Embracing AI in business education

	"If our students aren’t ready for what the future holds, they could quickly become obsolete in important ways that we may not fully understand right now." - Robert Brunner

At Gies, one of our core commitments is fueling INNOVATION through a diverse, engaged community that’s inspired to discover new ways to do business and new ways to teach business. That’s evident in the way we’re embracing artificial intelligence; we’re not only teaching students how to use it, but also how to predict possible future scenarios, so they can better prepare themselves—and their companies—for those outcomes.

In Robert Brunner’s Emerging Technologies and Disruption course, students are using AI as part of their assessments and therefore learning exactly what AI can and can’t do. They’re closely examining the process of using the technology. What prompts did they use? How did changing the prompts change the responses they received? How much do they trust those responses?

Other faculty at Gies are also bringing AI into their courses. In his IT for Networked Organizations course, Vishal Sachdev developed a bot to help students become familiar with the basic outline of the course. Then he trained a second bot with assignment instructions, a model submission, a rubric, and guidelines on how to respond to students. This bot can provide critiques to student submissions, feedback on possible missing elements in assignments and problems with word length, and guidance on whether students have sufficiently answered the assignment’s question.

These are just a couple examples of how we’re embracing AI at Gies and using it to prepare learners to become purpose-driven business leaders. You can read more in a recent article written by Robert Brunner for AACSB Insights.

Gies ranked as Top 10 public business school
Gies Business is once again ranked as a Top 10 public undergraduate business program in the nation, according to the latest rankings released by Poets&Quants, the preeminent source for information on undergraduate and graduate business education. Gies was ranked #6 among public business schools and #16 overall. READ MORE

Narang, Kim among 50 Best Undergraduate Business Professors
Gies professors Unnati Narang and Min Jung Kim were named to Poets&Quants' list of the 50 Best Undergraduate Business Professors in the world. Narang and Kim were chosen from more than 650 nominations from students, alumni, colleagues, and deans. READ MORE

Four Gies, iVenture alumni named Forbes 30 Under 30
Two Gies alumni and leaders from two former iVenture Accelerator startups have been named to Forbes 30 Under 30. John Summit (Schuster) (ACCY '16, MAS '17) is a high-energy DJ whose productions have amassed more than 500 million streams, and Myles Gage (FIN '16) co-founded financial literacy platform Rapunzl. READ MORE

Remembering Professor Tim Johnson
Our friend and colleague, Professor Tim Johnson, passed away unexpectedly on December 31 of a heart attack. He was 62 years old. 

Tim was a well-known researcher in asset pricing, macroeconomic dynamics, volatility, liquidity, and derivatives. He cared deeply about the Ph.D. program in finance and has advised and mentored many students who went on to successful careers in academia and industry. 

Since joining us in 2006, Tim was always an outstanding citizen in the College. Among his many contributions were helping to redesign the Gies Business core curriculum, leading the effort to secure insurance coverage for Gies’ loss of international tuition revenue during the pandemic, and serving as an important voice in our College and department efforts to make Gies a more diverse and inclusive place. 

Since learning of his death, many of Tim’s current and former students have reached out, looking for ways to honor his life. We have been working closely with Tim’s family to provide the following opportunities for you to join others in remembering him, celebrating his contributions, and ensuring his legacy lives on for generations to come.

Celebration of Life Event
Saturday, April 6
Deloitte Auditorium, Business Instructional Facility
Reception to Follow
Please register if you plan to attend in-person or online.

A memorial fund has been established to honor Professor Tim Johnson. To make a gift, visit https://give.business.illinois.edu/tim-johnson-memorial. The fund is for general support and student programming for graduate and doctoral students in the Department of Finance. 

DEI policy set? Your work's not done
Firms that invest time, money, and resources on hiring diverse employees but don’t implement DEI-driven workplace policies will undermine their diversity recruiting initiatives, according to a new study authored by Gies professor Mackenzie Alston. READ MORE

New study estimates health impact of air pollution
Living downwind from a chronic pollution source could take years off your life and, according to a new study, even a fleeting increase in air pollution exposure could bring significant health risks to vulnerable individuals. READ MORE

Through a unique, student-centered partnership, Busey Bank and Gies College of Business are working in tandem to prepare tomorrow's purpose-driven business leaders with the tools and practical skills they need to succeed. Busey has joined on with Gies' Investment Management Academy (IMA), an academic program that provides select students with institutional investment experience and the opportunity to manage more than $1 million of University of Illinois Foundation assets for a truly real-world experience.

"The Investment Management Academy reached out to Busey to ask if we wanted to be a part of the program, and be a resource for the students, showing them real-world investment reporting and investment management efforts, basically how managing investments works in actual practice. And we jumped at the opportunity to help," said Bob Ballsrud, executive managing director, wealth advisory at Busey, who is a Gies Business alumnus with a degree in finance. "As part of this relationship, we also value the opportunity to come in periodically to be a resource for the students and get to know them so that when they graduate and are looking for internships or full-time positions, we’re an option for them as a robust investment management team, not just the local bank."

As part of the program, students take on all the responsibilities expected of analysts in a fund management environment. Members of the Academy conduct industry research, prepare qualitative and quantitative assessments of investment candidates, present investment recommendations, conduct due diligence on investments, oversee trading, manage industry concentrations, and report on fund performance. 

"While many colleges and universities have extracurricular programs to help students prepare for careers in investment management, Gies' IMA is one of a select few that are part of the structured curriculum," said Rich Excell, co-director of the Investment Management Academy. "The IMA has clear standards of performance, and unlike most other programs, our students do much more than stock pitches. They take on all of the responsibilities expected of analysts in a fund management environment." READ MORE

Gies Business Reception in Arizona | Tue., Feb. 6
5:00-7:00 pm MT | Silverleaf Neighborhood, North Scottsdale, AZ
Gies College of Business is excited to offer the opportunity to gather in Arizona to learn how Gies is educating the next generation of business leaders and network with Gies alumni from across Arizona and beyond. Registration is now closed for this event. Please contact BusinessAlumni@illinois.edu with any questions.

Gies Business Reception in Naples | Wed., Feb. 28
5:00-7:00 pm ET | Naples, FL
Gies College of Business is excited to invite you to a reception in Naples! Join us for a chance to reconnect with the College and fellow alumni and hear College updates from Dean Jeff Brown. Additional details and location will be provided following registration. Register Now

Gies Business Reception in Fort Lauderdale | Thu., Feb. 29
6:00-8:00 pm ET | Fort Lauderdale, FL
Gies College of Business is excited to invite you to a reception in Fort Lauderdale! Join us for a chance to reconnect with the College and fellow alumni and hear College updates from Dean Jeff Brown. Additional details and location will be provided following registration. Register Now 

Gies Business Reception in Los Angeles | Thurs., March 21
6:00-8:00 pm PT | Los Angeles, CA
Gies College of Business is excited to invite you to a reception in Los Angeles! Join us for a chance to reconnect with the College and fellow alumni and hear College updates from Executive Associate Dean of Academic Programs, Brooke Elliott. Additional details and location will be provided following registration. Register Now

Save the Date: Gies College of Business 2024 Spring Luncheon | Fri., May. 3
11:00 am-1:30 pm CT | Chicago, IL
The Gies Business Alumni Association and Gies Business are looking forward to hosting the 2024 Spring Luncheon in person in Chicago again this year! Please hold the date and stay tuned for additional details coming soon.

If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate in an event, please contact Gies Business Office of Advancement at BusinessAlumni@illinois.edu or 217-244-6669. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs