Faculty and AI

Across academic departments, Union faculty members are integrating AI technology into their research and instructional practices to the benefit of our students. From language analysis tools aiding English professors in dissecting hidden meanings within texts to advanced data analytics employed by economics scholars to unravel complex market trends, AI has become a transformative tool.

Its applications extend to computer science faculty harnessing machine learning algorithms to develop innovative software solutions and biology instructors leveraging AI to accelerate genetic research. Union's interdisciplinary embrace of AI is enhancing the educational experience and pushing the boundaries of knowledge acquisition in profound ways.

Professor Orellana’s automation inspired digital painting, Feel the Burn

Resource links:

• Teaching and Learning Resources on Generative AI
• RESPONSIBLE USE OF GENERATIVE AI FOR EMPLOYEES
• HONOR COUNCIL GUIDANCE ON AI GENERATED CONTENT AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY Fall 2023
• Q+A FOR STUDENTS ON RESPONSIBLE USE OF GENERATIVE AI TOOLS

Andrew Burkett

Professor of English
Co-Director of the Templeton Institute

Research interests: British Romantic Poetry and Prose; Victorian Poetry and the Novel; Literature and Science; Science and Technology Studies; Cinema and Media Studies; Digital Humanities.

Classes related to AI: FYI-100 Humans and Nonhumans: Challenges from Biotechnology and Artificial Intelligence; STS-100 Introduction to Science, Technology and Society (team taught)

Rebecca Cortez

Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Research interests: Morphological and electrical characterization of nanoscale materials and thin films; additive manufacturing of metals

Classes with AI components: MIN-204 A Human's Guide to AI with Marianna Bergamaschi-Ganapini (Philosophy), Anastasia Pease (English), Tim Stablein (Sociology), and Kristina Striegnitz (Computer Science); FYP AI in a Human World

Shane Cotter

Horace E. Dodge III Associate Professor of the Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering

Research interests: Signal and image processing, pattern recognition, neural networks and deep learning. Main application areas: face expression recognition and artificial intelligence applied in the Internet of Things (IoT).

Classes with AI components: SRS: "Identity and Security in a Technological World"; ECE/CSC-329: Neural Networks & Deep Learning

Mark Dallas

Associate Professor of Political Science

Research interests: High-Tech Sectors, Global Value Chains, China, National Security, East Asian Regionalism, Comparative and International Political Economy, Economic and Political Development and Public Policy, Trade, FDI and Foreign Economic Policy.

Classes with AI components: PSC-346 Technologies and Society: Power, Society and Economy Across Technological Revolutions

Tomas Dvorak

David and Beverly Yunich Professor of Business Ethics

Research interests: Design of retirement plans, International finance )

Classes with AI components: ECO-364 Business Analytics (machine learning), ECO-445 Managerial Economics (Generative AI)

Marianna Bergamaschi Ganapini

Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Research interests: Epistemology and ethics of AI

Marianna was awarded a Notre-Dame IBM Ethics Lab Visiting Fellowship to focus on how organizations determine which risks their AI poses to people and society and how can they find actionable ways to address and prevent those risks.

Roger Hoerl

Donald C. Brate '45-Stanley G. Peschel '52 Professor of Statistics

Research interests include: the design of experiments, modeling, quality improvement, and applications of machine learning

Classes with AI components: STA-364 Big Data Analytics

Michael Okwori

Mary H. '80 and Richard K. Templeton '80 Assistant Professor

Research interests: Tiny Machine Learning (TinyML) and Edge AI; hardware, frameworks, and model optimization. Internet of Things (IoT); enabling technologies, systematic integration, and test-beds.Interdisciplinary applications of machine learning in engineering, sciences, and art.

Classes related to AI: ECE-328 Fundamentals of Internet of Things; TinyML and EdgeAI: The Art of Fitting Large Models in Small Devices (under development)

"In addition to building AI-based systems that can solve problems and automate tasks in several fields, there is a need to work towards making these large models energy-efficient and deployable in small devices. This will unlock several novel applications, increase user privacy, and lower the impact of large AI models on the planet."

Fernando Orellana

Professor of Visual Arts - Digital Arts

Research interests: Artificial life, automated systems, generative art, robotic sculpture

Classes related to AI: AVA-262 Real and Recorded Time, AVA-370 Robotic Art

Anastasia Pease

Senior Lecturer in English, Senior Lecturer in Russian

Research interests: Literature and science, comparative literature, world literature in English, ethics and bioethics, poetry, 19th- and 20th-century Russian literature, science fiction, second language pedagogy.

Classes related to AI: MIN-204 A Human's Guide to AI with Rebecca Cortez (Mechanical Engineering); Marianna Bergamaschi-Ganapini (Philosophy), Tim Stablein (Sociology), and Kristina Striegnitz (Computer Science)

Andrea Pedeferri

Adjunct Professor of Philosophy

Research interests: Logic and philosophy of mathematics

Classes related to AI: (PHL-110-01) Moral Problems

Ashok Ramasubramanian

Dean of Engineering, Co-director of Templeton Institute

Research interests: Controls, Solid Mechanics and Mechatronics

John Rieffel

Associate Professor/Chair of Computer Science

Research interests: Artificial Intelligence, robotics

The National Science Foundation awarded Associate Professor Rieffel a coveted "EAGER" (EArly-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research) grant to support investigations into the behavioral repertoires for soft robotics. This faculty and undergraduate research project has societal implications with applications ranging from search-and-rescue to biomedicine to planetary exploration.

Classes related to AI: CSC-106: Can Computers Think?; CSC-320 Artificial Intelligence

TJ Schlueter

Visiting Assistant Professor Computer Science

Research interests: Model design, game theory, multi-agent systems

Classes related to AI: CSC-320 Artificial Intelligence, CSC-321 Data Mining and Machine Learning

"I believe that AI has the potential to both greatly improve and greatly harm human society. Just as it has become necessary for people to familiarize themselves with computers and the internet, I believe it will become necessary for people to become familiar with AI. I believe this is necessary both to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms that AI can, and likely will, bring. "

Kristina Striegnitz

Associate Professor of Computer Science

Research interests: Natural language processing and generation.

Classes related to AI: CSC-483 Natural Language Processing; CSC-320 Artificial Intelligence; CSC-206 Text Analytics; CSC-106 Can Computers Think?; MIN-204 A Human's Guide to AI

"My vision is to build computer systems that can have fluent conversations with humans using English, or another human language, as well as gestures and other non-verbal behaviors."

Nick Webb

Associate Professor of Computer Science

Research interests: Natural Language Processing, Social Robotics, Computer Science Education

Classes related to AI: CSC-325 Robotics; CSC-233: Data Analytics, STS-101: Intro to Science and Technology, CSC-321 Machine Learning

"That Union has classes in robotics, AI, machine learning, natural language processing, text analytics and data analytics is remarkable for a small college. We (in computer science) use skills in those areas to bring data analytic capability to the wider Union community...and that's what these tools are all about at this moment."