UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence (CSRAI) has announced the winners of its 2026 Teach-a-thon, a University-wide challenge for faculty to showcase innovative teaching practices in response to the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI).
The Teach-a-thon ran from Nov. 19, 2025, to Feb. 1, 2026, and was open to Penn State faculty members and collaborative teaching teams. Entries were submitted by faculty from 10 colleges and eight campuses, reflecting widespread interest across disciplines in integrating generative AI into pedagogy. A panel of seven Penn State faculty judges evaluated entries for innovation and originality; responsiveness to generative AI, clarity and replicability; evidence of student learning and engagement; and accommodation for students who choose not to use AI.
Faculty winners are below. Full submissions for the winning entries can be found on the CSRAI website.
First Place ($3,000)
-
Pierce Salguero, professor of Asian history and health humanities, Penn State Abington
Second Place ($2,000)
- Jacob Holster, assistant teaching professor of music education, College of Arts and Architecture; Aaron Knochel, associate professor of art education, College of Arts and Architecture; and Priya Sharma, associate professor of education (learning, design and technology), College of Education
Third Place (tie, $1,000 each)
- David Fusco, associate teaching professor, College of Information Sciences and Technology Department of Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics
- Nathalia Moraes do Nascimento, assistant professor of software engineering, Penn State Great Valley
Honorable Mentions ($500 each)
- Daryl Cameron, associate professor of psychology, College of the Liberal Arts
- Liz Hajek, professor of geosciences, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and Anastasia Piliouras, assistant professor of geosciences, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
- Leah P. Hollis, professor of education, College of Education
- Yuqing Hu, assistant professor of architectural engineering, College of Engineering
- Stephanie Thomas, assistant teaching professor of advertising and public relations, Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications
Across submissions, judges noted several recurring themes, including the creation of custom generative AI tools to enhance realism in simulations and efforts to demystify and destigmatize AI use in higher education. Many entries emphasized AI’s role as a collaborative learning partner while providing students with guidance on responsible, ethical and transparent use.
In Salguero’s winning entry, he showcased how he challenged students in a recent Asian medical history course to use generative AI at every stage of producing a research paper. Instead of submitting their final papers to receive a grade, the students evaluated AI tools by testing their limits, comparing platforms and documenting where they succeeded or failed.
“In most classes, using AI to do every step of a research paper would be academic dishonesty,” Salguero wrote in an article about his course. “But I wanted to understand what we’re up against both as educators and as students who will be graduating into an AI-saturated workplace. It seemed to me that first-hand experimentation was the only way to really find out.”
Many of Salguero’s students reported that AI made them more efficient, helped them brainstorm and reduced their anxiety around writing. They also consistently discovered that AI outputs were shallow, error-prone and often misleading, especially when dealing with specialized academic content, Salguero said.
By the end of the semester, Salguero said he observed that students developed a much clearer understanding of what human expertise and interpretation add to scholarly work because they could directly compare their own thinking with the limitations of the tools.
“The winning entry inverted the prevalent narrative about student use of AI by co-opting learners into a collaborative exercise of discovering the power and pitfalls of generative AI tools,” said S. Shyam Sundar, CSRAI director and James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects in Bellisario College. “This approach mirrors the spirit of the center’s earlier challenges by crowdsourcing critical evaluation rather than discouraging engagement. I encourage instructors to read the winning entries on our website, as they may spark new ideas for using generative AI thoughtfully in teaching and classroom activities.”
Judging panelist Jennifer K. Wagner, assistant professor of law, policy, and engineering and of anthropology, said the evaluating panel was impressed by the attention faculty put into reframing the problem of AI in higher education. She noted that many submissions approached generative AI with nuance and creativity rather than treating it only as a threat to good learning behaviors and a facilitator of academic dishonesty.
“Many submissions explored how AI could be a positive disruptor, highlighting ways in which these tools can complement, expand and transform other ways of learning,” Wagner said. “Ultimately, the submissions help us go beyond determining whether AI should be allowed in a particular course or curriculum and instead help us reimagine higher education.”
About the Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence
The Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence, which launched in 2020, promotes high-impact, transformative AI research and development, while encouraging the consideration of social and ethical implications in those efforts. It supports a broad range of activities, from foundational research to the application of AI to all areas of human endeavor.
The Teach-a-thon is part of CSRAI’s series of AI challenges that explore both the opportunities and risks of generative AI while promoting socially responsible innovation across the University.
Penn State is shaping the future of higher education in the age of artificial intelligence. Our focus is on human-centered, ethical AI innovation that delivers meaningful impacts for Penn State and the broader community. Through visionary planning, strategic partnerships, targeted hiring and strategic investments, we will equip every Penn State student, staff and faculty member with the AI-related knowledge, experience and confidence they need to succeed in the AI-powered future. Learn more at psu.edu/ai.