Agentic Computing Across Disciplines: Transforming Research and Creative Practice

Facilitator: Corin Pitcher (Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media)

The goal of this Scholarship Learning Community (SLC) is to bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to explore focused research questions on agentic AI systems – software systems that can plan, act, and collaborate using large language models – and how these systems can transform research and creative practice across domains. More specifically, this SLC seeks to build capacity within DePaul for interdisciplinary work on agentic systems, leading to further cross-college and cross-program collaboration on research projects, creative practice, applied prototypes, and grant proposals. To learn more, read here.

Can We Trust the Data? Reasoning About Evidence Across Disciplines

Facilitator: Eric Landahl (College of Science and Health)

This Scholarship Learning Community (SLC) brings together researchers from across the university to explore a shared question: when should we trust the evidence we use to make decisions? Faculty in many fields rely on information whose validity may be uncertain, whether interpreting historical sources, analyzing survey data, evaluating business metrics, diagnosing patients, or working with scientific instruments. In each case, information is often treated as usable once it is available, even though its reliability may be uneven or context-dependent. To learn more, read here. 

Conducting Mixed Methods Research in the Social Sciences

Facilitator: Leticia Couto (College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences)

This learning community will discuss how to incorporate mixed methods into social sciences research and how to develop proposals using this research paradigm. Many faculty consider themselves either qualitative scholars or quantitative scholars; however, the mixed methods paradigm allows for investigations with the depth of qualitative work and the breath of quantitative work, while also addressing the biases that we can have against our less used paradigms (be it quantitative or qualitative). By bringing together scholars with different specialties, we can build together towards a mixed methods research paradigm that can uncover parts of our research agenda we were unaware of. To learn more, read here. 

Global Creative Collaboration Lab: Language, Power, and AI in Creative Practice Across Borders

Facilitator: Rob Steel (Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media)

This SLC examines how language, power, and AI shape global creative collaboration. Faculty will work as a collaborative lab to design and test multilingual and AI-informed creative projects. The group will produce pilot work and shared approaches that address authorship, communication, and meaning across cultures. To learn more, read here.

Open Science in Practice: Tools and Workflows for Transparent, Reproducible Research

Facilitator: Vahid Alizadeh, School of Computing in Jarvis College of Computing & Digital Media

This learning community will explore the implementation of open science practices across disciplines. We will meet monthly to learn about pre-registration, open data repositories, reproducible analysis workflows, and transparent reporting standards, with participants developing practical skills to transform their research processes to align with open science principles. To learn more, read here.

Healthy Aging in the United States

Facilitator: Kirsten Yehl, Office of Research Services

This Scholarship Learning Community (SLC) seeks to bring together researchers from across the university to address one of the most pressing societal challenges—aging. With DePaul’s extensive expertise in this area, the SLC provides an opportunity to develop novel, interdisciplinary approaches to improving the lives of older adults. By 2050, the number of older adults in the U.S. is expected to double, straining healthcare systems, the economy, and social structures. A transdisciplinary research group at DePaul could generate impactful solutions by integrating perspectives from psychology, sociology, healthcare, computer science, urban planning, and law. To learn more, read here.

Social Media Video for Public Engagement

Facilitator: Samantha Close, College of Communication

In this learning community, we want to learn how to communicate the knowledge that scholars have to a wider public audience using social media videos. There is a vibrant ecosystem of video essayists on social media creating content that deals with academic topics, from the sciences to the humanities to the law and beyond. This suggests that there is a strong audience for this kind of knowledge-based content, but the people creating it are often not scholars. This presents an opportunity for researchers to communicate with the public, both to disseminate knowledge and to improve the reputation of the academy generally.

The purpose of this group is to introduce researchers to both the existing ecosystem of video essays in different disciplines on social media and to teach them how to create video essays on their own. The outcome of this learning community will be one video essay (at least) per participant and a plan for where and how they would distribute it via social media. To learn more, read here.

Virtual Reality (VR) for Interdisciplinary Research

Facilitator: Chi Jang Yin, School of Cinematic Arts in Jarvis College of Computing & Digital Media

This learning community aims to create a welcoming space for analyzing, exploring, and experimenting with Virtual Reality (VR) in interdisciplinary scholarship for creative projects, research, and/or publications. The group will collaborate on establishing goals and coordinating the meeting schedule and formats. We invite faculty and staff members from all disciplines who have been associated with VR to participate, as well as those new to and interested in exploring VR. DePaul Instructional Game & Innovation Lab [DIGI] will offer XR orientation workshops for less experienced members of the learning community. To learn more, read here.

ChatGPT and Text Generative AI in Research

Facilitator: Ignacio Luri, Driehaus College of Business

This learning community will explore ChatGPT and other Text Generative AI applications to learn their implications for research. Meetins will be held monthly, with each meeting covering a different TexGenAI tool or a different aspect of this complex technological and sociocultural issue. Meetings will be discussion-heavy, with participants taking turns to lead each discussion. Read more here.

Sustainability at DePaul - Finding Synergies and Collaborations

Facilitator: Kyle Grice, College of Science and Health

The goal of this learning community is to bring together scholars in sustainability-related areas from across DePaul to share our scholarship, find synergies, and develop collaboration opportunities. A key output will be a document about the sustainability-related research and scholarship at DePaul at to identify funding opportunities to support collaborations identified through the SLC. Read more here.

AI, Ethics, and Society

Facilitator: Bamshad Mobasher, Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media

The goal of the AI, Ethics, and Society Scholarship Learning Community is to bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to explore focused research questions related to the societal impact of AI technologies and ethical considerations for the development and deployment of these technologies in different domains.  The activities of this learning communities will hopefully lead to further cross-college and cross program collaboration on AI-focused research projects or grant proposals, especially those with a societal impact. Read more here.

Academic Writing Success & Accountability Group

Facilitator: Kim Amer, College of Science and Health

Writing scholarly manuscripts requires dedicated time, concentration, confidence and mentorship. To increase successful publication of scholarly manuscripts this group will have monthly meetings with specific content and writing goals. Follow up each month will focus on individual successes. Weathering decisions regarding publication will also be discussed. Read more here.