Annual Northwestern SPS Symposium
Save the date for next year's annual Symposium on Friday, October 3rd, 2025! The Symposium is part of our two-day Homecoming celebration on the weekend of October 3rd - 4th. This two-day event is an important opportunity for you to network with your peers as well as presenters and instructors while also engaging with topics not covered in a typical course for further learning and professional development.
Passionate about an academic topic? Consider presenting at the Fall 2025 SPS Symposium. Submissions are now open and due by May 9th, 2025. Submissions are accepted through the Proposal Submission Form. Student presenters are allotted 40 minutes and joint presentations from faculty and students/alumni are encouraged. We are soliciting innovative session proposals from all fields.
Feel free to reach out to SPS Student Services at spsstudentservices@northwestern.edu for further details.
Below is the full program from the 13th Annual SPS Symposium - 2024.
DAY ONE
2024 Welcome Reception
Thursday, November 14, 2024 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Prentice Harris Family Atrium (3rd floor of the Prentice Women's Hospital - 250 E. Superior Chicago, IL 60611)
The Symposium Welcome Reception is the kick-off event for the three days of events. Leadership from the School of Professional Studies will deliver brief remarks followed by an alumni presentation. Light refreshments will be served.
DAY TWO
2024 Symposium Conference
Friday, November 15, 2024 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Wieboldt Hall (339 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611)
The Symposium conference academic presentations and discussions are an opportunity for students to interact with their instructors face-to-face and engage in topics not covered in a typical course for further learning and professional development. The conference portion of SPS Symposium begins with breakfast, followed by academic presentations for students in a wide range of programs, and honoring this year's SPS Alumni Award recipient.
The 2024 Conference Event Schedule is below.
2024 Schedule
| 9–10am |
Breakfast Room: Wieboldt 704 |
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| 9am-1pm |
Professional Headshots (complimentary) - Dynamic Photo Systems Room: Wieboldt 7th floor lounge |
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| 10:00–10:40am |
AI Decoding How Our Brains Smell (Apoorv Saraogee) Room: Wieboldt 507 |
AI-Driven Carbon Credit Trading: Transforming Market Mechanisms for Climate Action (Garo Bazarbachian) Room: Wieboldt 712 |
Authorship for Entrepreneurs & Entrepreneurship for Authors (Patricia Crisafulli) Room: Wieboldt 506 |
Dirth Old London: Gender, Race, Class, and Disease in Victorian England, and What We Can Learn From Them Today (Julia Millon) Room: Wieboldt 517
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| 10:40–10:50am | Break | |||
| 10:50–11:30am |
Beyond the Hype: Real-World AI Implementation and Value Creation (Johann Beukes) Room: Wieboldt 507 |
Optimizing Global Food Distribution: Addressing the Inefficiencies of Meat Production for a Sustainable Future (Gopika Nair) Room: Wieboldt 712 |
Unlocking Student Potential: Understanding Executive Function in Academic Success (Judy Roman) Room: Wieboldt 506 |
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| 11:30–11:40am | Break | |||
| 11:40am–12:20pm |
Generative AI and Large Language Models Will Have a Significant impact on the Future of Marketing (Kelly Cutler) Room: Wieboldt 711 |
A Multipronged Informatics Solution to Support a Singular Patient Experience: Remote Patient Management to Support Pediatric Patients with Asthma after Hospitalization (Dana Schinasi) Room: Wieboldt 712 |
POW! Breaking into Independent Comics (Nathaniel Foster) Room: Wieboldt 506 |
Disability Policy: Where it Started and How It's Going (Sarah Melone)
Room: Wieboldt 517 |
| 12:20 –1:30pm |
Lunch Break Room: Wieboldt 704 |
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| 1:30–2:10pm |
Optimizing Value-Based Care: A Convergence of Technology, Human Behavior, and Operations Research (Jeramey Ward) Room: Wieboldt 711 |
Exploratory Spatial Analysis of Social Vulnerability in the Midwest (Andy Sharma) Room: Wieboldt 712 |
AI: The Vampire of Creative Culture (Anastasia Gustafson) Room: Wieboldt 506 |
New Guardians of Finance: How AI and Machine Learning Combat Fraud in Open Banking (Yasmina Sayyid) Room: Wieboldt 517 |
| 2:10–2:20pm | Break | |||
| 2:20 –2:50pm |
Keynote: Employing Federated AI/ML to Drive Real-Time Healthcare Foundaries for Prescriptive Health (Eric Abbott) Room: Wieboldt 704 |
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| 2:50 - 3pm |
SPS Alumni Award Presentation (Russ Hinz) and Closing Remarks Room: Wieboldt 704 |
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DAY THREE
2024 Homecoming Watch Party & Football Game
Saturday, November 16, 2024 9:30 am- 1:30 p.m.
Watch Party: Smoke Daddy BBQ - Wrigleyville (3636 N. Clark St, Chicago, IL 60613)
Game: Wrigley Field, 1060 W. Addison St, Chicago
The final day of the SPS Symposium will take place in the historic Wrigley neighborhood during the spirited festivities of Reunion Weekend (“Homecoming”). All are invited to attend a brunch and watch party with fellow SPS students, faculty, alumni and staff.