60 to 70 researchers attend UMSL's first regional symposium

UMSL faculty hosted 60 to 70 researchers for the first Information Systems and Technology Research Symposium on Oct. 23.

The event, held at the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center, drew attendees from Saint Louis University, Missouri University of Science and Technology, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Organizers Damon Walker, Necdet Gurkan, and Carol Kuai of UMSL’s Ed G. Smith College of Business initially expected only 10 participants. The high turnout forced the team to limit the number of presentations due to time constraints.

Gurkan, who joined UMSL in August 2024, stated that the region has many strong universities and industry partners but lacks communication between them. He said he realized quickly that colleagues at nearby colleges often did not know what their counterparts were doing. The goal was to create a space for local scholars to build partnerships before traveling to national conferences.

Walker noted that researchers usually meet at large national events in cities like Pittsburgh or New York. He argued that collaborating with neighbors first makes sense before going to the national stage. The symposium allowed participants to present work in progress and receive immediate feedback from peers in different departments.

Gurkan presented his project titled ConSense: A Psychometric Consensus Framework for Governing Belief Pluralism in LLM-Based Multi-Agent Systems. He said audience comments helped him resolve specific problems in his research. He emphasized that seeing reactions from the crowd helps early career researchers determine if they are on the right path.

Deepika Gopukumar, an assistant professor at Saint Louis University, also valued the diverse feedback. She researches AI in healthcare and the use of large language models in research evaluation. She said presenting in multiple locations helps authors recognize overlooked perspectives before submitting work for publication.

Sandra Langeslag, an associate professor at UMSL, presented a project on romantic love for AI companions. She collaborated with Gurkan on the work. Their partnership began when an earlier Zoom meeting for UMSL faculty interested in AI introduced her to Alice Lee-Yoon. That connection eventually led her to Gurkan. Langeslag said preparing the presentation helped her team organize its thinking during data analysis.

The symposium was followed by a junior scholar consortium. Jintong Tang, a marketing professor at Saint Louis University, helped organize the forum. It provided early career faculty and doctoral students with a space to discuss professional challenges. Gurkan said these connections help younger scholars feel less isolated. He noted that senior scholars can share experiences to show that stress and rejection are common in the field.