AI, technology evolution in focus at MTSU’s inaugural Tech Vision Conference

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Artificial intelligence’s proliferation and the increasing importance of it and other technologies in daily and professional life were key topics of discussion and exploration at an inaugural conference recently held at Middle Tennessee State University.

“Tech Vision: People and Technology Shaping Tomorrow” brought together students and faculty from numerous disciplines, industry professionals, and community partners over two days to exchange insights about the evolving people-technology ecosystem and its impact on the workforce, organizations and society.

Dr. Ibtissam “Sam” Zaza, assistant professor, Department of Information Systems and Analytics, Jones College of Business — Dr. Ibtissam “Sam” Zaza

Hosted by the Jones College of Business at the Miller Education Center on Bell Street, the event featured a healthy mix of faculty, students and guest speakers, panels and more, highlighted by keynote talks on both days. While free, the conference did have an attendance capacity that was quickly filled, with dozens of others who were able to register on site to attend some of the various sessions.

The event also included a session where students could showcase their research through poster presentations as well as an industry and sponsor exhibition.

“It exceeded my expectations and clearly showed strong interest in technology trends — not just from the campus community, but also from industry partners eager to see what MTSU brings to the table,” said conference co-organizer Sam Zaza, associate professor in the Department of Information Systems and Analytics. “This was just the beginning — a conversation starter. The regional tech ecosystem is engaged, and it’s clear we’re all in this together as we move forward.”

Attendee Angela Bingham, left, of Murfreesboro Rescue Mission, checks in at the registration table for the 2025 Tech Vision Conference held April 10-11 in the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (MTSU photo by Jimmy Hart) — Attendee Angela Bingham, left, of Murfreesboro Rescue Mission, checks in at the registration table for the 2025 Tech Vision Conference held April 10-11 in the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the Middle Tennessee State University campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (MTSU photo by Jimmy Hart)

‘We could all use a little help’

Not surprising, the emergence of AI and accompanying challenges was a key topic of discussion. First-day keynote speaker Josh Byrd, chief growth officer with tech startup Copient.ai, told his luncheon audience how AI tools have greatly helped him navigate some of his personal challenges — particularly organizing and synthesizing information — that come with his ADHD.

“(ADHD) can be a curse or it can be a superpower,” said Byrd, whose company provides an AI-driven sales training platform. “It can be the thing that gives me the crazy idea in the middle of the night that could scale into a bajillion dollars, or it could be the thing that keeps me so off track that I stay off track for multiple days in a row.”

Josh Byrd, chief growth officer with tech startup Copient.ai, gives a luncheon keynote address about artificial intelligence at the 2025 Tech Vision Conference held April 10-11 in the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (MTSU photo by James Cessna) — Josh Byrd, chief growth officer with tech startup Copient.ai, gives a luncheon keynote address about artificial intelligence at the 2025 Tech Vision Conference held April 10-11 in the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the Middle Tennessee State University campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (MTSU photo by James Cessna)

After initial resistance, Byrd said his eventual embrace of AI tools have helped him break down huge tasks into “bite-sized pieces” that he could effectively tackle. “We could all use a little help sometimes, right?” he said, later transparently noting that he used AI to help him outline his keynote presentation.

Byrd said he believes proper use of AI, rather than replacing human workers, can help employees “become the best versions of ourselves” and “the best you’ve ever been at your job … by replacing wasted effort” on tasks that could be more efficiently addressed through AI tools — thus freeing employees to focus on the tasks in which they are integral in completing.

“It seems that AI is not a tool to do something, but a tool to help you work smarter and not harder,” he continued, adding that it’s important for users to be naturally curious. “ … Don’t ask AI to make decisions for you, please. But ask it to press on your reasons for making decisions. … It really helps me to filter my decisions.”

MTSU faculty, students share experiences

A host of MTSU faculty participated in the conference as guest speakers or panelists, including a first-day professor and student panel featuring a variety of academic disciplines.

History instructor Lisa Swart, who requires her students to take a tutorial at the beginning of the semester about the responsible use AI, shared how she and her students use AI in her U.S. history classroom for brainstorming as well as finding lesser known websites with a wealth of relevant information to their coursework that they might not otherwise find from traditional search engines.

Middle Tennessee State University Department of History instructor Lisa Swart gives a presentation about how she incorporates artificial intelligence tools in her courses as part of a professor and student panel at the 2025 Tech Vision Conference held April 10-11 at the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (MTSU photo by Andy Heidt)

Middle Tennessee State University accounting major Reina Tetteh of Smyrna, Tenn., gives a presentation about student use of AI as part of a professor and student panel at the 2025 Tech Vision Conference held April 10-11 in the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (MTSU photo by Andy Heidt)

As another example, Swart said she likes to use visualizations to teach her online courses and for one assignment had students use AI to create tattoos tied to a historical event they had researched. The class would then have online discussions about the tattoos and give feedback to each other.

“It was fantastic,” said Swart, though pointing out that she doesn’t force a student to use AI if they don’t want to. “They had a great discussion … they were writing so much on these topics that I had no time to grade. It was wonderful. … It was really vibrant and very dynamic.”

Moderated by Keith Jacks Gamble with the Data Science Institute, other panelists included Carlos Coronel, IT Resources director in the Jones College of Business; Paul Griswold, Media Arts assistant animation professor and student Haley Jones; Economics and Finance professor Greg Nagel and student Reina Tetteh.

In response to a question during the Q&A, Griswold said he has made it a point to invest significantly in AI tools “because I want to make sure that I stay on top of things,” later noting that the animation industry “moves so fast the fear is that we’re graduating students who go out into the industry and no one’s done it that way for five years.”

‘It’s going to be chaotic’

Speaking during lunch on the conference’s second day, MTSU Media Arts professor Todd O’Neill gave an overview of the impact of AI on the media and entertainment industries. His talk built on the keynote speech that morning from Joshua Phillips, Computer Science professor.

“AI has no standards. What AI has is principles,” O’Neill said matter-of-factly after summarizing how established industry standards helped guide content creation once upon a time while the advent of AI has somewhat upended that.

Middle Tennessee State University Media Arts professor Todd O’Neill gives a talk on the impact of artificial intelligence on the media and entertainment industries as part of the 2025 Tech Vision Conference held April 10-11 in the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (MTSU photo by Andy Heidt)

Middle Tennessee State University Department of Computer Science professors Sal Barbosa, left, and Joshua Phillips were among attendees at the 2025 Tech Vision Conference held April 10-11 in the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Phillips was also a guest speaker at the two-day conference. (MTSU photo by Jimmy Hart)

O’Neill noted that there is an international organization, the Association of Computing Machinery, that has worked on a collection of principles surrounding the use of AI, but he’s not sure how closely these principles are being followed around the globe.

Anecdotally, he pointed to a website, theresanaiforthat.com that has more than 33,700 AI tools that users can access. And he noted that the popular video editing software Adobe Premiere now has AI integrated into its platform for video creation.

O’Neill further noted that his academic college, the College of Media and Entertainment, “sits at both ends of the process” within the AI ecosystem where issues surrounding creative license, free expression, intellectual property, copyright infringement and ethics may collide within and across departments.

What AI will eventually mean for the film, television and music industries, for example remains an open question. Will an AI-generated movie win an Oscar one day? An AI-generated song win a Grammy?

“Our college is in a love-hate relationship with this technology,” O’Neill said during the Q&A at the end of his talk. “It’s so hard because we know the technology is awesome. We know it can do some amazing things. But we also know that the person sitting next to us may have had some material used to allow me to create something. … It’s going to be chaotic.”

Sparkle Tufano, owner, Sparkle Innovations — Sparkle Tufano

Local small business owner and former MTSU theatre professor Sparkle Tufano, owner of technology solutions company Sparkle Innovations, appreciated the insights shared by O’Neill and the other presentations she was able to attend during the conference.

“I can see the benefit and great idea of this to both the academic community as well as the professional community,” said Tufano, who transitioned into the tech industry in 2007 after being exposed to various technologies while working in lighting and sound design in theater. “It’s great as a former professor to see the cross-disciplinary participation — across sales, marketing, IT, history — and the different media uses of technology. I think this is a great inaugural event, but I think it can be so much bigger.”

A member of the Murfreesboro Technology Council, which led one of the first-day panels at the conference, Tufano said she feels the conference was also a great way to connect students with industry professions as well as business with professors “to see how we can all connect.”

Keith Jacks Gamble, left, economics and finance professor and director of the Data Science Institute at Middle Tennessee State University, participates in a panel of university center directors at the 2025 Tech Vision Conference held April 10-11 in the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. At right is fellow panelist Carly Escue, director of the Center for Executive Education. (MTSU photo by James Cessna)

Also holding a first-day panel were representatives from various MTSU centers moderated by associate management professor Kristie Abston. Panelists included Thom Coats, professor of practice, a sales expert and director for the MTSU Center for Professional Selling; Carly Escue, director, Center for Executive Education; and Richard Tarpey, director, Center for Supply Chain Management and Sustainability.

Kicking off the day was retired FBI supervisory special Agent Scott Augenbaum, who discussed cybercrime and cybersecurity, while the day wrapped up with a feature presentation from Stephanie Dedmon, CIO for the state of Tennessee.

Stephanie Dedmon, chief information officer for the state of Tennessee, gives a presentation at the 2025 Tech Vision Conference held April 10-11 in the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the Middle Tennessee State UNiversity campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (MTSU photo by Jimmy Hart)

Retired FBI supervisory special Agent Scott Augenbaum discusses cybercrime and cybersecurity during his presentation at the 2025 Tech Vision Conference held April 10-11 in the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the Middle Tennessee State University campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (MTSU photo by Jimmy Hart)

Student attendees: AI ‘not going anywhere’

First-day keynote speaker Byrd’s approach of using AI as a resource rather than an end-all solution resonated with a group of four students attending as part of one of Coats’ professional selling classes.

“My perspective is AI really should be used as a tool,” said Annmarie Calahan, a digital marketing major from Manchester. “I honestly didn’t start using it until about a few weeks ago. It definitely does aid, but don’t copy it and make it your own words like (Byrd) was saying. But I really like it and it’s a tool that I’m going to definitely start using.”

Classmate, London Snell, a health communication major from Chapel Hill, agreed, saying that Byrd’s talk reinforced for her the idea that AI’s best use “is to aid and not write things for you, and I always appreciate hearing that because I think that plagiarism is a huge thing now that AI is available to us.”

From left, Middle Tennessee State University students Annmarie Calahan, London Snell, Morgan Rueff and Joseph Houston attend the keynote luncheon session at the 2025 Tech Vision Conference on April 10 in the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the Middle Tennessee State University campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (MTSU photo by Jimmy Hart)

Morgan Rueff, a marketing major from Shelbyville, said the conference changed her views about artificial intelligence and its positive potential.

“I honestly came into it being a hater. I really wasn’t into the whole AI look for a while,” Rueff said. “But coming to the conference and seeing that it’s more than just putting in a question and getting an answer out of it and of course (the danger of) plagiarism. You can use it in so many different ways, so why not use the technology that’s being given to us? It’s not going anywhere, so we should go ahead and embrace it.”

Joseph Houston, a business innovation and entrepreneurship major from Hixson who seemed to be the most experience member of the group in engaging AI, said the conference reinforced his approach to using artificial intelligence resources.

“I’ve always used AI as a tool and something that you can rely on, not to produce the exact response that you want, but to formulate guidelines, as the speaker was saying, where you can make a process of getting the right answer,” he said. “As a business innovation and entrepreneurship major, I’m always looking ahead and trying to get the next step and as AI is something that’s always growing, it is something that I’m looking forward to taking advantage of and using now.”

Daven Seagraves, computer science major — Daven Seagraves

For U.S. Marine Corps veteran Daven Seagraves, a sophomore computer science major from Murfreesboro, attending the conference was somewhat of a no-brainer.

“With me going into computer science and tech, I need to know what’s it looking like, and you know the future of tech is definitely a very important thing, and the future of AI. So for coding and all that different stuff … the big fear, the big question is, ‘Is AI going to take over coding jobs or your sort of technology type jobs?’ And so how do I need to learn to apply AI so that I’m not left behind?”

One practical step Seagraves plans to take is making more use of the premium version he purchases of AI assistant ChatGPT by “training it” more to assist him in a wide variety of areas in his life like meal planning — something that Byrd recommended to those in the audience to become more comfortable with the technology.

Seagraves, who hopes to land a career in computer network engineering, said it was very beneficial for MTSU to host such a conference that brings in industry professionals who can speak to the real-world applications of technology as well as faculty research and expertise that provides insights on theory and principles.

Middle Tennessee State University associate management professor Kristie Abston, center, holds the outstanding leadership and community engagement award she received for her work co-organizing the 2025 Tech Vision Conference held April 10-11 in the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Pictured, from left, are Vice Provost Amy Aldridge-Sanford, Management Chair Deana Raffo, Abston, Information and Analytics associate professor Sam Zaza, and University Provost Mark Byrnes, whose office co-sponsored the event. (MTSU photo by James Cessna)

Expanding the conference

Zaza developed the idea for the conference as part of her participation in the Leadership on Deck faculty development program through the Provost’s Office and organized with the conference’s “driving force” Kristie Abston, associate professor of management, as part of the conference’s board committee consisting of Murat Arik, management professor and director of the Business and Economic Research Center; Keith Jacks Gamble, economics and finance professor and director of the Data Science Institute; and Kim Sokoya, management professor and associate dean in the Jones College of Business. Zaza presented Abston with the outstanding leadership and community engagement award at the conference.

Zaza echoed sentiments from conference attendee Tufano, the small business owner, with an eye of expanding the reach and participation for next year’s conference, which is already set for April 9-10, 2026, location to be determined.

Zaza said outreach to other universities within the region would begin earlier to hopefully secure participation from those students, too.

“We need to hear the voices of everybody. The students are the future of the workforce and if we don’t keep them informed early on about what’s going on, we’re not properly preparing them for future success,” she said.

Carlos Coronel, left, IT Resources director in the Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University, chats with animation student Haley Jones of Farragut, Tenn., following a professor and student panel at the 2025 Tech Vision Conference held April 10-11 in the Miller Education Center atrium on Bell Street on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (MTSU photo by Andy Heidt)

Part of that preparation is providing early and consistent access to AI tools to all students, something MTSU student Haley Jones emphasized in responding to question during a second-day conference panel, even suggesting that MTSU invest more in providing students access to AI tools. That’s something Zaza also supports.

“Not all AI tools are free. So, we risk creating two classes of students—those who can afford to invest in AI to upskill or reskill and will fully engage with it in our classrooms, and those who’ve been told that using AI is cheating, leaving them hesitant and at a disadvantage,” Zaza said.

She suggests the university offer students an AI course as a part of the curriculum, perhaps even part of its True Blue Core general education curriculum.

“We need a mindset shift. I want every student to graduate with AI skills,” she said. “The question isn’t if we embrace AI—it’s that we are embracing it. The real question is: what are we going to do with it?”

Conference sponsors include the Jones College of Business, Data Science Institute, University Provost, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, Department of Information Systems and Analytics,Management Department, Business and Economic Research Center as well as industry partners such as Fortinet.

— Jimmy Hart (Jimmy.Hart@mtsu.edu)