Workshop Overview

Workshop Overview#

This workshop provides researchers and faculty with a practical introduction to large language models and their applications in teaching and research. Through hands-on demonstrations and interactive exercises, participants learn evidence-based techniques for effective AI integration in academic work.

No AI background required. These materials are meant to be companion workshop notes organized by Dr. Hatef Dastour, moving from fundamentals to practical applications to hands-on practice in an interactive and conversational format.

Workshop Goals#

By the end of this workshop, you will have:

  • A faculty-friendly explanation of how modern language models work

  • Effective prompting approaches for teaching and research

  • One or more AI-enhanced workflows you can use this semester

How to Use These Notes#

These notes are designed to be a living resource that complements your learning journey:

  • During the Workshop: Follow along on your laptop if desired. Use these materials as a real-time guide to access prompt templates and engage with hands-on exercises.

  • After the Workshop: Treat this site as a permanent reference for your research and teaching toolkit. Return here to adapt prompt strategies for your courses, research projects, or scholarly writing.

Workshop Materials#

Access these notes at: https://tinyurl.com/aiwork4u

Use of AI Tools#

To polish the writing, refine the accompanying code, and generate or enhance some of the images (with appropriate references wherever they are used), a combination of various AI tools was employed. These tools include proprietary systems such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot, as well as several open-source AI models.

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