Robots & Pencils to Showcase Proactive AI at ASU Summit

From October 20 to 22, 2026, Arizona State University will host the summit at the Omni Tempe Hotel, gathering leaders to address the limitations of current generative AI pilots. Elliott Hedman, Lead AI Strategist for Education at Robots & Pencils, will headline a panel titled "Using AI to help professors start the conversations students avoid." Hedman, who holds a Ph.D. from MIT, argues that the true measure of success in educational technology is the ability to bridge the gap for disengaged students who often slip through the cracks of traditional advising models.

Jason Lacy, SVP and Client Partner at Robots & Pencils, emphasizes that trust remains the primary barrier to widespread adoption of these proactive tools. The company’s presence at the summit builds on a long-standing technical partnership with ASU, which includes the development of the MediaPlus platform, a Canvas enrollment system that reduced course creation time from three days to thirty minutes, and the ongoing construction of Nova Sol, an agentic platform designed to identify and support at-risk students. Joining Hedman and Lacy in Tempe will be Senior Delivery Manager Alison DuBose and Technical Lead Chetan Thayur to consult with campus administrators on implementing these enterprise-grade systems.