New AI-powered tool now available to all UC Irvine faculty

By Kristen McIntyre

UC Irvine is continuing its pursuit of academic innovation with ScholarConnect, an AI-powered platform that transforms faculty CVs into searchable online profiles. ScholarConnect addresses the longstanding challenge of adequately showcasing UCI’s research prowess to a broader audience. The project’s ultimate goals are to connect faculty with other scholars, help new faculty discover potential collaborators on campus, and elevate UCI’s research profile globally. 

“For years, we’ve been adequately acknowledged for our extraordinary work with students, but we didn’t get the appropriate recognition for the extraordinary research happening on our campus,” explains Roxane Silver, Vice Provost for Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning. Silver has been focusing for several years on how to elevate the research profile of our campus. “What we’ve created now is a living search engine for our campus research activities.”

The platform, designed and run in-house by a small team, uses artificial intelligence to extract key information from faculty CVs, creating comprehensive, up-to-date web profiles with minimal effort from busy academics. “Faculty typically keep their CVs current, so we wanted to tap into that to ensure their web presence stays in lockstep,” says Max Garrick, Acting Director, OIT Student & Academic Services, who spearheaded the project’s technical development.

Key features of ScholarConnect include:

• Automated profile creation from CV data
• Integration with UCI Library systems for real-time publication updates
• Powerful expertise search functionality for internal and external users
• Faculty control over profile content and publication

Garrick emphasizes the platform’s user-friendly approach: “Everything is opt-in. We’re not going to create a profile if people don’t want it. Faculty can review, edit, and approve their AI-generated profile before it goes live.”

Following a successful pilot in the School of Physical Sciences, the UC Irvine Senate Cabinet has unanimously endorsed campus-wide expansion of the tool. As the platform expands, with a campuswide rollout this fall, it promises to showcase UCI’s research excellence to a global audience, fostering new collaborations and elevating the university’s academic reputation.

UC Irvine faculty members are welcome to try ScholarConnect by emailing their CV to scholarconnect@uci.edu.  Ability to directly upload a CV to ScholarConnect is coming soon.

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