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Microsoft Healthcare United States

University of Sydney

Enterprise Knowledge Search · Real-time Analytics · Security and Compliance

UofS, however, quickly realized they needed a secure AI solution that individual professors could customize and contextualize to their unique needs.

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By using Azure OpenAI, UofS can access the latest AI models such as GPT-4 and ensure the prompts and responses are not used to improve the models.
Educators can prompt Cogniti chatbots to provide clear, actionable feedback to students based on specific assessment criteria. · UofS teaches biochemistry to over 800 students, who bring thousands of questions every semester.
For over 170 years, the University of Sydney (UofS) has set the standard for excellence in research and teaching.
In March 2023, UofS explored solutions that would offer faculty, staff, and students access to AI tools while maintaining control over their use, and—when no out of the box solution met the university’s needs—they developed their own custom solution.

Reported impact

Business outcome

So, we were really excited by Cogniti to showcase AI to its best effect.” Educator-directed AI Cogniti is a standalone web app authenticated through Entra ID, embeddable into the university's LMS (Canvas) through the LTI standard for streamlined access and increased educational effectiveness.

  • Customer Experience
  • Productivity Improvement
  • Revenue Growth
  • Risk Reduction

Solution

For over 170 years, the University of Sydney (UofS) has set the standard for excellence in research and teaching. UofS, however, quickly realized they needed a secure AI solution that individual professors could customize and contextualize to their unique needs. Cogniti is a self-serve AI platform built on the university's secure and private Azure platform, powered byAzure OpenAI Service. By using Azure OpenAI, UofS can access the latest AI models such as GPT-4 and ensure the prompts and responses are not used to improve the models. This, and the fact that UofS IT were already familiar with Azure, made it the perfect choice to help them develop a tailor-made AI solution. So, we were really excited by Cogniti to showcase AI to its best effect.” Educator-directed AI Cogniti is a standalone web app authenticated through Entra ID, embeddable into the university's LMS (Canvas) through the LTI standard for streamlined access and increased educational effectiveness.

Solution architecture

5 components · 3 layers
  1. Compute
    • Azure OpenAI Service Runs the generative AI experience that answers questions, summarizes content, or drafts outputs for users.
    • Azure Provides the secure, scalable cloud foundation for the solution.
  2. Serving
    • Azure AI Search Indexes enterprise content and retrieves relevant passages to ground search and assistant responses.
    • Azure App Service Hosts the application web layer and API services for the solution.
  3. Orchestration
    • Azure AI Studio Provides the managed environment for building, testing, and deploying the AI assistant or agent solution.

Architecture clues

  • By using Azure OpenAI, UofS can access the latest AI models such as GPT-4 and ensure the prompts and responses are not used to improve the models.
  • Cogniti is a self-serve AI platform built on the university's secure and private Azure platform, powered byAzure OpenAI Service.
  • Rethinking educational equity One of the most important drivers for building Cogniti was the university’s mandate that students and faculty should not have to pay for access to the most powerful and most secure AI available.
  • This, and the fact that UofS IT were already familiar with Azure, made it the perfect choice to help them develop a tailor-made AI solution.
  • Through the Azure OpenAI enablement of Cogniti, UofS faculty and staff can better meet the demands of education by leveraging AI to ensure equitable access, more relevant responses, inspire critical inquiry, and provide greater security for staff and students.
  • Transparency with institutional privacy Educators can analyze student conversations to gauge learning challenges and make better use of class time.
  • UofS, however, quickly realized they needed a secure AI solution that individual professors could customize and contextualize to their unique needs.
  • With Microsoft and Azure OpenAI Service, they could benefit from powerful security and privacy in a convenient way.

Evidence from the source

By using Azure OpenAI, UofS can access the latest AI models such as GPT-4 and ensure the prompts and responses are not used to improve the models.
Cogniti is a self-serve AI platform built on the university's secure and private Azure platform, powered byAzure OpenAI Service.
So, we were really excited by Cogniti to showcase AI to its best effect.” Educator-directed AI Cogniti is a standalone web app authenticated through Entra ID, embeddable into the university's LMS (Canvas) through the LTI standard for streamlined access and increased educational effectiveness.
UofS, however, quickly realized they needed a secure AI solution that individual professors could customize and contextualize to their unique needs.
Transparency Evidence & methodology 75/100 reference value · 87% confidence · 1 source

Review how this reference was scored and trace each normalized claim back to its documented source.

01

Scoring methodology

How scores are calculated

Customer Reference Value measures usefulness as a customer reference. Evidence Confidence measures the quality and traceability of available evidence, not independent verification.

Customer reference value75/100
  • Problem clarity20/20
    Measures whether the customer's operational problem is specific enough to compare.
  • Implementation depth15/25
    Rewards named components, data flow, integrations, and architecture detail.
  • Outcome specificity20/20
    Measures whether the reported benefit is concrete rather than a generic claim.
  • Quantified impact15/25
    1 metric describe measurable impact.
  • Deployment scale5/10
    Rewards evidence of a live or scaled deployment and meaningful integration scope.
Evidence confidence87%
  • Source authority20/25
    The main evidence is an official vendor-published customer story.
  • Claim traceability21/25
    10 of 12 key fields link to a named source.
  • Direct evidence20/20
    4 direct source quotes retained.
  • Date provenance10/10
    The publication date comes from the source page or publisher.
  • Source transparency8/10
    1 source reference document publisher, URL, authority, retrieval, and supported fields.
  • Implementation specificity8/10
    Rewards source-backed components, data flow, quantified impact, and a specific outcome.
02

Traceability

Sources & provenance

Field coverage shows which facts each source supports. Dates are shown only when documented by the source.

  1. Microsoft

    University of Sydney customer story

    First-party
    https://www.microsoft.com/en/customers/story/1785425602161769458-university-of-sydney-azure-openai-service-higher-education-en-united-states
    Source type
    Vendor-published customer story
    Published
    Jun 28, 2024
    Supports
    • Customer
    • Business problem
    • Solution
    • Products
    • Solution components
    • Data flow
    • Integrations
    • technical area
    • use case category
    • Business outcome
    • outcome category
    • Metrics
    • Architecture
    • evidence quotes
    • Publication date

Date evidence

  • Published on source page Jun 28, 2024 · Microsoft · First-party
    Open date source
Not separately sourced Industry, Region, Company size. Treat these normalized attributes as lower-confidence until a dedicated source is added.

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