AppliedAI

This panel shifts the focus from employer expectations to student reality. Moderated by Jena Zangs, Chief Data and AI Officer at the University of St. Thomas, the session features graduate and undergraduate students actively working with AI across disciplines.

Panelists will share how they are using AI in coursework, research, internships, entrepreneurship, and personal projects. They will discuss what tools they rely on, how they are learning beyond the classroom, and how they view the evolving expectations of entry level roles.

This conversation offers Applied AI leaders a rare opportunity to hear directly from emerging AI builders and to better understand how student capabilities are developing in real time.

Agenda
6:00pm - 6:30pm: Networking - food & drinks
6:30pm - 8:00pm: Presentation & discussion
8:00pm: Networking at Lake Monster Brewing

Meet Our Featured Speakers
Esse Komlanvi: Graduate Student
Esse Komlanvi is an AI and business analytics professional building technology that expands opportunity in underserved communities. As a Graduate student at the University of St. Thomas she founded Nuse, a voice-first AI platform designed to help women entrepreneurs in emerging economies manage their businesses, access financial education, and unlock funding. With a background in IT consulting, data analytics, and digital transformation, Esse focuses on making artificial intelligence practical, inclusive, and human-centered. Her work sits at the intersection of AI, financial inclusion, and women’s economic empowerment. She is passionate about ensuring that AI is not only innovative, but also equitable and accessible to those who are often left out of traditional tech systems.

Arthur Kennedy: Graduate Student
Arthur A. Kennedy is a Master’s candidate in Artificial Intelligence at the University of St. Thomas, where he builds applied AI solutions and collaborates on real-world projects across data analytics and machine learning. After completing his undergraduate degree in computer science, Arthur chose the AI program to deepen his technical expertise and move beyond using tools to understand and develop intelligent systems. He has worked with proprietary datasets, trained and fine-tuned models in specialized domains, and contributed to campus hackathons and AI community events that connect industry challenges with student builders. Arthur is passionate about expanding what it means to be an AI practitioner and empowering his peers to translate academic learning into practical impact.

Jena (moderator): Chief Data& AI Officer
Jena Zangs is the first Chief Data & AI Officer at any higher ed institution in Minnesota, she specializes in moving organizations beyond AI hype into production-ready, governed, and scalable systems. She leads enterprise AI strategy, modern data platforms, and applied innovation spanning infrastructure, AI, and machine learning, with a focus on trust. Her work has been recognized with an AWS Education Champion Award and a Top 50 Data & Analytics Team honor. A Lovable Global Buildathon Winner, Jena brings a builder’s mindset to every engagement, bridging executive strategy with hands-on implementation.

Sponsors
This event is sponsored by Lab651 & Recursive Awesome

This talk explores Co-Intelligence—a term popularized by Ethan Mollick, and extended here into a practical framework for how individuals can think with AI rather than merely use it. Co-Intelligence is not about automation or shortcuts; it is about designing persistent, learning partnerships where human judgment, creativity, and context combine with machine speed, scale, and pattern recognition to produce outcomes neither could achieve alone.

Through real-world examples—from developers and analysts to consultants and knowledge workers—we will examine what changes when AI becomes a collaborator: how workflows evolve, how insight emerges faster, and how capabilities begin to compound rather than reset with each task. We will also address the behavioral shifts required for true collaboration, along with the common failure modes that keep people trapped in tool-mode, including over-reliance, cognitive offloading, and false confidence.

Attendees will leave with a practical Co-Intelligence stack they can apply immediately, including methods for building persistent context, frameworks for cognitive delegation, and ways to measure augmented performance. More importantly, attendees will see how professional value in an AI-driven world increasingly comes from building strong cognitive partnerships with AI—moving beyond simple tool use toward sustained, amplified capability.

Agenda
6:00pm - 6:30pm: Networking - food & drinks
6:30pm - 8:00pm: Presentation & discussion
8:00pm: Networking at Lake Monster Brewing

Meet Our Featured Speaker
Nick Roseth explores how humans and intelligent systems think, create, and evolve together. With more than 25 years of experience at the intersection of business, design, and emerging technology, he has helped startups and Fortune 500 organizations navigate transformation across industries including healthcare, finance, and construction—building everything from early digital platforms to immersive XR experiences and, more recently, Agentic AI and human-machine systems. As the founder of Explore Design, he advises organizations on AI adoption through a distinctly human lens that integrates psychology, behavioral design, and strategic foresight, with a focus on trust, culture, leadership, and decision-making. His work centers on designing adaptive systems where humans and machines co-create rather than compete. Nick is passionate about the tech and entrepreneurship community, a perspective he shares through speaking, writing, and advisory work, including a TEDx talk on technology and workforce transformation and the film DocuMntary. Follow Nick’s work on the Adaptive Intelligence Substack.

Sponsors
This event is sponsored by Lab651 & Recursive Awesome