{"id":6252,"date":"2024-07-30T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/education\/blog\/?p=6252"},"modified":"2024-07-30T09:13:31","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T16:13:31","slug":"university-of-sydney-building-custom-ai-solutions-with-azure-openai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/education\/blog\/2024\/07\/university-of-sydney-building-custom-ai-solutions-with-azure-openai\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Sydney: Building custom AI solutions with Azure OpenAI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Education leaders are always searching for innovative ways to enhance their students’ learning experiences and prepare them for the challenges and opportunities of the future. With the rapid advancement of generative AI, a new set of possibilities have emerged for instructional institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University of Sydney (UofS) recognized the potential of generative AI to enhance teaching practices and assessments, enrich the learning experience, and prepare students for an evolving job market. However, they quickly realized that an out-of-the-box solution wouldn\u2019t suffice, given their unique requirements for security, customization, and contextualization. UofS has demonstrated a successful path forward using Microsoft\u2019s Azure OpenAI Service<\/a> to build a custom AI solution to meet their needs. By showcasing responsible and effective integration of generative AI, they provide a model for other institutions. Their experience offers valuable insights to tailor AI tools to your unique needs and goals for successful implementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the\u00a0full UofS customer story<\/a>\u00a0to learn more about their exciting custom AI solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building a custom AI assistant<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Enter Cogniti<\/a>, a self-serve web app authenticated through Microsoft Entra ID, developed by Danny Liu, Professor of Educational Technologies at UofS. Cogniti is built on the secure and private Azure OpenAI Service platform and empowers faculty to create their own AI agents that they can customize and contextualize to their unique needs, helping students learn in pedagogically meaningful ways. \u201cFaculty love the fact that they can control and therefore trust the AI and that it\u2019s so easy to build their own agents using plain language and embed it into our learning management system for students to use,\u201d said Liu.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"
An educator can develop several Cogniti chatbots to help personalize education for students.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the help of Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot<\/a>, Professor Liu handled the bulk of Cogniti\u2019s development, from coding to faculty integration. “It was amazing to have Microsoft Copilot working alongside me, troubleshooting, and debugging,” he says. “I wouldn’t have been able to build Cogniti in the time that I did if it weren’t for Copilot.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By leveraging Azure’s robust infrastructure and GitHub Copilot, Professor Liu developed Cogniti efficiently while maintaining alignment with the university’s objectives. Cogniti addressed privacy concerns by ensuring the confidentiality of prompts and responses, which are not used for further training by OpenAI. This powerful combination provides a secure environment for sensitive educational data and accelerates the development process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practical pedagogical applications<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cogniti has been successfully integrated into various pedagogical scenarios at UofS, enhancing student learning and faculty support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n