The PRAIRIE Framework
PRAIRIE operates through four interconnected pillars. Together they form a self-sustaining ecosystem where infrastructure enables partnerships, partnerships fuel discovery, and discovery informs how we prepare learners.
Construct
Build Sustainable Systems
Sustainable AI integration requires more than enthusiasm. It requires systems. Construct addresses the infrastructure and governance that allow innovation to flourish: clear policies on responsible use, equitable access to AI tools, reliable computing resources, and centralized support that reduces the time faculty spend on logistics.
Operational Evidence
The AI Maker Space in partnership with Scott Data Center, partnerships with the Holland Computing Center, and enterprise licenses for Microsoft Copilot and Gemini.
Connect
Strengthen Partnerships
Connect builds the relationships essential to PRAIRIE's relevance and sustainability: industry partners who provide real-world problems and career pathways for students, peer institutions pursuing complementary work, funding agencies aligned with our research directions, and collaborations across the university that maximize institutional impact.
Operational Evidence
The seven-member Industry Advisory Board, four named industry days at Husker AI Days (Google, MathWorks, OpenAI, Microsoft), and academic partnerships across the state, region, and at the national scale.
Cultivate
Prepare AI-Ready Learners
Cultivate focuses on building human capacity across our community: curriculum that develops AI competency throughout the engineering program, training pathways that meet faculty and staff at their current skill level, student organizations that foster peer learning, and professional education that extends our impact beyond traditional degree programs.
Operational Evidence
AI for All (ENGR 191) and the Applied AI (ENGR 491) both launched in Fall 2025, Husker AI student organization, the Teaching and Learning Community of Practice.
Create
Drive Discovery
The Create pillar channels our collective creativity through seminars, working groups, coordination on federal grants, and the upcoming Communities of Practice, which form around shared interests, cross departmental boundaries, and build the critical mass needed for ambitious research agendas.
Operational Evidence
Participation in the Department of Energy Genesis Mission, DARPA AI Forge Program, and NSF AI-Ready America programs. Upcoming Communities of Practice seed grant program, and the PRAIRIE Seminar Series with six talks delivered in Spring 2026.
Responsible AI: The PRAIRIE Approach
In the College of Engineering, responsible AI means developing and deploying artificial intelligence in ways that amplify human capability, ensure equitable access, and create lasting value for all stakeholders.
Our commitment is anchored in five principles:
Transparency – We are open about how we develop and use AI systems, acknowledging both capabilities and limitations.
Accountability – We take responsibility for the impacts of our AI applications, designing for outcomes we can stand behind.
Inclusivity – We ensure AI tools and education are accessible to all members of our community, not just those with technical backgrounds.
Intentionality – We preserve human agency and judgment, treating AI as a tool that augments rather than replaces human expertise.
Ethics – We embed ethical consideration into every stage of AI development and deployment, from research design to classroom use.
The PRAIRIE Framework for AI Integration
In June 2026 the PRAIRIE Student Advisory Board, the Teaching and Learning Community of Practice, and the Industry Advisory Board published the Shared Language for Responsible AI Integration. The framework aligns six levels of AI use (Human Only through AI as Agent) with Bloom's Revised Taxonomy to cultivate five human capacities: Informed Judgment, Leadership & Collaboration, Communication, Systems Thinking, and Adaptive Capacity.
The framework is the operational expression of our shift from reactive gatekeeping to proactive stewardship.