Webinars and Workshops
We host and organize events and workshops featuring experts in Emerging Technologies. These event serve as a platform for our students to engage with emerging technologies, learn from experts and apply knowledge in practical.
Join us for these transformative experiences and leave equipped to lead in the tech space.
Webinars
Andrea Andreson, Vice President of User and Knowledge Experience at Guidewire Software
Andrea Anderson is the VP of User and Knowledge Experience at Guidewire. Based in Silicon Valley, she is a global leader, passionate intrapreneur, and connector who has held pivotal roles at industry leaders, including Guidewire, MEAD and SAP, shaping product vision and strategy across finance, analytics, IT, and application development.
In this session, Andrea will take a deeper look into our findings and design principles for enterprise software solutions — specifically, what users really want and expect from AI solutions. She will also walk through examples of how we use Generative AI in our Idea-to-Product process.
Nasrin Mohabbati, Assistant Professor of Information Systems
This workshop shows faculty how to work with generative AI as a structured research committee, simulating roles such as journal editor, reviewer and domain expert to strengthen ideas, refine contributions and improve literature reviews, methods, and responses to feedback. Participants will learn practical prompting techniques and repeatable workflows that enhance research quality, reduce wasted effort and support every stage of the research lifecycle. The session emphasizes human judgment, responsible use and actionable frameworks that faculty can apply immediately.
Yiwen Chen, Assistant Professor of Marketing
Think building a custom AI for your course is a job for a programmer? Think again! This workshop is designed for faculty who want to turn their existing course documents into interactive assistants. Using a simple syllabus as our blueprint, this workshop will demonstrate how anyone can build a custom GPT to answer student questions, explain project requirements, and provide 24/7 support. You’ll see firsthand how a few clicks and a PDF upload can transform your classroom administration.
Tina Austin, AI Strategist and Educator
AI is everywhere in education, but what’s really working in different disciplines? What’s just hype? And what’s missing from the conversation?
This session peels back the curtain on how AI is transforming teaching, where it’s helping, and where it’s failing. Key Questions We’ll Explore:
- What are the biggest AI misconceptions that are holding educators back?
- Where may faculty get AI wrong, and what’s the real impact on students?
- What are the top AI use cases and best frameworks?
Mans Jabal, AI & Engineering Leader at Deloitte
AI has become an incredible part of company's operations. By correlating vast amounts of data from IT systems and devices, AI can dramatically reduce the time required to identify and resolve issues — ultimately saving time and minimizing potential revenue loss. In this webinar, Mans discusses some very interesting use cases of how AI can improve IT operations by enabling faster problem detection, root cause analysis, and resolution.
Mans is an AI/ML Engineering leader at Deloitte. He has over 20 years of experience specializing in architecture, strategy, and roadmaps for complex technology projects working with multiple Fortune 500 clients like McDonald's, Morgan Stanley, Toyota, Micron, and United Airlines. Mans holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Business Administration from the University of London and an MBA from Louisiana State University.
Florian Eckhard and Philipp Landler, PhD Students at the Technical University of Munich
Join us for an exciting deep dive into the intersection of artificial intelligence and experiential learning. In this session, Florian Eckhard and Philipp Landler, two PhD Candidates at the Technical University of Munich, discuss how IBM's WatsonX.ai, a cutting-edge cloud-based AI and machine learning platform, can enhance both gameplay and pedagogy in classrooms. From real-time data
management to autonomous gameplay strategies, the speakers will showcase how WatsonX.ai can serve as both a support system for students and a training ground or AI agents — enabling simulations where machines learn to make strategic ERP decisions in dynamic, real-world-like business scenarios.
Panelists:
- Juan Pablo Izquierdo, Undergraduate student - Information Systems
- Stefano Silvia, Graduate student - MBA
- Keith Curry, Undergraduate student - Computer Science
- Paula Giana Sibulo, Undergraduate student - Journalism
This Panel happened during the CEETL's 2nd Annual AI Symposium at San Francisco State University. The panelists discussed critical themes such as AI use and its impact on learning, ethics, academic integrity, and essential policies and guidelines for responsible AI integration. Students thoughtfully addressed future-oriented questions, including their perspectives on the role of AI in their learning experience during the education and post-graduation, their primary concerns and excitements regarding AI's evolving presence in university life, and their suggestions for foundational rules or principles in potential university-wide AI policies.
Yasalde Jiménez Acosta, Higher Education Digital Strategy @ Microsoft
Dr. Yasalde Jiménez Acosta is a technology strategist and digital transformation leader with over two decades of experience in AI, cloud computing and enterprise innovation. He is also an Adjunct Professor teaching Digital Transformation at the IE Business School and Brown University Executive MBA. Previously, he held leadership roles at Deloitte, EY, Amazon Web Services, and Pegasystems, leading AI-driven strategies, enterprise cloud migrations, and digital transformation initiatives.
In this webinar, Dr. Acosta discussed the transformative potential of AI agentic systems in business and higher education.
Chris McClean, the Global Lead of Digital Ethics at Avanade
Chris McClean is the global lead for digital ethics at Avanade, a tech consulting and innovation company with over 60,000 employees worldwide. In this role, Chris drives the company’s internal responsible tech and responsible AI efforts, and he also leads the company’s digital ethics advisory practice.
In this session, Chris will look at some of the current and emerging technologies that promise to change the way we engage at work, and discusses the Responsible AI practices that will be critical for determining whether we can these new tools.
Andrea Andreson, Vice President of User and Knowledge Experience at Guidewire SoftwareFriday
Andrea Anderson is the VP of User and Knowledge Experience at Guidewire. Based in Silicon Valley, a life-long learner, connector, and instigator, he has led global teams for many years, designing and developing user-friendly, profitable digital business solutions using a combination of practices from design thinking, business model innovation, and agile development.
In this session, Andrea will cover how Guidewire, a leading software company in the insurance industry, sees Gen AI bring value to its customers and redefine its service offering. She will also show a demo of how Guidewire envisions Gen AI to support business users in Insurance use cases: Underwriting and Claims.
Yasser Rahrovani, Associate Professor of Information Systems at Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario
In this workshop, Professor Rahrovani introduces a novel approach to teaching sensitive topics, such as sexual harassment and AI bias, by integrating comics with business case studies. He advocates leveraging comics to enhance engagement — making learning enjoyable for instructors and more learner-centric, inclusive and joyful for students. This workshop provides practical insights and tangible skills to expand the reach and impact of such educational content from higher education to high schools.
Saikat Maiti, Founder and CEO at nFactor Technologies
Saikat Maiti is a seasoned cybersecurity expert with over two decades of experience in information security and AI leadership roles. Most recently, he served as Senior Director of Information Security at Salesforce. Saikat has held key positions such as Head of Information Security and IT at Upstart, Chief Information Security Officer at Personal Capital, and Product Line Manager for Security, Privacy and Compliance at VMware.
In his talk, Saikat will delve into how AI-driven technologies are revolutionizing threat detection, incident response and overall security strategies, offering a glimpse into the future of cybersecurity and the transformative potential of AI in safeguarding digital assets.
Xuan Zhao, Co-Founder and CEO at Flourish Science | Behavioral Scientist at Stanford
Dr. Xuan Zhao is the CEO and Co-Founder of Flourish Science, a public benefit startup focused on leveraging AI for mental health and human flourishing. She is also a Behavioral Scientist at Stanford University. Her research primarily centers on the psychology of social connection, well-being and human-robot interaction. Xuan has a Ph.D. in Psychology from Brown University and a post-doc from University of Chicago. Her publications has been featured in top academic journals and media outlets such as The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, BBC, TIME Magazine and NPR Science Friday.
In her talk, Dr. Zhao will share her story of developing Flourish, a Science-based AI coach for emotional wellness and personal growth.
Dante Everaert, AI Researcher at Amazon
Dante Everaert is a leading AI Researcher at Amazon, holding the distinction of being the youngest research scientist in the company's history. With a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, Dante has made significant contributions to various projects at Amazon, including one of the world's most widely used neural networks, Amazon Search. His groundbreaking work in neural network research, synthetic data, and Large Language Models has been featured in prestigious AI conferences, including a spotlight presentation at ICLR 2024.
Prashant Jain, Vice President of Business Transformation and Rémon Hogguer, Principal, Capgemini
Prashant Jain is an innovative technology leader with over two decades of experience spearheading Digital transportation and enterprise information systems. In his current role as the Vice President of Business Transformation and the North American SAP Center of Excellence at Capgemini, Prashant has pioneered some of the earliest successful S/4HANA projects and global business transformation. Prashant holds an Engineering degree from IIT Delhi and MBA from UCLA Anderson.
Remon Hougguer is a Principal at Capgemini. He has over 20 years of experience in consulting and business. He is a strong leader in helping organization to transform with initiatives, such as Low-Code/No-Code, AI, ML, IoT, Process Automation, and Big Data, to drive exceptional customer outcomes and experiences.
Andrea Anderson, Global Head of User and Information Experience, Guidewire
Based in Silicon Valley, and a life-long learner, connector and instigator, Andrea has led global teams for many years, designing and developing user-friendly, profitable digital business solutions using a combination of practices from design thinking, business model innovation, and agile development. Ms. Anderson has worked for companies such as MEAD Corporation, SAP and Guidewire in a variety of roles.
Chen-Chen Huo and Konstantin Weitz, Co-founder at Nexus
In the presentation, Chen-Chen and Konstantin shared their experiences in the startup space as well as strategies to overcome obstacles while building a company. They also discussed how data empowered their company to grow and how they leveraged this to build a successful company.
Faculty Corner Workshops
Yikuan Lee and Chenwei Li, Professor at Lam Family College of Business, San Francisco State University
In their workshop, Dr. Lee and Dr. Li will share their efforts in integrating Large Language Models (LLM) and chatbots into their courses: Management Leadership (MGMT 648) and IBUS Entrepreneurship (IBUS 590).
Sameer Verma, Professor of Information Systems at the Lam Family College of Business
Sameer Verma, is a Professor of Information Systems in the Lam Family College of Business at San Francisco State University. His research focuses on the diffusion and adoption of all innovative technologies including AI and LLMs. His current work is at the confluence of distributed infrastructure, edge computing and generative artificial intelligence in the context of information systems.
In this presentation, Professor Verma tries to answer a key questions that how can we build integrated applications of Gen AI grounded in personalized, context-rich enterprise data beyond chatbots?
Sam Gill, Emeritus Professor of Information Systems at the Lam Family College of Business
Prof. Sam Gill is an Emeritus Professor of Information Systems at the Lam Family College of Business at San Francisco State University. He has been programming and teaching computer technologies since 1961 starting with assembly language and tape based operating systems for the Philco Transac 2000. Over his long career in academia and industry, he has participated in many computing technology developments and their application to the business world.
In this presentation, Professor Gill covers essential concepts and techniques for creating effective prompts in generative AI models.
Nasser Shahrasbi, Associate Professor of Information Systems, Lam Family College of Business
Nasser Shahrasbi is an Associate Professor of Information Systems at the Lam Family College of Business, San Francisco State University. He is also the Director of the Lam-Larsen Initiative for Emerging Technologies and a member of the AI Task force at SF State, contributing to the university's efforts to advance AI research and education. Prof. Shahrasbi’s research interest encompasses emerging technologies and their impact on organizations, communities and societies. He has published several articles in top-tier academic journals and conferences. He is also actively engaged in collaborations with industry partners, and organizing several workshops and conferences to foster the dialogue among scholars, practitioners and policymakers.
Student Workshops
Neetan Narayan, MSBA Graduate Student, San Francisco State University
The objective of this workshop is to explore and understand how different generative AI models, specifically those developed by OpenAI, produce varying end results when given identical prompts. Participants will gain insights into the underlying architecture of generative AI, observe the evolution of these models from 2020 to 2024, and critically analyze the differences in model behavior when tasked with summarizing and analyzing articles
Neetan Narayan, MSBA Graduate Student, San Francisco State University
This introductory Tableau workshop explores how to visualize climate change data effectively. Using a dataset that includes variables like temperature changes, CO2 emissions, and sea level rise, users will learn to create interactive dashboards and visualizations in Tableau. This helps to analyze trends, identify patterns, and communicate the urgency of climate action through compelling data storytelling. This workshop was supervised by Prof. Lutfus Sayeed, Faculty Director of the Graduate Program, and supported by the Mini Grant for the Lam Larsen Initiative in Emerging Technologies.
Neetan Narayan, MSBA Graduate Student, San Francisco State University
This Tableau workshop focuses on visualizing stroke risk factors, emphasizing the relationship between smoking, Body Mass Index (BMI) categories, and stroke incidence. Through hands-on exercises, users will learn to create interactive dashboards with Tableau's powerful tools, highlighting correlations and trends to enable deeper insights and more informed health policy discussions. This workshop was supervised by Prof. Lutfus Sayeed, Faculty Director of the Graduate Program, and supported by the Mini Grant for the Lam Larsen Initiative in Emerging Technologies.
Sameer Verma, Professor and Chair, Information Systems Department, San Francisco State University
Prof. Verma has been teaching computer networks at SFSU for over 24 years. He loves to build things for learning and fun. His projects range from [digital] cloud computing infrastructures to [analog] vacuum tube amplifiers. In addition to his academic work, Professor Verma has worked with companies in a consulting capacity in the areas of content analysis, management and delivery.
Sameer Verma, Professor and Chair, Information Systems Department, San Francisco State University and Jean-Michael Arraki
Prof. Verma has been teaching Information Systems at SFSU for over 5 years. He loves to teach using hands-on exercises like exchange the encrypted message with his students, use Google Cloud Platform to deploy virtual machines and many more.
Tai-Yin Chi, Assistant Professor, Information Systems, San Francisco State University
Professor Chi has been teaching Information Systems at SFSU for over 5 years. He loves to teach using hands-on exercises like exchange the encrypted message with his students, use Google Cloud Platform to deploy virtual machines and many more.