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University program

Use Carina as the platform for student projects, dissertations, and AI coursework. The kernel is MIT licensed and free forever; your differentiation is the domain pack you build on top.

Not an official endorsement

This page describes how educators and students may use Carina. It does not imply endorsement by the University of Portsmouth or any institution unless a separate agreement says so.

Overview​

LayerRole in coursework
carina-agentTools, memory, channels, CLI (install locally)
Domain packSkills, prompt suffix, optional RAG knowledge (your project)
Scout / Carina OpsOptional commercial add-ons; not required for labs

Forward this page to students. Lecturers: contact [email protected] to register interest (module name, cohort size, calendar).

Getting started (students)​

npm install -g carina-agent
carina setup
carina doctor

Then complete Build your first domain pack (~30 minutes).

Suggested project levels​

Undergraduate​

Build a hello domain pack, then add one custom skill for a topic you choose (sports analytics, campus FAQ, hobby domain). Deliverable: working pack under ~/.carina/packs/, short demo in carina chat, optional GitHub PR.

MSc / postgraduate​

Build a vertical pack with:

  • Valid pack.json manifest (stable API)
  • 5+ skills with clear triggers
  • knowledge/ markdown corpus (public or synthetic data only)
  • carina ingest <pack> and basic evaluation notes

See dissertation pack ideas on GitHub.

Research​

Compare agent platforms: Carina kernel vs LangChain-style stacks vs MCP-only designs. Focus on modularity, memory, tool boundaries, and self-host economics. Cite the Carina version you test against.

Dissertation and project ideas​

Five starter topics (expand in the ideas doc):

  1. healthcare-uk pack (synthetic triage FAQ, not clinical advice)
  2. legal-uk pack (public legislation summaries, not legal advice)
  3. education pack (lecture planning, formative quiz skills)
  4. local gov pack (council service navigation from public web sources)
  5. sustainability pack (carbon literacy, open datasets)

Full briefs: dissertation pack ideas on GitHub

Academic naming (optional)​

For university-published npm packages, use a scoped convention (documented only; not enforced by Carina):

@uop/pack-healthcare-demo
@uop/pack-campus-faq

Replace uop with your institution slug. Production community packs typically use @carina/pack-* or your org scope.

Contribute back​

GDPR and data ethics​

  • Never load real patient, client, or employee records into pack knowledge.
  • Use synthetic scenarios, public documents, or anonymised examples.
  • You control data on your machine when self-hosting; follow your institution's data policy.

Support from VERLOX​

  • Email: [email protected]
  • Office hours: monthly for registered module leads (schedule TBD)
  • Mentorship: best-effort PR feedback; no guaranteed SLA for coursework deadlines

Platform access is free. Paid internships and funding are not part of this program unless separately announced.

Community​