At the Intersection of Human + Tech: Talks, Experiences, and an Alumni Networking Reception

A talk by Tim Chaffee, FCLC ’08

The internet connected us to the world, but in doing so, it has left us more lonely and isolated than ever before. Tim Chaffee has been exploring the possibilities of immersive mediums in news for the last six years. He believes that augmented reality (AR) might hold the key to reintegrating our digital lives into our physical world and reconnecting us with our neighbors.

Tim Chaffee, FCLC ’08, is an XR journalist and immersive storyteller. He has spent the past six years experimenting with how new 3D and immersive technologies can be used in the service of journalism. He has been the recipient of several awards for his immersive work at the New York Times and Yahoo News. Chaffee is also a filmmaker whose cinematic work revolves around the themes of loneliness, grief, and the importance of human connection.

At the New York Times, Chaffee worked on The Daily 360, an immersive journalism initiative that entailed publishing a 360 video every day for a year. The team surpassed its goal, creating more than 450 videos in 14 months. Chaffee personally produced, edited, or shot 35-plus projects, while also designing post-production workflow tools and training new camera operators and video editors. After the Daily 360, Chaffee helped craft award-winning VR documentaries, an Emmy-nominated investigative piece, and some of the New York Times’ first augmented-reality stories.

In 2020, Chaffee became the senior XR producer at Yahoo News, working as part of a team that brought AR to a broad audience, producing more than 250 pieces in two and a half years and training more than 100 staff members to pitch and create XR content.

Since leaving Yahoo News, Chaffee has co-founded a media startup with a group of Yahoo Immersive alumni: Democratize XR. The startup aims to share immersive storytelling tools and technologies with local newsrooms, cultural organizations, and arts institutions.

A talk by Benjamin M. Cole, Ph.D.

If all you know about blockchain is what you've heard about crypto markets and ape JPEGs, then this talk is for you! Join Benjamin Cole as he introduces several cutting-edge use cases of blockchain that are transforming global industries.

Benjamin M. Cole, Ph.D., holds the William J. Loschert Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University. Cole uses global research settings to investigate how social factors—such as legitimacy, status, logics, and media framings—influence technological innovation, regulatory oversight, and economic transactions. He also holds a key interest in the disruptive nature of blockchain on existing industries: He teaches courses on blockchain and strategy. Cole is the organizer of the Blockchain Disruptor Conference and serves as an external advisor to several blockchain initiatives, where he specializes in helping them articulate and monetize their unique business models.

Cole served for three years (2015 to 2018) as director of the full-time cohort M.B.A. and professional M.B.A. programs at the Gabelli School. His efforts to innovate in the curricular and co-curricular space were recognized not only by the students, but also through the Gabelli School’s placement in various rankings. The M.B.A. program gained 47 points in the U.S. News & World Report ranking, rising from No. 110 in 2015 to No. 63 in 2018; 37 points in the Poets&Quants ranking, rising from No. 99 in 2015 to No. 62 in 2017; and 12 points in the Bloomberg Businessweek ranking, rising from No. 72 in 2015 to No. 60 in 2017. Gabelli also gained re-entry into the Forbes ranking at No. 70 and debuted in The Economist at No. 92. Meanwhile, the professional M.B.A. program saw a 40-point gain in the U.S. News & WorldReport, moving from No. 91 in 2015 to No. 51 in 2018.

Before entering academia, Cole lived in Japan for nine years, where he worked as both a translator for a Japanese textbook company and as a corporate representative for Japan’s largest automaker, Toyota Motor Corporation. During that time, he had interactions with representatives of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and was involved in preparing materials used in the 1995 Japan-U.S. trade negotiations. He was a key player in introducing the Toyota Hybrid System and the Fuel Cell Hybrid System technologies to the global media and financial community, and acted as simultaneous interpreter for Executive Vice President Akihiro Wada in charge of global technology. He also communicated firm decision-making on foreign direct investment in China, India, Poland, and the U.S., as well as coordinated projects between Japan, Belgium, Malaysia and the U.S. In short, Cole has personal experience with many of the topics that managers face in this globalized environment. As a bilingual former expatriate, Cole is keenly interested in cross-cultural hurdles to effective management.

Cole earned his B.A. in Japanese language and culture from Occidental College and his M.B.A. (with distinction) and Ph.D. in strategy from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

A talk by Yilu Zhou, Ph.D.

The development of AI is bringing new possibilities to the fashion industry. On one hand, machine learning algorithms are able to predict fashion trends through text and billions of pictures on Instagram and e-commerce websites, as well as fashion shows. On the other hand, generative AI algorithms, such as generative adversarial networks (GANs), empower designers for a faster and more creative design process. AI is changing the way of traditional fashion design. Thus we introduce human-AI co-creation of fashion, a design process that combines designer’s intuition, expertise, data-driven trend analysis, and generative AI tools.

Yilu Zhou, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Gabelli School of Business. Her research interests include business intelligence, web/text/data mining, multilingual knowledge discovery and human-computer interaction. Most specifically, she investigates and explores computational, intelligent and automatic ways to discover interesting and useful patterns in news articles, web sites, forums and other social media.

Before joining Fordham University, Dr. Zhou was an assistant professor at George Washington University. She received a Ph.D. in management information systems at the University of Arizona, where she also was a research associate at the Artificial Intelligence Lab. She received her BS in computer science from Shanghai Jiaotong University.

Dr. Zhou has published work in academic journals including the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, IEEE Intelligent Systems and Decision Support Systems. She has taught various courses related to business intelligence, data management and business programming. Currently, she teaches Web Analytics and Text Analytics in the master's of business analytics program at Fordham. She also taught Database and Data Warehousing for M.B.A. students, and Business Programming for graduate and undergraduate students, in the past.

A talk by Lauri Goldkind, Ph.D.

The seam between the digital world and the non-digital worlds has evaporated. As we enter these data-saturated times, the values of human-ness, care and even intelligence are being questioned. This talk explores how data justice and cura personalis compliment each other and offer a potential towards prioritizing equity, access and fairness and how to operationalize them in policy and praxis.

Dr. Lauri Goldkind is an associate professor at Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service and the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Technology in Human Services. Dr. Goldkind’s current research has two strands: artificial intelligence and data ecosystems in nonprofits and social justice and civic engagement in organizational life. She has a robust network of community partners in New York City and internationally, including the International Federation of Settlement Houses, United Neighborhood Houses and Caritas Macau.

Dr. Goldkind holds an M.S.W. from SUNY Stony Brook with a concentration in planning, administration, and research and a PhD from the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University. Dr. Goldkind was in residence at the United Nations University Institute, located in Macau, SAR from June to August 2017 and will return in the Spring of 2020 as a visiting research fellow.

A talk by Juliet Okafor, GSAS ’03

The impact of cybersecurity on the future is immeasurable. It is a problem that has been escalating in severity and size since it began, and there will be no escaping it until it is stopped. As a company grows, cyber security practices need to become universal and delivered through its systems simultaneously across the organization. So, automation becomes essential for a healthy security culture. A security culture is how teams enact the many tasks and relationships that connect different parts of the enterprise as a practice, for a common purpose. As security breaches increase, cyber-AI can be a force multiplier, enabling security teams not only to respond faster than cyber attackers can move, but also to anticipate these moves and act in advance.

Join Juliet Okafor as she discusses the application of AI to three security culture use cases and shares examples of real-life scenarios centered within her own consulting practice.

Juliet Okafor, J.D., GSAS ’03, is a cybersecurity professional who has combined her knowledge of the legal system and cybersecurity solution models into success stories across fortune 500 industries throughout the USA. Her ability to scope, plan and design the creation of an OT Cybersecurity Management System framework for one of the largest cruise lines in the world is testament of her commitment and leadership regardless of the challenge.

She is a passionate security solutions visionary and strategist who builds the Fortune 500 enterprise’s overarching security strategy that governs all other smaller strategies within. She is the person who determines how to solve the company’s problem, be it vulnerability management, incident response or reducing the risk associated with technology or vendors, and then puts a plan into action or roadmap to remediate the risks in place – using a combination of people, transforming operations and an array of emerging security technology.

Okafor’s collaboration with key infrastructure cybersecurity leaders from the energy, manufacturing, maritime, transportation and chemical sectors have led to realistic and integrated IT/OT cybersecurity programs with positive security results.

The unique value of Juliet’s ability within the cybersecurity field is also evident in her relentless and dynamic approach to understanding the expectations, needs, and requirements of her clients in concert with providing the best cybersecurity technologies and services required.

Okafor has also helped build startup security organizations from the ground up, negotiating contracts, forging partnerships, selecting tools, leading strategic initiatives, and partnering with key customers and security stakeholders to create, identify, measure and report the maturity of their enterprise security programs to senior leadership to justify additional financial investment or demonstrate continuous improvement.

Juliet graduated from UMass-Amherst with a B.A. in Communication, Fordham University with an M.A. in Public Communication and Media Studies and received her Juris Doctorate from Temple University – Beasley School of Law.

She is currently the Chief Engagement Officer (CEO) for RevolutionCyber.

A talk by Fleur Eshghi, Ed.D., and Nicole Zeidan, Ed.D.

The Office of Information Technology provides the Fordham community with emerging technologies through the newly built Learning and Innovation Technology Environment (LITE). In a collaboration between Information Technology and Fordham University Libraries, LITE brings a much-needed, comprehensive, integrated learning commons to the Fordham community and is meant to be accessible and available to everyone at Fordham.

Some emerging technologies provided through the LITE center include extended reality (such as AR and VR) for data visualization, in-class and group activities, and virtual tours. Other technologies offered include 3D scanning and 3D printing using Blender and AutoCad, working with artificial intelligence through high-end computer workstations, a maker space for production, laser cutting and engraving, robotics, and robust recording rooms for vlogging and podcasting.

Fleur Eshghi, Ed.D.
Associate Vice President, Educational Technologies and Research Computing

Fleur Eshghi has approximately three decades of leadership and strategy development in educational technology in service of teaching, learning, and research. She provides leadership and support for research computing, emerging technology, learning space design, online learning initiatives, faculty technology training and development, and teaching labs, among other services. Prior to Eshghi's tenure at Fordham University, she also worked in the same capacity at several other higher education institutions, including Columbia University and the State University of New York. Eshghi completed a master's degree and received her doctoral degree in communication, computing, and technology in education from Teachers College at Columbia University.

Nicole Zeidan, Ed.D.
Assistant Director, Emerging Educational Technologies and Learning Space Design

Nicole Zeidan researches, consults, and collaborates with faculty, students, and administrators to see how emerging technologies can enhance Fordham's teaching, learning, and research experience. Furthermore, Zeidan is responsible for emerging educational technologies, learning space design strategies and policies, and overseeing day-to-day operations of the Learning and Information Technology Environment (LITE).

Zeidan received her M.B.A. from the Gabelli School of Business Executive MBA program and her doctor of education degree from the Graduate School of Education (GSE) in educational leadership, administration, and policy. Her research explores novice instructors' readiness for teaching online in higher education. Additionally, Zeidan is an adjunct instructor at Fordham University, where she teaches graduate courses at GSE related to innovation in education.