Syracuse University builds a connected campus with Microsoft Surface and AI

Syracuse University set out to become a model for modern higher education transformation by breaking down campus data silos, giving faculty real-time insight into student understanding, and personalizing learning at scale for its 22,000 students.

The university adopted Microsoft Surface devices with built-in AI capabilities, Microsoft Fabric to unify campus data, and Microsoft Foundry to process real-time classroom interactions. Power Platform supports daily campus operations and services.

Syracuse can now deliver personalized learning at scale. Faculty gain real-time insight into student understanding during class. Campus operations run more efficiently, and Surface gives IT the security foundation to scale AI with confidence.

Syracuse University is rethinking how it serves students, faculty, and the community in a world shaped by AI. Serving more than 22,000 students across a 400-acre campus, it faced a gap between traditional teaching models and expectations for personalization and real-time insight. At the same time, operational, academic, and student data lived in silos across systems and departments, making it difficult to understand what was happening across campus. That fragmentation extended into the classroom, where large lectures offered faculty little visibility into student understanding in the moment. Syracuse set out to create a more connected, responsive environment where data, technology, and teaching could evolve together.

From campus flow to classroom response

Syracuse started with campus operations. The university employed Microsoft Fabric to bring Wi-Fi and sensor data into a centralized Fabric OneLake, creating a real-time view of how campus resources were being used. “When we started putting the pieces together, it became clear we needed an ecosystem that could bring everything into one place,” says Jeff Rubin, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Syracuse University. “Microsoft Fabric gives us a way to bring that data together and actually use it." Microsoft Power BI turns that data into insights that make campus spaces easier to find, while giving facilities teams a clearer picture of demand. Microsoft Purview keeps those signals anonymous, preserving student privacy.

“Surface allows us to run AI where learning happens—on the device itself. The future of AI is not everything going to the cloud; it's AI at the edge.”

Eric Sedore, AVP & Chief Technology Officer, Syracuse University

To accelerate delivery, Syracuse partnered with PwC, a global professional services firm, to move from ideas to implementation at scale. “The partnership with PwC was key for us, not only from their capability standpoint, but from acceleration,” says Eric Sedore, Associate Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Technology Officer at Syracuse University. “It's hard to bring transformation when you're going very slowly, and so between Microsoft, PwC, and Syracuse, we had a nice combination of technology and accelerator and ideas and challenges that we needed to solve.”

In large lectures, faculty had limited visibility into how students were responding or where they needed support. Using Microsoft Surface devices with built-in neural processing units (NPUs), Syracuse has the ability to capture and synthesize student responses to in-class prompts, polls, and activities during a lecture. “Surface allows us to run AI where learning happens—on the device itself,” says Sedore. “The future of AI is not everything going to the cloud; it's AI at the edge.”

Those student responses are processed using small language models and Microsoft Foundry, with an inquiry-based learning platform synthesizing student input and class dialogue. Instructors have the ability to gauge how students respond during the class and adjust in real time. “For the first time in centuries, we have the ability to personalize learning,” Rubin says. “The challenge has always been scale.”

Surface devices are managed end-to-end through Microsoft Intune and Windows Autopilot. The Microsoft hardware and software platform is central to meeting the university's security and compliance requirements while protecting sensitive data, intellectual property, and student work. This integrated approach extends to the user experience, where capabilities like Windows Hello, which uses password-free access through facial recognition, simplify device login. Powered by Qualcomm's ARM-based processor, Surface devices also deliver enough battery life to last a full day of classes without recharging.

“Third-party apps were either costly or had limits, so I looked at what we already had on campus, like Power Apps and Power Automate. I’m not an app builder by trade, but I was able to build exactly what we needed.”

Gianna Mangicaro, Academic Media Production, Syracuse University

In the ITS MakerSpace, a fabrication lab where students and faculty come to use equipment, demand grew faster than the ability to manage it. Gianna Mangicaro, Academic Media Production at Syracuse University, needed a way to track who was waiting and for which machine. Using Power Platform and Microsoft Lists, Mangicaro built a solution without any coding experience. “Third-party apps were either costly or had limits, so I looked at what we already had on campus, like Power Apps and Power Automate,” she says. “I’m not an app builder by trade, but I was able to build exactly what we needed.”

A connected campus in action

Across campus, the impact is already visible. The new IoT sensor data processed by Fabric Real-Time Intelligence helped provide clear picture of the supply and demand of the resources, increased occupancy accuracy from 80% to 95%. That precision helped unlock more than 40 high-value connected campus insights—pinpointing space-use gaps, cost-avoidance opportunities, shared-service bottlenecks, and pain points in the student experience. Surface devices and Foundry help faculty understand how students are responding during class, not after it ends. As Sedore puts it, “When you think about all the technology work we're doing, from infrastructure to data to cloud to generative AI, the window into all of that is the Surface.”

“Surface provides excellent total cost of ownership for Syracuse University. We're encouraged about the expected residual value of the entire Surface fleet.”

Jeff Rubin, SVP & Chief Digital Officer, Syracuse University

The impact extends beyond teaching and learning. In the ITS MakerSpace, a Power Apps queuing system has already handled more than 900 clients, replacing a manual sign-in process and improving how students access services. That kind of institution-wide value also shapes how Syracuse thinks about its technology investments. “Surface provides excellent total cost of ownership for Syracuse University,” says Rubin. “We're encouraged about the expected residual value of the entire Surface fleet.”

Taken together, these changes point to a broader shift across higher education. Microsoft, Surface, and AI are not replacing professors; they’re connecting campus operations, classroom experiences, and day-to-day workflows into a more responsive, data-driven environment. “We're at a crossroads in higher ed. More than ever, it’s critical that our students leave college, get jobs, and begin to create value for their employers early,” concludes Rubin. “That all comes back to how we think about these devices in the classroom.”

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