Trulaske College of Business announces faculty fellows in transformative technology

The Center for Transformative Technology (C4TT), housed within the University of Missouri’s Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business, has announced its inaugural cohort of C4TT Faculty Fellows. The C4TT Faculty Fellows were chosen based on research interests, classroom activities and a relevant industry focus. 

“Our new C4TT Faculty Fellows program reaffirms our college’s commitment to making transformative technology accessible to faculty, staff and students,” said Balaji Rajagopalan, Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. Dean of the Trulaske College of Business. “By giving our leading faculty access to the latest technology, we’re advancing our college’s research mission and providing students another opportunity to gain valuable, hands-on experience with the types of programs they’ll need to be prepared to use in the workforce.”

The four faculty members chosen for the inaugural, one-year fellowship appointment include:

Fred Bereskin, Associate Professor of Finance and Richard G. Miller Professor of Finance

Project Overview: At a broad level, I am using AI and the Bloomberg terminals together for each of the student’s homework assignments. That way they can iterate and learn more about responsible and optimal use of AI within finance. 

Why did you apply to participate in the C4TT Faculty Fellows program? AI is transforming business education, and I wanted to take part in the redesign of courses in light of AI and its capabilities.

How do you hope your project will benefit the Trulaske College of Business? Students will graduate with AI literacy, including applying critical thinking to AI and ethical use of AI. By recognizing the role of AI, I’ve been able to make my homework assignments more challenging as well, since students will work with AI as part of their analysis.

N. Syam, Associate Professor of Marketing

Project Overview: I teach a course on ‘AI and Machine Learning in Marketing.’ In collaboration with C4TT we developed a module on ‘Sales Lead Scoring Using GenAI.’ This module was successfully deployed in my above-mentioned AI course. This was a very detailed immersive learning experience for the students, which was implemented over three class sessions. In this module students learned how to build their own AI agent that would analyze emails and other communication between the selling firm and its clients. By analyzing this data, the AI agent would figure out the client’s ‘readiness to buy’ on several metrics. By doing so the sales leads were ‘scored’ based on purchase propensity which would allow the selling firm to target the clients in a personalized manner.

Why did you apply to participate in the C4TT Faculty Fellows program? The project described above was developed in close collaboration with C4TT.  Since AI is having a profound impact on business education, it is important for me to reflect these changes in my course offerings. I see the C4TT as a major facilitator in this mission since it can bring its knowledge of cutting-edge transformative technologies and I can contribute the more substantive, domain-specific know-how.

How do you hope your project will benefit the Trulaske College of Business? With business practices facing major changes due to AI, it is important for students at the Trulaske College of Business to be familiar with these changes. The best way to do this is via learning-by-doing and the project I mentioned above accomplished that. Students were exposed to an important aspect of using AI in their future work – building their own AI agent to do something important for all sales organizations which is lead scoring.

Jeffery Piao, Assistant Professor of Accountancy and CBIZ MHM Faculty Scholar

Project Overview: My project is to build a simulation-based bidding game using AI tools with students playing the roles of either sellers or buyers. The project is to demonstrate how information asymmetry between the buyers and the sellers could cause the market to break down. Solving information asymmetry is a crucial mission of financial accounting in the capital markets.

Why did you apply to participate in the C4TT Faculty Fellows Program? I chose to apply to be part of the C4TT Faculty Fellows Program because I am truly excited about the possibility of incorporating transformative technologies into the students’ in-class experience. I want to work with Drew Reeves, C4TT director, and other faculty fellows in bringing advanced technologies to enhance the experience-centered learning environment for our students here at the Trulaske College of Business. I think it will be extremely important for our students to embrace transformative technologies in today’s ever-changing world. As a faculty fellow, I would like to contribute to initiatives championed by the C4TT. 

How do you hope your project will benefit the Trulaske College of Business? I hope my C4TT project could allow me to deliver, with the assistance of transformative technologies, some of the most difficult concepts in my course. I truly believe some of the advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence tools could allow me to turn abstract textbook knowledge into tangible experience and to elevate students’ classroom experiences. 

Jack Pelikan, Assistant Teaching Professor of Management

Project Overview: I am researching and working with Mizzou's Quantum Innovation Center (QIC) to understand the seemingly limitless potential of quantum computing, as we're already seeing in areas like healthcare (e.g., drug discovery and molecular modeling) and finance (e.g., investment portfolio risk modeling and optimization), to assess key risks (e.g., circumvention of legacy encryption methods) and opportunities (e.g., ability to perform computations that were previously impossible), and to educate stakeholders on responsible quantum adoption and governance practices. 

Why did you apply to participate in the C4TT Faculty Fellows program? Having spent nearly two decades in various technology-facing roles within the corporate sector, I've experienced technology's profound impact across all facets of business and the ever-increasing importance of keeping pace with digital transformation and technological evolution. The C4TT's efforts to continuously promote innovation and embrace transformative technologies align perfectly with my goals as an educator.

How do you hope your project will benefit the Trulaske College of Business? My hope is to broaden awareness of quantum computing within and beyond the Trulaske community and empower students, faculty and staff to explore the vast resources offered through Mizzou's Quantum Innovation Center and identify additional opportunities to leverage quantum computing to solve complex problems that will profoundly benefit organizations and society as a whole.  

I'm also the academic director of Mizzou’s inaugural MBA in Analytics program (in-person), launching this fall. The C4TT provides a natural extension of our curriculum, and I look forward to partnering with Drew and the team to provide various impactful, experiential co-curricular activities for our students. 

Mizzou’s Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business prepares students for success as global citizens, business leaders, scholars, innovators and entrepreneurs by providing access to transformative technologies, offering experience-centered learning opportunities and fostering an entrepreneurial mindset.