WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Inside Fort Hays State University’s new artificial intelligence lab, students are not just learning, they are building the future.
But, before the lab opened, even the best ideas had limits.
“Before this lab, students cannot run all their experiments; some of the work we do is big data,” said Dr. Anas Hourani, associate professor of Computer Science at Fort Hays State University.
Now, those same projects can be completed in a fraction of the time.
“With this AI lab, experiments can be done within a few days instead of a month,” Hourani said.
That speed is critical in a fast-moving field like artificial intelligence, where falling behind can mean missing out.
“Sometimes, students’ laptops do not help to run the entire experiment, so we ended up running small samples of data,” he said.
For one student, the difference is immediate. His current project involves processing more than 700,000 images, something that used to take days.
“Previously, it required two to three days,” said Adarsha Shrestha, a Master’s student at Fort Hays State University. “Right now, it only requires like seven to eight hours at max.”
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And that kind of efficiency changes how students learn.
“A faster system allows me to make mistakes, experiment more, and improve quickly,” Shrestha said.
For faculty, the goal is simple: to make students competitive beyond campus.
“This lab will help students compete nationally in AI-related careers and Research,” Hourani said.
The focus now is on growing the lab and connecting students with real-world opportunities in northwest Kansas.
And for students at Fort Hays State University, the impact is already clear.
“It gave us more opportunities to research more and experiment more,” Hourani said.
Hourani said the next step is helping even more students enter the growIng field of artificial intelligence.
The university said the lab is made possible through internal grant funding.
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