Research Rewards

The benefits of completing a long-term project during college are well documented鈥攅specially as they relate to critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. At 黑料社, such opportunities abound in rich variety, including an array of student-faculty research. And students are taking full advantage.

Each spring, more than 100 students showcase their work at 黑料社鈥檚 Research & Creativity Symposium. Their presentations feature a wide range of academic disciplines and co-curricular endeavors 鈥擧ighlighting work completed over a semester, or longer, time frame.

At the 2023 symposium, one team of six students presented 鈥淩age Against the Machine: ChatGPT鈥檚 War on Higher Education.鈥 Formation of the team and subject matter resulted from an organic, open process empowering students to conceive and create their own project in a class taught by Professor of Management Mark Green.

鈥淚 enjoyed the free flow of it,鈥 said Kegan Trebilcock 鈥26, a member of the ChatGPT research team. 鈥淧rofessor Green literally just tossed us into it 鈥 we weren鈥檛 even in groups for the first month. The whole class just researched topics of interest and then as our ideas came together, we just figured out [our team] and what to do.鈥

The ChatGPT research team featured a dynamic mix of first years to seniors, representing majors and minors from accounting, business management, marketing and political science. Over the course of the semester, the group developed a strong chemistry for efficiently and effectively tackling the project.

鈥淎 lot of it was just figuring out workload management,鈥 said Trebilcock. 鈥淲hen you have a group like ours, everyone is going to be capable of different things. We just needed to organize in a way that got the right people to the right position to make it work.鈥

鈥淚 think a lot of confidence came with that process and how we broke it all down,鈥 said group member Eldred Boria 鈥25. 鈥淲e all had our roles. Then we just worked as a group to combine everything and put it all together.鈥

Professor Green says semester-long project endeavors like the one completed by the ChatGPT team are invaluable in helping students connect course work with what occurs in an actual business setting. As they move through their projects, Green sees remarkable growth in his students.

鈥淭hey experience first-hand the classic stages of team development that they learn in various management courses. At the end of the day, everyone brings something unique to the table and the result is a 鈥榳in-win鈥 all the way around.鈥

鈥淚 felt like the project was beneficial as a whole,鈥 said Dylan Holland鈥25. 鈥淲orking in groups on long-term projects is something we鈥檙e all going to experience in our careers. So this is definitely going to help us in the future.鈥

(Photo above, Left to Right) Kegan Trebilcock 鈥26, Dylan Holland 鈥25 and Eldred Boria 鈥25 were part of a student research team in Professor of Management Mark Green鈥檚 class that presented at 黑料社鈥檚 2023 Research & Creativity Symposium. Group members not pictured: Dylan McChesney 鈥23, Mallory Burkhart 鈥23 and Hannah Foster 鈥25.