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AI for Impact Co-op Students Present Final Projects to Governor Maura Healey

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey met with the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern’s AI for Impact Co-op students on Wednesday, June 26. Students are working alongside state agency partners to improve the delivery of services and programs for Massachusetts residents using Artificial Intelligence (AI) as part of InnovateMA. Governor Healey created the InnovateMA partnership with the Burnes Center earlier this year as part of her efforts to position Massachusetts as a global leader in applied AI. 

“AI has the potential to help us solve some of our most challenging public problems and serve the residents of Massachusetts more effectively and efficiently,” said Governor Healey. “Our state already has an advantage to be a global leader in applied AI because of our world class colleges and universities. I’m so impressed by the innovative ideas put forward by these Northeastern students and the progress they have made over the past few months.”  

“I often say that our progress on the challenges presented by emerging technology are best addressed as a team, and we are so lucky to have Northeastern University students and faculty on Team Massachusetts,” said Massachusetts Technology Services and Security Secretary Jason Snyder. “These student-designed projects display incredible technical skill and professionalism, and they are a testament to what we can achieve by collaborating with our rich higher education ecosystem in Massachusetts. We have much to learn from each other.” 

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The Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University manages InnovateMA as a part of the AI for Impact Co-op Program where students work full-time on experiential AI projects for social good. Student teams worked with Massachusetts administration officials on strategies to use AI as a tool for improving efficiency and delivery of government services.  

“InnovateMA is creating extraordinary opportunities to take advantage of the advances in AI and the talent of Northeastern co-op students to improve how government provides services and programming for all Massachusetts residents,” said Professor Beth Simone Noveck, Director of the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University. “We are grateful to Governor Healey for her leadership in recognizing the potential of AI for good and look forward to continuing this pioneering partnership.” 

Since January, a cohort of twelve Northeastern students have worked full-time with the Healey-Driscoll Administration and on Thursday provided updates to the Governor about five projects. The projects include: improving customer service for the RIDE, the MBTA’s door-to-door, shared-ride public transportation for people who have a disability; providing enrollment assistance for MassHealth customers; streamlining access to grant opportunities for farmers, businesses and communities; supporting MassDOT Highway design engineers; translating and summarizing a family’s Individualized Education Program; and creating a Generative AI Sandbox for state employees to securely explore and innovate with AI models.  

A second cohort of InnovateMA AI for Impact Co-op students will start in July and will continue to work on the projects underway, in addition to new project proposals that are currently under review.  

Learn more about AI for Impact and this semester’s InnovateMA co-op students.

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