology and cross-industry collaboration to accelerate and amplify their sustainable innovation. California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) created the Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub (DxHub) powered by AWS, which provides students real-world experiential learning to solve challenging problems facing public sector institutions and communities in innovative ways.

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Cal Poly campus almost ready for full 5G

July 7th, 2023

Technology leaders at California Polytechnic State University are planning to complete a project this month that would fully transform the institution’s wireless infrastructure to 5G. According to Mustang News, Cal Poly’s current Wi-Fi network is stretched to capacity. Chief Information Officer Bill Britton told the paper his office this month began testing a new 5G network at the central California school’s Digital Transformation Hub, a lab for testing new technologies, and that a wider deployment is scheduled for later this month.

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Cal Poly, Federated Wireless, AWS and T-Mobile launch 5G Innovation Lab

May 30th, 2023

In collaboration with Federated Wireless, AWS and T-Mobile, the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) has launched the 5G Innovation Lab. This joint venture aims to enhance campus operations, improve core IT services and foster interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty, staff, students, the community and industry.

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Private 5G might just make you rethink your wireless options

May 2nd, 2023

Early adopters in academia, manufacturing, and the military have chosen private 5G for its bandwidth, propagation features, and reliability.

The hype surrounding 5G ranges from Jetsons-like futurism to deep-in-the-rabbit-hole conspiracy theories. On the consumer side, 5G is still serving up more sizzle than steak, mainly because the technology is so new, handsets so few, and infrastructure still mostly 4G LTE or earlier, so developers are still figuring out how to take advantage of its capabilities.

To help unlock the innovative promise of 5G, California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) is working with AWS and Federated Wireless to install a campus-wide private 5G network, which will improve connectivity throughout the San Luis Obispo, Calif. campus, while also underpinning the university’s new Digital Transformation Hub (DxHub).

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Cal Poly Students Design Innovative Technology Solution to Make School Buildings in Developing Countries Safer in Collaboration with the World Bank

December 20th, 2023

SAN LUIS OBISPO — The Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub (DxHub) powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and a team of Cal Poly students designed a mobile app for the World Bank to help improve school safety in developing countries, projecting to reduce costs and time by 50%.

Millions of children’s lives and billions of dollars in infrastructure are at stake, since disasters such as earthquakes and cyclones put more than 1 million school buildings in low- and middle-income countries at risk of collapsing. An estimated 875 million children and teachers could be injured or die in damaged school buildings, according to World Bank figures. In addition, when schools close as a result of disasters, there are indirect losses as students are deprived of learning opportunities, further compounding the impacts.

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Cal Poly Students Design Innovative Technology Solution to Make School Buildings in Developing Countries Safer in Collaboration with the World Bank

April 28th, 2022

SAN LUIS OBISPO — The Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub (DxHub) powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and a team of Cal Poly students designed a mobile app for the World Bank to help improve school safety in developing countries, projecting to reduce costs and time by 50%.

Millions of children’s lives and billions of dollars in infrastructure are at stake, since disasters such as earthquakes and cyclones put more than 1 million school buildings in low- and middle-income countries at risk of collapsing. An estimated 875 million children and teachers could be injured or die in damaged school buildings, according to World Bank figures. In addition, when schools close as a result of disasters, there are indirect losses as students are deprived of learning opportunities, further compounding the impacts.
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Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub Collaborates with San Luis Obispo County on Launch of Web App to Prevent Opioid Overdose Deaths

January 25th, 2022

SAN LUIS OBISPO — In an effort to reduce the number of opioid-related deaths in San Luis Obispo County, local health officials, in collaboration with the Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub (DxHub), powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), and a team of university students are releasing a new app that could save lives.

Using the Naloxone Now app, community members can find the nearest location to get naloxone — an opioid overdose reversal medicine — or have naloxone delivered to their door at no cost.

The County of San Luis Obispo Behavioral Health Department launched the web application today which provides life-saving resources on how to prevent an overdose from opioid (painkiller medication and heroin) misuse.
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Cal Poly DxHub to Power Global Game Jam

 January 26th, 2021

 

San Luis Obispo, Calif. – The Global Game Jam is now powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub (DxHub), powered by AWS, and Global Game Jam, Inc. announced a major sponsorship of the Global Game Jam Online (GGJO) international event starting today through January 31, 2021.

GGJO is the first, all-online version of the Global Game Jam event, itself the largest game jam in the world operating since 2009 and active in 130 countries. A game jam is similar to a hackathon, but focused on creating games in small groups for a fixed amount of time. The Global Game Jam is typically 48 hours, involves a global theme, and a keynote address with advice from leading game developers. Participants come together in some 1,000 official locations around the world, form small teams and work on a game idea. 50,000 jammers participated in GGJ 2020. The resulting games are uploaded to globalgamejam.org by the end of the jam. The Global Game Jam stimulates collaboration, and empowers individuals worldwide to learn, experiment, and create together through the medium of games. There is no barrier to participation.

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Cal Poly Collaboration Introduces Breakthrough Technology for e-Scooters to Increase Pedestrian Safety

 

August 31st, 2020

 

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.– The Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub (DxHub), powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), developed a proof-of-concept for potential technologies to address e-scooter issues with sidewalk riding. The team developed breakthrough technology using readily available electronic parts that cost under a dollar and demonstrated that e-scooters could be inexpensively and easily modified to enhance safety. The solution will also help reduce e-scooter related injuries for riders and pedestrians, while encouraging individuals to operate these devices on public roadways instead of sidewalks.  

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Cal Poly Collaborates with Amazon Web Services to Launch Initiative for Harnessing Satellite Data to Solve Global Challenges 

 

June 10th, 2019 

 

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.– Cal Poly today announced the Satellite Data Solutions (SDS) Initiative built on Amazon Web Services to harness data from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to address the planet’s most critical challenges. These challenges include forecasting natural disasters and assessing their impact, helping relief workers seek alternative access routes for delivering cargo or medical supplies, and weather tracking to alert ships and aircraft. The initiative, which was announced at the AWS Public Sector Summit 2019 in Washington, D.C., is part of the Digital Transformation Hub (DxHUB) that was formed by Cal Poly and AWS to solve real-world challenges by providing innovation guidance to public sector organizations and their experts while offering Cal Poly student’s hands-on learning experience.  

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Cal Poly Hosts Week-Long Cloud Innovation Center Summit to Support Global Interest

February 12, 2019

Amazon Web Services representatives and the heads of educational institutions from around the world gathered in San Luis Obispo this past week to discuss the impact of creating a worldwide network of Cloud Innovation Centers (CICs). As the world’s first cloud innovation of its kind, the DxHub had the unique opportunity to set the standards for digital transformation in the public sector. At the summit, members of the DxHub explained their streamlined innovation process and shared their experiences with solving public sector challenges. Attendees were introduced to Amazon’s proven innovation methodology and learned about partnerships with Amazon Web Services. Representatives from France, Germany, Australia, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and the US attended the summit, with expressed interest in housing future cloud innovation centers. Through sharing and globally iterating challenges, a global network of CICs has the potential to change the world.

Cal Poly Launches World’s First University-Based Cloud Innovation Center Powered By Amazon Web Services

October 19, 2017

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Through a strategic relationship, California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), one of the nation’s top masters-level universities, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN), will today launch the Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub powered by AWS (DX-Hub). The DX-Hub has been created to accelerate digital transformation in the government, education and nonprofit sectors through the application of cloud technologies.
Public sector, education, and nonprofit organizations face rapid changes in technology with limited personnel and financial resources to meet the intensifying digital expectations of their constituencies. The DX-Hub combines the power of proven AWS innovation techniques with the deep subject matter expertise and Learn by Doing philosophy of Cal Poly students and faculty.

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