Events and Workshops

We host and organize events and workshops featuring experts in Emerging Technologies. These event serve as a platform for our students to engage with emerging technologies, learn from experts, and apply knowledge in practical.

Join us for these transformative experiences and leave equipped to lead in the tech space.

Meet the Expert Events

Saikat

Enhancing Cybersecurity with GenAI: Innovations and Strategies for Enterprise Security

Speaker: Saikat Maiti, Founder & CEO at nFactor Technologies

Saikat Maiti is a seasoned cybersecurity expert with over two decades of experience in information security and AI leadership roles. Most recently, he served as Sr Director of Information Security at Salesforce. Saikat has held key positions such as Head of Information Security and IT at Upstart, Chief Information Security Officer at Personal Capital, and Product Line Manager for Security, Privacy & Compliance at VMware.

In his talk, Saikat will delve into how AI-driven technologies are revolutionizing threat detection, incident response, and overall security strategies, offering a glimpse into the future of cybersecurity and the transformative potential of AI in safeguarding digital assets.

Xuan Zhao

From Science to Business: Building AI Companions for Hman Well-being

Speaker: Xuan Zhao, Co-Founder & CEO @ Flourish Science | Behavioral Scientist @ Stanford

Dr. Xuan Zhao is the CEO and Co-Founder of Flourish Science, a public benefit startup focused on leveraging AI for mental health and human flourishing. She is also a Behavioral Scientist at Stanford University. Her research primarily centers on the psychology of social connection, well-being, and human-robot interaction. Xuan has a PhD in Psychology from Brown University and a post-doc from University of Chicago. Her publications has been featured in top academic journals and media outlets such as The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, BBC, TIME Magazine, and NPR Science Friday.
In her talk, Dr. Zhao will share her story of developing Flourish, a Science-based AI coach for emotional wellness and personal growth.

Dante Everaert

Unveiling the Secrets of Generative AI and Large Language Models

Speaker: Dante Everaert, AI Researcher at Amazon

Dante Everaert is a leading AI Researcher at Amazon, holding the distinction of being the youngest research scientist in the company's history. With a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, Dante has made significant contributions to various projects at Amazon, including one of the world's most widely used neural networks, Amazon Search. His groundbreaking work in neural network research, synthetic data, and Large Language Models has been featured in prestigious AI conferences, including an upcoming spotlight presentation at ICLR 2024.

Prashant Jain

Leveraging Large Language Models

Speakers: Prashant Jain, Vice President of Business Transformation & Rémon Hogguer, Principal, Capgemini 

Prashant Jain is an innovative technology leader with over two decades of experience spearheading Digital transportation and enterprise information systems. In his current role as the Vice President of Business Transformation and the North American SAP Center of Excellence at Capgemini, Prashant has pioneered some of the earliest successful S/4HANA projects and global business transformation. Prashant holds an Engineering degree from IIT Delhi and MBA from UCLA Anderson.

Remon Hougguer is a Principal at Capgemini. He has over 20 years of experience in consulting and business. He is a strong leader in helping organization to transform with initiatives, such as Low-Code/No-Code, AI, ML, IoT, Process Automation, and Big Data, to drive exceptional customer outcomes and experiences.

Andrea Anderson

A Business Perspective on Generative AI

Speaker: Andrea Anderson, Global Head of User and Information Experience, Guidewire

Based in Silicon Valley, and a life-long learner, connector and instigator, Andrea has led global teams for many years, designing and developing user-friendly, profitable digital business solutions using a combination of practices from design thinking, business model innovation, and agile development. Ms. Anderson has worked for companies such as MEAD Corporation and SAP, and Guidewire in a variety of roles.

Colage of Chen Chen Huo and Konstantin Weitz

Data Science and Startup Strategies with Nexus

Speakers: Chen-Chen Huo & Konstantin Weitz, Co-founder at Nexus

In the presentation, Chen-Chen and Konstantin shared their experiences in the startup space as well as strategies to overcome obstacles while building a company. They also discussed how data empowered their company to grow and how they leveraged this to build a successful company.

Faculty Corner Workshops

headshot collage of Yikuan Lee and Chenwei Li

Harnessing AI for Experiential Learning in Business Education

Speakers: Yikuan Lee, & Chenwei Li, Professor at Lam Family College of Business, San Francisco State University

In their workshop, Dr. Lee and Dr. Li will share their efforts in integrating Large Language Models (LLM) and chatbots into their courses: Management Leadership (MGMT 648) and IBUS Entrepreneurship (IBUS 590).

Sameer Verma

Gaining Business Insights with Generative Al

Speaker: Sameer Verma, Professor of Information Systems at the Lam Family College of Business

Sameer Verma, is a Professor of Information Systems in the Lam Family College of Business at San Francisco State University. His research focuses on the diffusion and adoption of all innovative technologies including AI and LLMs. His current work is at the confluence of distributed infrastructure, edge computing and generative artificial intelligence in the context of information systems. 

In this presentation, Professor Verma tries to answer a key questions that how can we build integrated applications of Gen AI grounded in personalized, context-rich enterprise data beyond chatbots?
 

Sam Gill - headshot

Prompt Engineering for Business Applications

Speaker: Sam Gill, Emeritus Professor of Information Systems at the Lam Family College of Business

Prof. Sam Gill is an Emeritus Professor of Information Systems at the Lam Family College of Business at San Francisco State University. He has been programming and teaching computer technologies since 1961 starting with assembly language and tape based operating systems for the Philco Transac 2000. Over his long career in academia and industry, he has participated in many computing technology developments and their application to the business world.

In this presentation, Professor Gill covers essential concepts and techniques for creating effective prompts in generative AI models. 
 

Nasser Shahrasbi

AI in Teaching and Learning

Speaker: Nasser Shahrasbi, Associate Professor of Information Systems, Lam Family College of Business

Nasser Shahrasbi is an Associate Professor of Information Systems at the Lam Family College of Business, San Francisco State University. He is also the Director of the Lam-Larsen Initiative for Emerging Technologies and a member of the AI Task force at SF State, contributing to the university's efforts to advance AI research and education. Prof. Shahrasbi’s research interest encompasses emerging technologies and their impact on organizations, communities, and societies. He has published several articles in top-tier academic journals and conferences. He is also actively engaged in collaborations with industry partners, and organizing several workshops and conferences to foster the dialogue among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.
 

Workshops

Neetan Narayan - headshot

Unnderstanding The Differrences of Generative AI Models

Speaker:Speaker: Neetan Narayan, MSBA Graduate Student, San Francisco State University

The objective of this workshop is to explore and understand how different generative AI models, specifically those developed by OpenAI, produce varying end results when given identical prompts. Participants will gain insights into the underlying architecture of generative AI, observe the evolution of these models from 2020 to
2024, and critically analyze the differences in model behavior when tasked with summarizing and analyzing articles

Neetan Narayan

Introduction to Tableau for Analyzing Climate Change Impact on Supply Change Management

Speaker: Neetan Narayan, MSBA Graduate Student, San Francisco State University

This introductory Tableau workshop explores how to visualize climate change data effectively. Using a dataset that includes variables like temperature changes, CO2 emissions, and sea level rise, users will learn to create interactive dashboards and visualizations in Tableau. This helps to analyze trends, identify patterns, and communicate the urgency of climate action through compelling data storytelling. This workshop was supervised by Prof. Lutfus Sayeed, Faculty Director of the Graduate Program, and supported by the Mini Grant for the Lam Larsen Initiative in Emerging Technologies.

Neetan Narayan

Introduction to Tableau for Analyzing Stroke Analysis

Speaker: Neetan Narayan, MSBA Graduate Student, San Francisco State University

This Tableau workshop focuses on visualizing stroke risk factors, emphasizing the relationship between smoking, Body Mass Index (BMI) categories, and stroke incidence. Through hands-on exercises, users will learn to create interactive dashboards with Tableau's powerful tools, highlighting correlations and trends to enable deeper insights and more informed health policy discussions. This workshop was supervised by Prof. Lutfus Sayeed, Faculty Director of the Graduate Program, and supported by the Mini Grant for the Lam Larsen Initiative in Emerging Technologies.

Sameer Verma

Cloud Computing: DevOps and Orchestration with Kubernetes

Speaker:  Sameer Verma, Professor and Chair, Information Systems Dept., San Francisco State University
Date & Time: Tuesday, April 2, 2024, 12:30-2:30 p.m.

Prof. Verma has been teaching computer networks at SF State for over 24 years. He loves to build things for learning and fun. His projects range from [digital] cloud computing infrastructures to [analog] vacuum tube amplifiers. In addition to his academic work, Professor Verma has worked with companies in a consulting capacity in the areas of content analysis, management, and delivery.

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Micro Clouds and Micro Containers: Running Kubernetes on the Edge

Speaker:  Jean-Michael Arraki, Justin San Andres and Andrew Raul
Date & Time: Saturday, November 04, 2023

 

 

Samer Verma

Containerization and Cloud Computing

Speaker:  Sameer Verma, Professor and Chair, Information Systems Dept., San Francisco State University and Jean-Michael Arraki
Date & Time: Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Prof. Verma has been teaching Information Systems at SF State for over 5 years. He loves to teach using hands-on exercises like exchange the encrypted message with his students, use Google Cloud Platform to deploy virtual machines and many more.

Tai-Yin Chi

How to Launch Your Online Business with Open-Source Cloud

Speaker:  Tai-Yin Chi, Assistant Professor, Information Systems, San Francisco State University
Date & Time: Friday, May 12, 2023, 10 a.m.- noon

Prof. Verma has been teaching Information Systems at SF State for over 5 years. He loves to teach using hands-on exercises like exchange the encrypted message with his students, use Google Cloud Platform to deploy virtual machines and many more.

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