New Name, More Meaningful Mission: Schar School Unveils ‘Intelligent Automation Initiative’

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 16:59:54 +0000

New Name, More Meaningful Mission: Schar School Unveils ‘Intelligent Automation Initiative’ Andrew J Schappert Thu, 06/29/2023 - 12:59

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David Rehr

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David K. Rehr: ‘The technology continues to quickly evolve around us…”

The groundbreaking Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Initiative at the Schar School of Policy and Government at ��ӽ紫ý has changed its name to the Intelligent Automation (IA) Initiative. The new name better reflects its mission as the world’s technological ecosystem, particularly all things AI, continues to evolve.

The Schar School’s Center for Business Civic Engagement unveiled RPA in early 2021 in partnership with UiPath, a leading enterprise RPA software company, to develop technology that enables users—particularly governments and universities—to configure computer software to emulate and integrate the actions of a human interacting within digital systems to execute and automate business processes.

The IA Initiative builds on that early work by incorporating “other digital technologies beyond the robotic process automation, and including in its overall mission the advancement of successful automation practices and the tools already in practice,” said Schar School Professor David K. Rehr, co-founder of the RPA Initiative. “The technology continues to quickly evolve around us, and our original name no longer represents our contributions in their entirety.”

Dorin Munteanu: AI ‘is becoming the foundation for business operations, economic competitiveness, and national security…’

The newly branded IA Initiative will continue its partnership with Virginia colleges and universities to improve effectiveness and efficiency through the adoption of software automation. That program is now called the Virginia Academic Intelligent Automation Community of Practice, or VA Academic IA CoP.

“The use of intelligent automation at scale is becoming the foundation for business operations, economic competitiveness, and national security,” said Dorin Munteanu, co-founder of the RPA Initiative. “We want to make sure our work value aligns with the public sector and, particularly, academia stakeholders’ needs.”

The vision and mission, added Rehr, “remain the same—to become the nation’s prominent academic initiative for the study of intelligent automation’s complexities and its ramifications on society.”

“We are making terrific progress through the initiative, but there is much left to do to ensure our nation gets the full positive benefits of intelligent automation in the digital age,” Munteanu said.

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Schar School News June 2023

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Mason’s new tech initiative is set to be an automatic game changer

Mariam Aburdeineh — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 18:57:24 +0000

Mason’s new tech initiative is set to be an automatic game changer Mariam Aburdeineh Mon, 09/13/2021 - 14:57

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David Rehr

David Rehr, Mason alumni, and other industry professionals discuss careers in the RPA industry as part of Mason's new RPA Initiative. Photo provided.

David Rehr said he has spent his entire life thinking about how government can be more efficient and effective.

The ��ӽ紫ý alumnus and director of Mason’s Center for Business Civic Engagement at the Schar School of Policy and Government spent 25 years as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill. Before that, he was a child growing up in the Midwest, the son of a hardworking postman who didn’t attend college.

His time in government, he said, made him a bit cynical, feeling that citizens’ hard-earned tax dollars, like his father’s, weren’t being used the most resourcefully.

Rehr said he learned about Robotic Process Automation (RPA)—what he believes could be the key to solving government and public sector inefficiencies—when he met someone from global software company UiPath in 2020.

That led to Rehr co-founding Mason’s RPA Initiative, in partnership with UiPath, in January.

“This gives Mason a really unique opportunity to help the public sector, and to make programs work better for citizens,” said Rehr, who earned a PhD in economics from Mason in 1998. “We’re the only university I could find that has such a program.”

“Mason has a history of innovation, technology, and studying public policy,” said Bobby Patrick, UiPath CMO. “We believe the partnership is a great fit and will benefit citizens seeking greater value in public-sector programs and initiatives.”

Rehr spoke over the phone about the initiative and its benefits.

What is RPA and how is it used?

RPA is an easy-to-use, commercial off-the-shelf technology that can automate repetitive, rules-based tasks.

During COVID, RPA greatly reduced the time it took to receive COVID test results. Another application analyzed photos of infected lungs…the robotics could determine within about a minute if you were going to have a complication.

There’s a digital assistant where if you have to fill out HR paperwork, you can scan your driver’s license and all your paperwork is filled out for you. For W-4 forms that multiple people have to sign, RPA can automatically send it to your supervisors, who are signaled by the technology that they have something to approve. It’s continuous from there.

Tell us about Mason’s RPA Initiative.

At the Schar School, we’re always focusing on how we can be innovative in our teaching and make an impact in the world.

The mission of the initiative is to research, educate, and communicate how the adoption of technologies can improve productivity, operations and service delivery for traditional and novel challenges of the public sector.

What can we look forward to with the initiative?

We’re hoping to be able to hire more students to work on projects, to further educate through webinars and instruction, do research, and communicate the benefits of RPA to the public sector.

The [School of Business] also has an RPA class. We’re hoping to take a multidisciplinary approach: how can we use all the Mason resources to make sure our students are aware of the opportunities and get hired when they graduate.

Will RPA replace human labor?

There’s not a substitution effect; there’s a complementary effect. This technology will help programs work better for people and more efficiently. It liberates workers from mundane things, which don’t appeal to their imagination. Using RPA will allow people the freedom to think about high value work priorities and unleash greater economic growth, greater prosperity, make everyone’s lives better, and help people have more fulfilling lives.

Where can people go to learn more about RPA?

The initiative produced a paper aimed at non-IT workers in June that’s been picked up around the world. We include examples of what’s happening globally with RPA, and explain the technology in a non-technical way. Those interested in getting involved can visit the RPA Initiative website.

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Schar School News September 2021