UAA Business Showcase Builds Bridges Within Community
UAA College of Business and Public Policy Showcase attendees roam Rasmuson Hall accompanied by swingy live music.
Photo Credit: Alaska Business
Universities can feel separate from the communities in which they reside, a world unto themselves. But both cities and universities stand to gain when bridges can be built between them—from partnerships with businesses that enhance and enrich learning opportunities for students to students examining problems the broader community is facing and looking for solutions.
UAA’s College of Business and Public Policy (CBPP) hosted a showcase on October 4 to invite the community to learn about projects the college is working on.
Embracing AI
This year’s showcase focused on AI and how the university is incorporating the technology into the curriculum for art, finance, and more.
Helena Wisniewski, the Marion Porter chair of business education and professor of entrepreneurship, offered examples such as revolutionizing healthcare through genomics and giving F-16 fighter jets pilot-like instincts.
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The showcase also included lectures about AI in business applications. In the Finance Lab, attendees could view art created by AI and then meander down the hall to pose for a photo and watch robotic arms transform the image into a cocktail napkin sketch portrait. The event also hosted a personal visit from Aurora, the robotic dog deployed this summer at Fairbanks Airport to scare away birds and other wildlife from the runway.
Aurora the robot dog bows for onlookers at the UAA College of Business and Public Policy Showcase October 4.
Photo Credit: Alaska Business
Interim CBPP Dean Terry Nelson, a professor of leadership and business administration, said the focus on AI was connected to an earlier session the university held on the topic.
“We couldn’t get people to leave the room,” she said.
UAA College of Business and Public Policy Interim Dean Terry Nelson picks up a “cocktail napkin” portrait of herself, sketched by robotic arms.
Photo Credit: Alaska Business
“A lot of things have been happening in the last few years,” she said, noting the Weidner Center for Real Estate Management, the First National Bank of Alaska Finance Lab, and other business partnerships on display in UAA’s Rasmuson Hall.
In the Finance Lab, The Bridge Company catering and summertime restaurant owners Tana Skye Nevada and Lexa Joy took a self-portrait against the backdrop of a restaurant that looks much like the Ship Creek-straddling restaurant they operate, drawn by AI using a prompt.
At the podium, UAA College of Business and Public Policy Interim Dean Terry Nelson thanks attendees before handing the microphone to Kevin Berry, at right, the Harold T. Caven Professor of Business and Finance. Berry announced that next year’s showcase focus will be “Building a Sustainable Future Economy for Alaska.”
Photo Credit: Alaska Business
Nevada, who’s also a member of the UAA Alumni Board, says The Bridge has been a showcase sponsor for the past two years, but she has been a volunteer at the event for three. The event provides an opportunity for the university to show off all the ways they are fostering growth and working with the community, she says.
Wrapping up the evening, Nelson called on Kevin Berry, the Harold T. Caven Professor of Business and Finance, who announced to the group that the 2025 Showcase focus will be, “Building a Sustainable Future Economy for Alaska.”
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