Organizing Student-driven AI Initiatives: Spotlight on FSU's Orion Qualls

Orion Qualls, an FSU student majoring in MSIT and the current president of FSU’s ThinkAI club (formerly known as GAIN), has been fascinated by AI for as long as he can remember. This interest manifested through early cinematic experiences like 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as through the evolution of robotics and his own experience designing video game mechanics. His interest in AI is one of the major reasons Orion is studying technology at FSU.  

“Ideally, AI could make education more personalized and engaging. It has the potential to reduce busy work, speed up curriculum delivery, and help students develop stronger critical thinking skills. If used correctly, AI could also encourage students to take a more active role in shaping their education.”

For Orion, the exciting thing about AI is “how open-ended it is. AI allows for rapid prototyping of new ideas and applications, making it a powerful tool for creativity and innovation.” He also loves how “accessible AI has become” thanks to its relatively low barrier to entry.

His passion for technology — and especially AI — led Orion to become involved with ThinkAI, an FSU student organization. As president of ThinkAI, Orion has hosted career-readiness workshops, helped students with hands-on AI coding projects, and co-hosted an event with the Collegiate Entrepreneurship Organization (CEO Club) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), featuring the AI startup StitchAI. Students have remarked to Orion that ThinkAI has provided them with a “helpful starting place” for experiencing and exploring AI in new ways.

In his own work, Orion mostly uses AI for programming, utilizing tools such as OpenAI’s API, vector databases like RAG, and LangChain. He also explores new AI tools through Hugging Face. When not coding, he uses NotebookLM, Claude, and ChatGPT. These tools are helpful for Orion in a myriad of ways, but particularly as a study tool. When struggling to engage with course material, he can use ChatGPT to generate study guides and summaries from his notes and readings, which helps him stay on top of coursework. 

For Orion, “it makes sense for universities to integrate [AI] into education,” as it’s already becoming an industry standard tool and can help automate and thus remove repetitive, unnecessary tasks. “Ideally, AI could make education more personalized and engaging," says Orion. "It has the potential to reduce busy work, speed up curriculum delivery, and help students develop stronger critical thinking skills. If used correctly, AI could also encourage students to take a more active role in shaping their education.” His opinion is that with clear policies and guidelines, as well as workshops and training sessions, it is possible for universities like FSU to embrace AI technologies responsibly and effectively. In Orion’s words, “If instructors had more exposure to AI, they might see it as a tool rather than a threat.” This hopeful outlook provides a clear path for easing instructor fears around the proliferation and popularity of AI in academic spaces. 

For the intimidated or potentially reluctant student who wants or needs to become more comfortable with AI, Orion encourages them to "just experiment with it." The best way to learn AI, according to Orion, is by "playing around with it." He adds that there are plenty of free tools available to get started. "AI can provide a major advantage in almost any industry, and getting comfortable with it now could make a huge difference in their future careers." By utilizing free resources and remaining flexible and open-minded, Orion believes that FSU students can ethically use AI to advance their careers, expand their skill sets, and potentially change how they relate to their studies for the better.