This is a list of AI resources and guidance geared towards the YSOA community.

Chatbots & LLMs

Minerva

Minerva is an AI-based support tool designed to enhance Advanced Technology support for students by providing a conversational interface with rich, detailed information about the resources the school provides.

Clarity

Clarity is a university-wide platform featuring an AI chatbot offering much of the same functionality as other popular general-purpose generative AI chatbots, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude.

LM Studio & Local LLMs

Students have access to LM Studio and Ollama, allowing them to download and run open-source large language models locally at their workstations or in the Advanced Computer Lab.

LM Studio provides a graphical interface for downloading, managing, and interacting with local models.

Ollama provides a lightweight way to download and run models locally.

MCPs & Integrations

What is an MCP?

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. It allows AI systems to connect with external applications, tools, files, and workflows.

MCPs allow AI assistants to do more than generate text. Depending on the connected application, an AI system can retrieve information, interact with software, execute tools, and assist with tasks directly inside existing design workflows.

Generative Media

ComfyUI

ComfyUI is the primary environment for local generative AI workflows. Students can combine models, processing tools, and custom workflows to generate images, video, 3D assets, audio, and multimodal content at their workstations or in the Advanced Computer Lab.

01

Image

Generate and manipulate images using text prompts, reference images, conditioning, inpainting, upscaling, and custom workflows.

Stable Diffusion · Flux
02

Video

Create video from text or images and build workflows for animation, motion, transformation, and controlled generation.

Text-to-video · Image-to-video
03

3D

Generate 3D assets from prompts or reference imagery and experiment with generative geometry inside digital design workflows.

Image-to-3D · 3D Generation
04

Audio + Multimodal

Work with audio and combine multiple forms of media inside larger generative workflows linking sound, images, video, and other data.

Audio · Image · Video
ComfyUI Build node-based generative workflows using open-source models, custom nodes, and advanced processing tools.
Adobe Firefly

Adobe Firefly is also available as part of the Adobe Creative Suite.

Resources