IBIT

Engages with industry to develop digital knowledge and talent

Manoj J. Chacko

Fanalli – Fair-priced tickets for true fans

The Fanalli platform ensures that genuine fans can access concert tickets at fair prices. Rhea Mohite, Management student, recognized that ticket bots inflate prices, depriving fans of fair prices: “Fanalli unlocks the power of fandom to create an enjoyable concert ticket buying experience.”

DIF partnered with Fanali after their entry into the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Idea Competition. Cole Roberts and Ayush Gupta are designing the platform’s architecture to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), with Manoj Chacko providing architectural guidance.

According to Cole: “The project has allowed me to refine the skills I acquired as a Management Information Systems (MIS) major including building an application and starting a business.” Ayush, a CIS student added: “I enjoy learning new programming languages and getting a glimpse into the dynamics of working in industry and startups.”

Directly manage and adjust patient rehab.

DIF is partnering with Omid Pourshahid, Assistant Professor, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, to develop a platform that allows providers to assess and manage patient rehab, and patients’ ability to provide data that is used to regularly adjust their rehab plan.

The role of AI avatars in hospitality

Lu Lu, Associate Professor, School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management and Wangoo Lee, Graduate Fellow are partnering with DIF to explore the role of AI avatars in hospitality. The Embodied Intelligence project will involve comparison and effects of AI avatars on the efficacy of hospitality interactions.

Generative AI transparency and predictability

Raghu Sankaran, CIO, Scholastic Inc., an IBIT partner, is working with DIF to investigate the results produced by generative AI solutions to increase transparency and predictability. The DIF team includes Konstantin Bauman, Assistant Professor of MIS, Yan Wang, Associate Professor of CIS, Manoj Chacko, and Munir Mandviwalla.

Sankaran notes that: “There are so many unknowns and facets around Gen AI that that we need to evaluate, so partnering with Temple was a no brainer to help us make progress on multiple fronts simultaneously.”

The goals include evaluating (a) how generative AI responds to different types of requests (b) evaluate the accuracy and appropriateness of the responses, and (c) estimate the factors that contribute to the responses and how that can be used to improve the tool. The DIF team has configured a virtual lab that includes the major Gen AI platforms and generated preliminary results.

Measure and structure dental school student development

DIF is partnering with Temple’s Kornberg School of Dentistry to implement the PRO platform, to measure, structure, and motivate the professional development of dental students. The DIF team includes Manoj Chacko, Laurel Miller, and Munir Mandviwalla, co-founders of PRO Community LLC, a Temple University spin-off company that arose from the first DIF project.

At Kornberg, according to Dean Amid Ismail: “Student development is a critical part of our mission. Professional development of students can be advanced by PRO that document and allow faculty to measure the professional development and experience of students.”

Currently, an extended soft release is underway, with the platform set to become mandatory for all students starting in fall 2024 (see PRO Platform for more information).