UNC Charlotte launches Student AI Fellows program to pilot campus uses for large language models
UNC Charlotte’s Office of OneIT has launched its first Student AI Fellows cohort, selecting six computer-science students to work with university academic and administrative units on pilots involving large language models.
The program is a hands-on campus initiative rather than a report of a completed, campuswide AI rollout. Each fellow completed a 30-hour gig internship early in summer 2026, using university-licensed large language models to explore solutions to operational or academic problems.
What the students worked on
One project involved streamlining an EHRA-application review process. The university described the work as piloting solutions to complex campus challenges, but it did not disclose all participating departments or identify the specific licensed models used.
The available account also does not quantify time saved, productivity gains or other results from the projects. It does not establish that the pilots replaced staff or made final employment decisions. The work therefore represents testing of potential uses in university settings, not evidence of measured performance across the institution.
Training before the internships
Before beginning their internships, the fellows earned a Google AI microcredential. The credential and the 30-hour internships were part of the initial preparation for students working with the campus units.
Large language models are AI systems that generate or analyze text in response to prompts. In this program, the relevant distinction is that students worked with models licensed by the university, rather than an unspecified collection of public consumer tools.
UNC Charlotte has also hosted a separate 2026 summer undergraduate research program focused on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. That program ran from May 26 through July 24 on the Charlotte campus. The available materials do not state that it was part of, or funded, the Student AI Fellows initiative.
What remains unknown
UNC Charlotte has not publicly detailed funding for the fellows program in the available account. It also has not reported whether any pilot will move into regular use, named a next implementation deadline, or provided outcome data for the EHRA-application project.
For now, the inaugural cohort offers a local example of a university placing students in supervised projects to examine practical uses of generative AI. Its significance lies in the pilot structure: students were paired with campus units to test possible applications, while the results and any broader deployment remain unreported.