Tambellini Group Spotlight
North Carolina Central University, University of Maryland Global Campus, and Texas Southern University were also honored for measurable innovation in learning, operations, and research.
Irvington, Virginia — August 6, 2026 — Paul Smith’s College won Tambellini’s annual Future Campus Award™ Grand Prize for an AI-supported enrollment strategy that increased its visibility among right-fit students more than twentyfold without a proportional increase in staff or spending.
Tambellini announced the Future Campus Award winners at its 2026 Future Campus™ Summit, Resilience by Design: with AI, Data, and Engagement. Alongside Grand Prize winner Paul Smith’s College, North Carolina Central University received the Teaching and Learning category award, University of Maryland Global Campus received the Operations category award, and Texas Southern University received the Research category award.
“The defining achievement shared by all four winning institutions is that they moved AI tools and data beyond experimentation to solve pressing institutional challenges with clear, measurable impact,” said Hampton Shive, Tambellini Senior Vice President.
Tambellini’s Future Campus Award grew out of the Tambellini Technology Leadership Awards, established in 2015 to recognize higher education information technology leaders and their teams. Recognizing that technology has become central to institutional strategy, Tambellini broadened and renamed the award in 2024 to honor the cross-campus collaboration required to build a more sustainable, efficient, and inclusive future for higher education. This year’s winners show that lasting innovation takes more than technology. It requires a clear mission, thoughtful implementation, collaboration, and continuous evaluation of results.
Paul Smith’s College is a small, mission-driven institution in New York’s Adirondacks, with hands-on programs in fields such as environmental science, forestry, natural resources, culinary arts, and outdoor recreation. Finding students who are not only academically qualified but also genuinely drawn to that distinctive experience is essential to the college’s success.
Paul Smith’s College began using Kollegio in September 2025. The AI-native matching platform recommends colleges to prospective students based on information they share with Kollegio’s AI counselor, including their goals, values, interests, and reasons for considering particular institutions. Kollegio continuously provides behaviorally scored, prioritized lists of prospective students to guide Paul Smith’s small enrollment team in focusing its outreach on prospective students whose goals and interests align with the college’s culture and unique programs.
Since September 2025, the number of right-fit students receiving an AI-matched recommendation for Paul Smith’s rose from 404 to 8,110. Students actively adding the college to their shortlists increased from 72 to 1,782. Kollegio also ran 10 targeted email campaigns on the college’s behalf, sending 20,283 messages to prospective students identified through the platform. The strongest campaign recorded a 42.4 percent open rate.
Paul Smith’s strategic approach with Kollegio extends the reach of its lean enrollment team, ensuring staff can focus scarce recruitment dollars on the strongest potential matches. Because the pipeline carries forward and expands as new students join the platform, the college continues to diversify its sources of prospective students and operate at a scale that would otherwise be out of reach for a team of its size, without adding staff, proportionally increasing recruitment spending, or rebuilding the pipeline from scratch each cycle.
North Carolina Central University received the Teaching and Learning category award for building an accessible, ethical, and workforce-focused AI ecosystem through its Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research.
The institute connects AI education with faculty development, applied research, professional credentials, student leadership programs, and interdisciplinary academic pathways. During 2025, NCCU’s Institute for AI and Emerging Research engaged 1,487 participants, supported 1,007 IBM SkillsBuild credential earners, secured $1.125 million in corporate support, and distributed $110,000 across 11 interdisciplinary faculty research projects. Together, these efforts are preparing students not merely to use AI, but to understand, question, and shape it responsibly.
To support these initiatives, NCCU has built partnerships with organizations including Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Cisco, Dell, Deloitte, FICO, Google.org, IBM, and OpenAI. NCCU hosted an inaugural IAIER x OpenAI Academy Summit that brought 444 students, faculty members, and community participants together for a full day of hands-on workshops, demonstrations, and career-readiness sessions. This made NCCU the first HBCU to partner with OpenAI on an OpenAI Academy event of this scale.
University of Maryland Global Campus received the Operations category award for its Credit for Military Rank initiative, which awards eligible servicemembers and veterans academic credit for leadership, management, and decision-making competencies demonstrated through rank advancement. To build the model, UMGC used AI to analyze military roles and rank progression and map the underlying competencies to course-level learning outcomes. Faculty members and military subject-matter experts then reviewed and refined those mappings, using AI to accelerate the work without replacing academic judgment.
Since fall 2024, eligible servicemembers and veterans have been able to receive up to 12 additional credits toward select undergraduate business, management, and leadership courses. As of April 2026, UMGC had awarded 96,855 credits to 19,723 military-affiliated students, saving them approximately $24.2 million in tuition. By that date, 3,174 students who received Credit for Military Rank had also earned a credential.
UMGC’s initiative reduces unnecessary coursework, shortens time to completion, and gives military learners earlier recognition for skills they have already demonstrated, while creating a scalable model for evaluating real-world experience.
Texas Southern University received the Research category award for strengthening its research enterprise during a period of shifting federal priorities and growing competition for funding.
TSU uses GrantForward, an AI-powered funding intelligence platform, to match faculty research profiles with relevant funding opportunities, helping investigators and pre-award staff find potential sponsors more quickly as funding priorities change. The university pairs GrantForward with its Cayuse grant management system, which the university has used to standardize proposal development, review, submission, and award-management workflows. Together, the systems help TSU manage a growing volume of proposals and give leaders a real-time view of the research pipeline by college, investigator career stage, funding source, and activity type.
Through June 5, 2026, TSU had submitted 90 proposals requesting $121.5 million, compared with 84 proposals requesting $85.6 million in fiscal year 2025—a 42 percent increase in requested funding. The value of awards received increased 35 percent, from $29.8 million to $40.2 million. TSU is also broadening participation in research. Earlier in the fiscal year, new and early-stage investigators generated 36.6 percent of submissions, exceeding the university’s 25 percent target. The result is a deeper faculty pipeline and a stronger foundation for TSU’s long-term pursuit of Carnegie R1 classification.
Paul Smith’s College, North Carolina Central University, University of Maryland Global Campus, and Texas Southern University demonstrate how institutions can pair AI and data with human expertise to improve access, reduce costs, strengthen operations, expand opportunity, and build lasting resilience. Across all four winning projects, technology is a means to achieve measurable impact.
The Tambellini Group, now part of MGT, has been the leading provider of unbiased and proprietary research and advisory services to higher education since 2001. Our mission is to equip educational institutions with the impartial insights, tools, and market predictions needed to make informed technology decisions while maximizing return-on-investment and constituent experience. We empower institutions to overcome challenges, seize opportunities, and pave the way toward a brighter future for higher education. For more information, visit us at thetambellinigroup.com.
MGT is a national technology and advisory solutions leader serving state, local government, and education (SLED) clients. Our specialized solutions solve the most critical issues that live at the top of our client’s leadership agenda. Our advisory and technology domains are foundational elements in our approach to helping state and local governments innovate, transform, and manage efficiently. We partner to help clients strengthen their foundations, implement systematic changes, and build resilience for the future. MGT is committed to impacting communities for good. For more information, visit us at mgt.us.
Dan Olson
Director of Product Marketing
Tambellini Group
dan.olson@thetambellinigroup.com
Share Article:
Get exclusive access to higher education analysts, rich research, premium publications, and advisory services.
