ASPPH is pleased to share an update on the continued evolution of ARIE (AI Resource for Institutional Excellence), our pioneering chatbot tool designed to support the academic public health community. ARIE is developed and housed within the ASPPH IDEA Institute, our new initiative supporting transformative teaching, research, and leadership in academic public health, and now incorporates enhanced intelligence and expanded reach.
What’s New
ARIE now includes web-crawling capabilities that index and retrieve real-time content from ASPPH.org and from the site of our valued partner, Partners for Advancing Health Equity’s (P4HE), which is led by our member, Tulane University Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. This allows users to access a broader set of trusted materials, including research, historical archives, and dynamic resources that are foundational to public health teaching and practice.
Behind the scenes, ARIE continues to use a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) framework, now strengthened with these expanded features. The system maintains rigorous guardrails centered on transparency, citation accuracy, and equity-driven practice, aligning directly with the IDEA Institute’s mission and ASPPH’s commitment to responsible AI through our four key areas of focus: teaching & learning, education, practice, and policy.
ARIE’s Public Debut at the 2025 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo
ASPPH’s presence at this year’s 2025 American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting & Expo marked a major milestone for ARIE. For the first time, ASPPH made ARIE publicly available with its new, robust knowledge base, including the integrated P4HE resources and articles. This debut gave meeting attendees the opportunity to explore ARIE’s upgraded capabilities firsthand and see how the platform supports equitable, evidence-informed public health work.
This highly anticipated and well-received public rollout reflects the IDEA Institute’s strategic vision, expanding access to cutting-edge, equity-centered tools that empower the academic public health workforce.
The IDEA Institute’s Leadership
The growth and evolution of ARIE is directly rooted in the IDEA Institute’s leadership in advancing equity-focused innovation. Through the Institute, ASPPH is building infrastructure, fostering collaborations, and supporting tools that improve access to high-quality public health knowledge, particularly for communities and institutions historically underserved by emerging technologies.
Explore ARIE
We invite ASPPH member institutions, partners, and public health students and professionals to explore ARIE, contribute to its evolving knowledge base, and join us in shaping the future of equitable, technology-enabled public health education.
ASPPH is grateful to Amazon Web Services (AWS) for supporting ARIE’s development and helping us bring this innovative resource to the academic public health community.