Franklin students sweep GenAI Competition for creative projects

Designed to spur innovative uses for the technology, the second UGA Generative AI Competition, sponsored by the Office of Instruction and Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ department of philosophy, recognized student AI projects that enrich the UGA community or experience. The three top prizes went to Franklin College students who submitted projects to used generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, DALL-E and Amper to bring their creations to life. All submissions can be viewed in this year’s online showcase.

Submissions ranged from campus safety tools for students that provided features such as emergency alerts and contact integrations to the Zero-Waste Dining Initiative designed to reduce food waste, promote sustainability and create a more eco-conscious campus culture.

Judges prioritized creativity, community impact, innovative use of AI tools and detailed documentation of the development process when selecting the winners.

First place went to Sophie Brewer, a third-year Lamar Dodd School of Art graphic design major, who created InkTrap using Microsoft Copilot, Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT and OpenArt. InkTrap is designed as a reading accessibility website that leverages generative AI to create images and text for students who have trouble comprehending text and focusing for long period of time.

Second place was awarded to Suhan Kacholia, a fourth-year Double Dawg student earning her bachelor’s in cognitive science and master’s in artificial intelligence from the Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Kacholia created an interactive map of the musical history of Athens using archival interviews, large language models and geospatial visualization. Data was sourced from the Athens Music Project Oral History Collection, which is maintained by the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.

Bianca Wilson, a third-year student in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, took the third place award with Music Notes, a program created using Google Gemini and YuE, a MusicGen software. Music Notes allows students to upload information such as notes or flashcards from a class and transform them into short, catchy songs that can be downloaded as MP3 files. The inspiration for MusicNotes came from research in music psychology that shows the brain processes musical information differently from standard linguistic information.

Honorable mention was awarded to Ph.D. student Rex VanHorn, who is studying artificial intelligence in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. His project, The Idea Appetizer, uses large language models to generate code that can turn an idea into a working application.

Congratulations to all the winners, and to colleagues in the department of philosophy and the Writing Intensive Program for incentivizing student participation across campus.

Image: Screenshot of the Athens Music History Map project by second place winner Suhan Kacholia