As Ohio State University begins ramping up its artificial intelligence curriculum this academic year, the university is welcoming a new chief information officer.
Rob Lowden joins Ohio State as its new vice president and chief information officer. He officially started in the role on Aug. 1, taking over as the university's latest permanent CIO following his predecessor Cindy Leavitt's departure from the university last August.
Lowden spent more than 20 years at Indiana University, most recently serving as its VP and CIO. He's coming to Ohio State at what he said is "a pivotal time" for the university and its technological future.
"When (President Ted Carter) and (Provost Ravi Bellamkonda) have such a clear strategic vision, and when you listen to them, their insights into what they see as this clear future and what they're doing here at the Ohio State University is pretty compelling," Lowden said. "It's hard to not want to get on board with such a strategic vision."
Lowden has spent much of his career in higher education technology.
Since 2020, Lowden has led Indiana University's IT strategy and services during the COVID-19 pandemic, which included transitioning 200,000 faculty, staff and students across nine campuses and medical education centers to online learning. He also oversaw more than 400 additional IT professionals across Indiana's multiple campuses and hosted cybersecurity events across the university system.
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Lowden previously served as executive associate dean and CIO of the Indiana University School of Medicine, the largest medical school in the U.S. His leadership helped advance the school’s research infrastructure, clinical education tools, and data integration capabilities — fostering collaboration and innovation across a distributed academic health system.
Beyond their affiliations to other Big Ten universities, Lowden shares another commonality with Carter — military service. Lowden served in the U.S. Navy from 1992 to 1997 and was selected for the Navy Divefarer program, eventually becoming a search and rescue swimmer. He holds a bachelor's' degree in computer technology and a master's degree in technology from Purdue University.
As Ohio State's new CIO, Lowden will oversee IT, cybersecurity, data and analytics, and digital learning platforms, while shaping the university’s broader vision for artificial intelligence fluency, digital equity, and intelligent infrastructure, according to the university.
“I’m thrilled that we have attracted one of the nation’s top technology leaders to Ohio State,” Chris Kabourek, senior vice president for administration and planning, said in a prepared release. “Rob Lowden brings the deep expertise, innovative thinking and collaborative approach necessary to help our university lead in a higher education landscape being reshaped by AI and other technologies.”
Lowden said coming to Ohio State at this moment was a "perfect storm" of opportunities, especially as the university launches a new AI initiative.
Starting this fall, incoming students will participate in Ohio State's AI Fluency initiative, which will embed AI education into every undergraduate's core curriculum. The goal is for all students to be comfortable and competent with AI tools regardless of their majors.
"Artificial intelligence is transforming the way we live, work, teach and learn. In the not-so-distant future, every job, in every industry, is going to be impacted in some way by AI," Carter said in June. "Ohio State has an opportunity and responsibility to prepare students to not just keep up, but lead in this workforce of the future."
Given the rapidly changing nature of AI technologies, Lowden said he's started to embrace the phrase "AI time."
"It is a pace unparalleled. As a technologist, you know we're usually pretty accustomed to pace and change because many times we're leading it and other times we don't have a choice," Lowden said. "We have to adapt and respond to it. I think our role can be facilitator of knowledge and access in sharing."
He said he recognizes that "AI time" and Ohio State's changes to AI education might feel expedited to some university faculty.
"Our faculty and our researchers are embracing it at the same time as our students are coming in," Lowden said. "They got a little bit of a head start, but maybe not the timeframe or head start that they all might want."
To help alleviate some of those growing pains, Lowden said Google is hosting Data & AI Day on Aug. 21. The campus event will help instructors, researchers and staff learn more about AI and help them get prepped for the semester.
Lowden said he's excited to see Ohio State's AI curriculum take shape "in the safety of the academy."
"We don't frown upon failure. When we're doing an experiment and it doesn't always result in the way that we anticipated it might, we learn from that," he said. "That's at the core of what the academy has always embraced. It's a learning experience, and what better time on a tool that we're all learning and understanding."
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State hires new Rob Lowden as its next chief information officer
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