Marketing Team
In February, the marketing team focused on an idea called 鈥業nnovation Connect, 鈥� which was brought on by Caitlyn Joseph, who is also on TIE鈥檚 Campus Security Team. Innovation Connect aims to connect students with business partners and faculty members so they can build their network, learn about an industry, and gain confidence when speaking to important people. So what is it? For this meeting, students reach out to an individual they would like to get to know and talk to. Courtesy of Nettapp, which is where the meetings will take place, they will be provided a free cookie for the student and their guest! Many students aren't aware of the importance of networking and building connections and how far it will take them when looking for employment post-graduation. With this project, we aim to help students network and set them up for success. Not only has the team been expanding on that idea, but they鈥檝e also worked on different projects! On our team, we have worked hard to find events to jump into and attract visitors to.
We use several tools to measure the marketing team success in general. First and foremost, asking faculty, students or partners how they heard about TIE department and brands can bring insight into the effectiveness of our awareness efforts. We would mostly get this feedback by participating outside events on campus or through our services, such as InnovationConnect. We鈥檝e also created a website and use data analysis tools such as Python to determine the web traffic levels, bounce rates, and time spent on the site that can show how well our content or campaigns are attracting attention. Additionally looking at the number of new leads or contacts generated through the marketing efforts, such as giving or getting business cards at events and try to get meaningful conversation, allow us to determine the efficacy in expanding our network.
Lastly, by understanding the customer satisfaction 鈥搒aid otherwise, how often customers return to use the service- can indicate satisfaction and perceived value. It is useful for adapting our business strategies and ameliorate our performance. One concrete example would be during the Innovation Experience where Nathan Gilbert, Amie Rodarte, and Tonya Witherspoon went with partners for an event at Ulrich Art school. The positive feedback from them and verbally expressed satisfaction and desire to reiterate it highlights the quality and validity of the service offered. Using a combination of these methods, helps to get a more complete picture of how well our marketing efforts are performing. It鈥檚 also important to regularly review and adjust our strategies based on the insights we gathered.
Step one in the marketing process is getting to know your demographics. You can鈥檛 sell to people if you don鈥檛 understand them. What they need, what they care about, and how they make decisions are all criteria to consider when defining your target market. That鈥檚 especially tricky in an organization like TIE, which operates across several industries and appeals to very different audiences. 鈥淔inding common ground between those groups is the hardest part, in my opinion.鈥� says Dawson Restifo who is the marketing coordinator on the team.
A message that resonates with one group might completely miss the mark with another. A startup founder looking for funding thinks differently than a corporate executive interested in new partnerships, and both have different priorities than a student looking for mentorship. The challenge is crafting a brand and a message that feels relevant to all of them without becoming so broad that it loses meaning.
The key is identifying the overlap, what unites these different groups. Maybe it鈥檚 innovation, entrepreneurship, or access to opportunities. Whatever it is, that common thread becomes the foundation of your marketing strategy. From there, it鈥檚 about creating targeted messaging, using the right platforms, and engaging with each audience in a way that speaks their language.It鈥檚 not easy, but when done right, it makes TIE feel less like an organization trying to talk to everyone at once and more like a community where different people see themselves reflected in the brand.
AI Workflows
The idea for Shocker Assistant came from the University of Michigan, which had created a similar chatbot. We also wanted to use AI to help students and faculty at WSU, so we developed the Shocker Assistant chatbot.
Shocker Assistant has some unique features that other chatbots may not have. One of them is speech-to-text. Besides that, it can also provide images and videos. For example, if you search for "WSU Innovation Campus," it will show you a video or an image of it. Our chatbot also provides important information that students need, responding quickly to their queries. It includes a multi-language function and supports frequently asked questions in multiple languages. These are some great features of the Shocker Assistant chatbot.
This project has greatly influenced my understanding of AI and its applications. It showed me how AI can do so many things. This was my first time working on an AI project, and it was a completely new experience for me. I realized how powerful AI can be. It makes things so much easier and really helps people in different ways. Working on this project gave me a new perspective on how AI can assist humans and improve daily tasks.
AI is growing so fast and becoming a key part of almost everything. If we think about AI in education at WSU over the next five years, it will have a huge impact. We will see more AI-powered tools being used in classrooms and student services, making learning more efficient and accessible. AI will help students in many ways, from providing better support to improving campus facilities, and will play a big role at WSU, and we will rely on it even more in the future.Our goal is to use AI chatbots to improve student experiences and make accessing information easier.
Campus Security
One of the specific challenges that the campus security team had to face was figuring out how to integrate Informa cast with the Meraki dashboard, but our webhooks kept failing. We tried many strategies such as debugging the configuration, but nothing was working. Finally, we managed to contact one of the company's engineers who showed us the event logs. This made us realize the issue was that the variables used in the configuration on the different platforms weren't matching. It took us about two weeks to debug our configuration.
The meeting with the police department helped us understand how to approach this project and to cater to the needs of the people who will actually be implementing the solution. The department expressed how they would appreciate something that could be integrated with their devices and a turnkey solution. We want to incorporate these features into our projects.
One of our next major milestones will be training to learn how to use the Intellisee dashboard and then integrate it into our system. After that, we will plan and execute our scenarios by testing out different use cases and the efficiency of this solution. This will require us to work as a team, plan ahead, and tackle our obstacles head-on. We are all looking forward to it.
There are many campus security concerns in this modern era. One significant concern is the lack of video monitoring, which limits the ability to observe and respond to potential incidents in real-time. Without a comprehensive video surveillance system equipped with immediate incident detection, it becomes challenging to monitor high-risk areas effectively, increasing the vulnerability of students and faculty members. Additionally, many campuses suffer from insufficient security systems, such as outdated alarm systems, poor access control, or inadequate emergency communication to enable effective mass notification tools, which further hinder the ability to respond to threats swiftly and effectively. Addressing these deficiencies through improved monitoring and technology upgrades is essential to ensuring a safer campus environment.
We have gained a lot of skills from this project. First, we have been able to comprehend current campus security concerns and how our turnkey solution will help to improve campus security concerns. Next, we went through different trainings that allowed us to familiarize ourselves with different products from different companies and platforms that we are using for this proof of concept among others to name just a few, Cisco Meraki, singlewire through its software informacast. Furthermore, we have gained troubleshooting skills which are essential in every field currently. We faced many issues in the integration process because we were using different software that needed to be interconnected.