AI-Powered Academic Advisor Bolsters Course Planning at the SOE
LAU’s School of Engineering rolls out a beta platform to help students navigate course registration, track degree progress, and access instant academic guidance, all while complementing traditional advising.
This fall, over 250 engineering students got their first hands-on experience with the Academic Digital Assistant, a beta platform developed under the umbrella of the School of Engineering (SOE).
Combining an intelligent course scheduler with instant degree-progress checks and an AI agent that can answer questions about university policies, courses, and faculty, the tool is designed to make academic planning faster, clearer, and available anytime students need it, while also freeing human advisors to focus on personalized guidance for students’ academic and career paths.
The tool aligns with LAU’s broader student-success initiatives and AI strategy, reflecting the university’s commitment to innovation and empowering students with tools that enhance both learning and planning.
With real-time guidance, streamlined scheduling, and robust data security, the platform represents a major step forward in the university’s efforts to combine technology with personalized education.
Alongside providing practical guidance, the platform also prioritizes student privacy. “It’s designed to be minimally invasive, storing only a student’s completed course history to power the advising features, with no other personal data,” explained Dean Michel Khoury. “All information is encrypted, and account security is managed by the same enterprise-grade system our students already trust for their university email. Students also have full control to delete their data at any time.”
Early engagement has been encouraging. In the first two weeks, the AI advisor handled over 200 queries. “The initial traction is fantastic, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Dr. Khoury.
For many students, the platform’s greatest appeal lies in its ability to consolidate information from multiple sources and generate optimal schedules within seconds. “I’ve been relying on it mainly as a schedule maker,” said engineering student Robin Sarhane. “It’s quite decent and feels very revolutionary, especially in terms of reducing the time and effort needed to generate possible schedules ourselves.”
