Nebula UND Pilot
Experiment. Evaluate. Learn.
The Nebula UND pilot is an opportunity to test AI capabilities in a university environment, explore practical applications, and learn what it takes to support AI responsibly at UND.
Our goal: Determine the feasibility, value, and resources needed to scale Nebula UND for broader campus use.
Pilot launching November 2026
Participation by invitation or approved project
What are we evaluating?
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The pilot is about more than testing AI tools. We want to understand whether Nebula UND can deliver meaningful value and be supported sustainably at scale. |
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Technology & Capabilities Can the platform support the diverse AI needs of our university?
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Security & Responsible Use Can we enable meaningful AI exploration while meeting university requirements?
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User Experience & Support Is the platform easy to use, and what training and support will be needed?
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Value & Scalability What benefits, costs, and infrastructure will be involved in expanding access? |
Explore Our Pilot Projects
Each participating project will help us understand where AI can make a difference, where limitations exist, and what we need to learn before expanding Nebula UND.
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Project Status:
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In Progress
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- Project Category:
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Research & University Operations
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- The Challenge:
- CEM supports about 160 active research awards, and keeping researchers informed about budgets, deadlines, and deliverables takes careful coordination across PeopleSoft reports, spreadsheets, and several people’s time. Our project management and grant analyst staff do this well, but the process is manual, so each request takes real effort. As the research portfolio grows, we need a way to give researchers faster, self-service access to that information without stretching our staff thinner.
- What We Hope to Achieve?
- We want Atlas to grow into an all-in-one research project management platform, powered by a personal AI project manager for every researcher. That agent would know each researcher’s awards, track budgets and deadlines, flag risks early, draft routine reports, and answer questions on demand. The goal is to give every researcher dedicated PM-level support and free staff to focus on higher-value work.
- Project Team:
- College of Engineering & Mines Research Institute
- Jake Jantzen, CEM researchers & research support staff
- Project Status:
- In Progress
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Project Category:
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University Operations with crossover into Teaching & Learning
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The Challenge:
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As a newly established academic department, the Department of Medical Education currently lacks operational frameworks, workflows, and dedicated programming. This pilot addresses the foundational work required to launch the department, set up day-to-day operations, and recruit and onboard faculty and staff.
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What We Hope to Achieve:
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We aim to establish the core operational infrastructure and appointment pathways needed to get the new department up and running smoothly. Through this pilot, we hope to determine the most effective practices to sustainably build and support our medical educator scholars.
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Project Team:
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Department of Medical Education
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Chair: Sarah Sletten & Curriculum Project Coordinator: Julie Reiten
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- Project Status:
- Planned
- Project Category:
- University Operations
- The Challenge:
- The PCard audit process requires staff to manually review transaction data, statement submissions, potential exceptions, and software purchases across multiple sources. The goal is to reduce repetitive manual work and make it easier for Procurement to identify missing statements, discrepancies, and transactions that may require additional review.
- What We Hope to Achieve:
- we hope to create a more efficient and consistent PCard audit process that automatically organizes transaction information, identifies potential issues, and directs staff attention to areas that need review. We also want to learn how automation, analytics, and AI can responsibly support university administrative processes while keeping final decisions with human reviewers.
- Project Team:
- Department: UND Procurement & Payment Services
- Project Manager: Roger Bradley
- Executive Team: Tom Scrivener and Andrea Velaris
- Build Team: Roger Bradley, Ryan Macleod, Emily Foster, Vithal Damidi
Pilot projects for Nebula UND will be posted here.