University at Buffalo School of Management

Spring 2026 Buffalo Business 19 The math behind the magic From the beginning, the faculty members designed the program more like a startup sprint than a lecture: fast, hands-on, practical and rooted in ethics. During one lesson, faculty led the students through a physical simulation to help them understand the inner workings of a neural network, demonstrating that AI isn't magic. "The students learned how an AI model takes an input, a picture in our case, and uses math to predict an output, which was the type of animal in our picture," says Kevin Cleary, clinical associate professor of management science and systems, who developed the simu- lation. "Throughout the process, the students each played the role of various parts of the neural network and manually calculated the math to produce a prediction at the end." By the end, they could explain how math, logic and data turn into an AI decision. That moment is critical: When you demystify AI, you also hand students confidence. The AI Experience at UB was hosted by the School of Management's Center for AI Business Innovation and the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences' Center of Excellence in Information Systems Assurance Research and Education, in collaboration with the UB Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. According to Dominic Sellitto, clinical associate professor of management science and systems, and assistant faculty director of the Center for AI Business Innovation, the shi he saw in students from "AI is scary and mysteri- ous" to "AI is a tool I can use and question," is the foundation of long-term impact. And it's just the beginning of what UB and the School of Management have planned. "When middle schoolers stand up, pitch AI-driven solutions and are taken seriously by university faculty, they start seeing them- selves in tomorrow's innovation economy, and so do their peers," he says. "This was the first of many K-12 experiences we will be bringing to the community, and we look forward to provid- ing platforms to foster creative, impactful and ethical engagement with these exciting new technologies." The faculty team blended technical depth, business relevance and inclusive education. Leading the program with Cleary and Sellitto were management faculty members Laura Amo, Joana Gaia, Celine Krzan and David Murray, along with Shambhu Upadhyaya from engineering. The program was supported by UB's AI Seed Funding Grants, which are dedicated funds to enable faculty across campus to inte- grate generative AI into course and curricular redesign. Allocated seed grant funds may be used for a variety of purposes, such as bringing external speakers to campus, creating working groups and learning communities within and across majors and degree programs, or enhanc- ing an existing course. Read how the School of Management is integrating AI at management.buffalo.edu/ai. Learn more about the Center for AI Business Innovation at management.buffalo.edu/cai. When middle schoolers stand up, pitch AI-driven solutions and are taken seriously by university faculty, they start seeing themselves in tomorrow's innovation economy, and so do their peers." DOMINIC SELLITTO CLINICAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE AND SYSTEMS

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