SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Diya TV) — Sanjay and Charlene Srivastava have given UC San Diego $1 million to fund research on using agentic artificial intelligence in education. The work will take place at the university’s Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing and examine whether AI systems that plan and carry out complex tasks can make learning more effective, accessible and personalized.
Unlike a chatbot that responds to one prompt at a time, an agentic system can pursue a larger task through multiple steps and adjust as it receives new information. UC San Diego says researchers will explore applications for its own students, with the possibility of developing approaches for learners more broadly. The university has not named a research lead, set a timeline or specified a tool it plans to build. Its announcement describes a research effort, not a scheduled launch of an AI tutor or classroom product.
Sanjay Srivastava brings experience in education technology to the gift. He is chairman and CEO of Vocareum, a cloud platform for teaching and assessing technical courses, according to the University of Illinois. He said the couple hopes the research will bring new learning approaches to students, educators and working professionals.
The school serves about 1,600 students across six undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It also offers more than 100 classes a year, with enrollment exceeding 6,000, according to its fall newsletter. The school combines data science and computing expertise and opened in 2024.
Dean Rajesh Gupta said the gift will support work to improve the quality and reach of the school’s academic programs. UC San Diego also named a multipurpose room in the school for the Srivastavas; the space will host meetings and events.
The gift’s practical impact will depend on what the research produces. UC San Diego has not disclosed how it will divide the money or how it will measure whether AI improves learning. The university says the work will begin by exploring educational uses on campus, then consider approaches that could reach a wider group of learners.
