The February 27, 2026, Faculty and Staff Showcase on AI features presentations on AI and research, AI and Teaching, and AI and Higher Education. Sessions are labeled “Research,” “Teaching,” and “Higher Education” should you choose to follow a track. All sessions will be held the ADP Center, first floor of University Hall.
Breakfast and registration: 8:45-9:30 am
ADP Center Commons
Session 1: 9:30-10:30 am
TEACHING: Rethinking Learning in the Age of AI: Assessment, Integrity, and Student Growth (UH 1120)
Barry Bachenheimer (Educational Leadership), ChatGPT or CheatGPT?: Redesigning Assessment, Plagiarism, and Assignments in the Age of Generative AI
Grace Cook (Mathematics, BCMSU), Low-Stakes, High Impact: Using ChatGPT to Build Formative Assessments
Pavlo Lushyn (Educational Foundations), AI as a Mirror: Turning “Teaching with AI” into Facilitated Student Self-Development
Moderator: John Yi (CTAI)
RESEARCH: Reading the World with AI?: Ethics, Archives, and Qualitative Inquiry (UH 1143)
Adam Rzepka (English), Archival Intelligence: AI Ethics and the History of Ideas
Susana Juniu (Kinesiology), AI in qualitative research
Moderator: Catherine Keohane (OFE)
HIGHER EDUCATION: Building the AI-Enabled University: Advising, Credit Evaluation, and Program Navigation (UH 1145)
Adam Mayer and Albert Antomattei (University College Career Services and Academic Programming), Major Mentor: A No-Code AI Approach to Supporting Pre-Major Students
Julianne Vitale (Office of the Registrar), Transfer to AI – How the Registrar’s Office Implemented AI to Streamline Transfer Credit Evaluations
Matthew Shurts (Counseling), From Handbooks to Helpful: Deploying a Guardrailed Custom GPT for Program Support
Moderator: Vera Senina (OFE)
Session 2: 10:45-11:45 am
TEACHING: Teaching With AI: Simulation, Design, and Human-Centered Practice (UH 1120)
Joseph DiNapoli (Mathematics), Approximating Teacher-Student Interaction: An AI-Based Chat Simulation in a Mathematics Methods Course
Hongbo Zhou (School of Computing), AI-Assisted Design and Development of Human-Centered Applications
Alicia M. Rivera (Graduate Assistant) and Soyoung Lee (Family Science & Human Development), Preparing Students to Work With Diverse Families and Children: Teaching and Learning About AI as a Tool
Moderator: Weitian Wang (School of Computing)
RESEARCH: Affective Intelligence in Motion: Emotion AI and Humanoid Robot Design (UH 1121)
Rui Li (School of Computing), Emotion AI in Intelligent Machine
Jesse Parron (School of Computing), Integration of AI in NAO Humanoid Robot
Moderator: Courtney Crimmins (OFE)
RESEARCH: The Future of Discovery: AI Tools, Changing Literature Searching Practices, and the Future of Research (UH 1143)
Justin Savage, Catherine Baird, Jacob Bilek, and Renu Sharma (University Libraries)
Moderator: Trina Chance O’Gorman (OFE)
HIGHER EDUCATION: AI with Intention: Decision-Making, Recruitment, and Institutional Readiness (UH 1145)
Suresh Murugan (Information Technology), Daniel Anzalone (Information Technology), AI Reality Check: Making Informed Decisions Beyond the Hype
Jordanna Maziarz, Julissa Duran, and Larissa Lamont (Undergraduate Admissions), Scaling Up Without Stressing Out: Undergraduate Admissions’ AI Recruiter Initiative
Moderator: Vera Senina (OFE)
Lunch: 12-1 pm
ADP Center Commons
Session 3: 1-2 pm
TEACHING: Teaching by Design: Prompt Engineering, Pedagogical Risk, and Responsible AI Use (UH 1120)
Sarah Ghoshal (Writing Studies), Prompt Engineering and Requirements Gathering: Getting the Most Out of AI for our Students
Yi Luo (Communication and Media) and Ashwin Vaidya (Mathematics), AI as Pedagogical Intervention: Creativity, Risk, and Responsibility
Moderator:
RESEARCH: The Work of Understanding: Human Sensemaking and Machine Reading of Argument (UH 1121)
Alina Reznitskaya (Educational Foundations), Noriko Takahashi (Student), and Abraham Onuorah (Student), Using Argument Chains to Support Automated Scoring of Argumentative Writing
Seán McCarthy (Writing Studies), Muddling Through: Sensemaking as Method for Writing with AI
Moderator: Catherine Keohane (OFE)
RESEARCH: AI is Not the Next Generation of the Internet (UH 1143)
Ruben Xing, David Eisenberg, and Kyungmyung (KJ) Jang (School of Business)
Moderator:
AI WORKING GROUP PRESENTATION (UH 1145)
AI Curricular Development: Emily Rutter (Academic Affairs, BCMSU), Denell Downum (Writing Studies)
AI Website and Database Development: Vera Senina (Office for Faculty Excellence) and Jestina Casas (Information Technology)
AI Opportunities: Jordanna Maziarz (Undergraduate Admissions)
AI Policies: Harold Andrieux (Human Resources)
AI Fluency & Competency Development: Patrick Scioscia (Instructional Technology) and Justin Savage (University Libraries)
Moderator: Emily Isaacs (Senior Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs)
Session 4: 2:15-3:15 pm
TEACHING: Designing Inclusive Learning With AI: From IEP Collaboration to Active Classroom Work (UH 1120)
Treasa Praino (Teaching & Learning), Using Ethical AI to Support and Teach Collaborative, Asset-Based IEP Practice
Yikang Shi (School of Computing), Augmenting Active Learning with Artificial Intelligence
Alfredo Toro Carnevali (Political Science and Law), Bringing the Socratic Chatbot into the Classroom
Moderator: Courtney Crimmins (OFE)
RESEARCH: AI at Work: Infrastructure, Interpretation, and Real‑World Decision-Making (UH 1143)
Chao Huang (School of Computing), Towards Efficient Deployment and Use of Large Language Models at the Edge
Yi Luo (Communication and Media), Reimagining Strategic Communication Through AI
Figen Suchanek (Natural & Applied Science, BCMSU), Paula Perez (Student), Brianna Philippe (Student), Prompt Engineering for Environmental Modeling with Real-World Ozone and Weather Data
Moderator:
RESEARCH: Toward Trustworthy Clinical AI: From Decision Support to Diagnostic Evaluation (UH 1145)
Shibbir Ahmed Arif, Hao Liu, and Michelle Zhu (School of Computing), A Clinically Grounded AI Chatbot For Heart Failure Decision Support Using RAG And Real-World Clinical Data
Debapriya Hazra (School of Computing), Evaluating hallucination and diagnostic reliability of LLMs on medical image-based multiple choice tasks
Hao Liu (School of Computing), TrialMind: An LLM Agent Framework for Automated Clinical Trial Eligibility Assessment Using Electronic Health Records
Moderator:
The AI Showcase is cosponsored by the Office for Faculty Excellence (OFE), ADP Center, University Libraries, College of Science and Mathematics, Information Technology Division, Center for Teaching and Academic Innovation (CTAI), the University AI Working Group, the Montclair AI Hub, and the School of Computing.
Breakfast and lunch are provided by the Office for Faculty Excellence (OFE), University Libraries, College of Science and Mathematics, and Information Technology Division.
Last Modified: Monday, February 16, 2026 12:28 pm
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