SMU Libraries leading the way
What happens when curious minds meet cutting-edge technology? At the intersection of AI and academia, a collaboration between SMU Libraries and faculty reveals insights into the newest AI tools and their potential uses in research.
Carrie Johnston, director of research and scholarly initiatives at SMU Libraries, led the inaugural AI for Research Cohort this summer, working with 13 faculty members as they evaluated AI tools and their potential to enhance research. Participants represented fields such as Finance, Education, Psychology, World Languages and more, and shared their findings with the group and others interested in learning about the cohort’s work at the culmination of the experience.
“Faculty partnerships are incredibly valuable, especially in the dynamic landscape of AI, because no single tool works for every discipline,” says Carrie. “By collaborating with faculty, we as librarians can understand how these tools can help or potentially limit their research process, and we use this knowledge to best support the evolving needs of scholars. Thanks to the expertise of our faculty researchers, I’ve discovered ways that AI can amplify our already robust research methods and shaped best practices for critically evaluating these tools across disciplines.”
Gaining proficiency – for research and teaching
Associate Professor of Finance Amar Gande set a goal for himself, and he stuck to it. “Late May, I set myself a goal to become proficient with commonly used AI Tools during the summer. The AI for Research Summer Cohort was a timely opportunity that allowed me to successfully accomplish this goal,” according to the professor. “While the AI tools that I tested (i.e., ChatGPT, Perplexity, Elicit, Notebook LM etc.) were not good in screening (i.e., identifying relevant articles), they did a superb job in summarizing information from a curated collection of relevant papers in a fraction of the time that it would take to do so manually. As a result, I now use these AI tools daily for both my research and teaching.”
Jeanna R. Wieselmann, Assistant Professor of STEM Education, believes her participation will help her both as a researcher and mentor, noting, “The cross-disciplinary collaboration was a unique opportunity, and I gained new perspectives on how AI tools can support literature searches and reviews in educational research and beyond. My firsthand insights into the affordances and limitations of these tools have made me a more critical consumer of AI tools and reports, and I am now better equipped to guide my PhD students in navigating AI thoughtfully.”
Building on momentum
Ömer Özak, Associate Professor of Economics, says this of the cohort: “The AI for Research Summer Cohort was a fantastic opportunity to interact with new research-oriented technology and experiment with tools I hadn’t used before. I learned a great deal from the other participants, and I found the experience so useful that I plan to continue using these tools in my own research and teaching.”
The collaborative nature of this exploration will not end after this summer for Dr. Özak. “In fact, the experience was so enlightening and fun, that now I’m organizing an Econ AI cohort this year to share these methods more broadly with colleagues and students. My goal is to build on the momentum from the summer program by creating a space where we can keep exploring, learning from each other, and applying AI tools in meaningful and practical ways,” he says.
Future opportunities to engage
Cohort participants have been invited to lead their own cohorts within their departments, with participation geared towards faculty and graduate students. The cohort’s findings will be reported in a white paper to be published in the SMU Scholar institutional repository.
Didn’t participate? There are still opportunities to engage! Apply for a short-term stipend for AI literature review licenses (up to 3 months of support for a Pro version) or check out other cohort opportunities at SMU Libraries.
The work of SMU Libraries, and the collaboration with faculty and the SMU community, will continue, though the cohort aimed to provide a foundation for these continued conversations. As participant Jeanna Wieselmann notes, “Even as specific AI tools evolve over time, the critical lens I’ve developed for evaluating AI-generated products will have lasting value.”