Project Mentor: Professor Eric Obeysekare, Computer Science and Engineering
2027 Impact Fellows:
Project Description:
AI is moving beyond tools that answer questions to agents that take action. These systems can plan, use software, and complete multi-step tasks on someone’s behalf. That shift could change how a university works, and it raises real questions about what agents should be trusted to do, who benefits, and how to deploy them responsibly. Agent Asa, named in the spirit of Lehigh’s founder, invites students to explore these questions by building agents themselves and helping the rest of campus do the same.
Fellows will learn how agentic AI works, including how agents use tools and data and where they tend to fail. They will then design and build agents for real campus needs, partnering with offices, departments, and student organizations. Responsible deployment is built into every stage, with attention to privacy, accuracy, accessibility, and keeping human judgment in the loop. The team will also develop and lead hands-on workshops that teach students, faculty, and staff to build and deploy their own agents, growing AI literacy across every discipline at Lehigh.
Who should apply: Students from any major who are curious about AI and how it can be used responsibly and effectively at a university. No coding background is needed. Design thinking, communication, ethics, and teaching matter as much here as technical skill.
What fellows will gain: Hands-on experience building and deploying AI agents, practice teaching complex ideas to non-experts, real-world collaboration with campus partners, and a grounded, critical perspective on one of the defining technologies of this decade.