Welcome to BUAD 220: Emerging Technologies in Business. In many ways, this is a unique course for undergraduate business students. While it might not teach you how to create a robot to complete all your homework (though that could be possible after completing the course), it will provide you with both foundational knowledge and hands-on experience to integrate emerging technologies into the important endeavors you want to pursue in the future, particularly in business applications. Please read more details below:
BUAD 220 offers students an applied introduction to the rapidly evolving world of emerging technologies in business. The course provides a foundational understanding of key aspects of artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning, and the significant advancements made through modern transformer architectures, as seen in tools like ChatGPT. Students will explore deep learning, which powers these innovations, and delve into reinforcement learning—an approach that, when combined with deep learning, enables AI systems to outperform human experts in areas such as gaming, chatbots, and control systems.
In addition to AI, students will gain hands-on experience with modern AI tools, enhancing their ability to solve real-world business challenges. This includes improving communication, presentations, coding, and developing basic AI-driven agents. The course also covers other transformative technologies, such as Blockchain and its impact on finance, supply chains, and contracting, as well as cybersecurity—highlighting the key challenges organizations face today. Cloud computing will also be introduced, showing how businesses leverage it to address IT challenges in the modern landscape.
The primary goal of this course is to help students understand the potential of these emerging technologies and their practical applications across different business contexts. By exploring their capabilities and business impacts, students will develop a broader perspective on how these technologies are reshaping traditional practices. This course serves as a springboard, encouraging students to pursue further learning and acquire advanced skills in their areas of interest.
Who will be teaching this course? Given the rapid development and broad scope of emerging technologies, this course will be delivered by a dynamic team of instructors who specialize in technological research and teaching. The instructor team for the inaugural cohort of this course will include:
Chuanren Liu is an Associate Professor in the Business Analytics and Statistics Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research primarily focuses on data mining, knowledge discovery, and their applications in business analytics. He has a particular interest in areas like big data analytics, customer analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Liu has published extensively in high-impact journals and conferences.
Dr. Zaretzki has worked extensively in both undergraduate and graduate education at UTK. He is the cofounder of the Data Science and Engineering program in the Bredesen Center, is a curriculum advisor to the Heath IBEP program, and has worked closely with Business Analytics students in Haslam’s JTV Center for Applied Business Analytics.
Kenneth Gilbert is a professor emeritus and former head of the Department of Business Analytics and Statistics. As an Amazon Web Services (AWS) certified educator, he has assisted numerous UTK students in obtaining their AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification. Additionally, he has contributed insights on how business schools can align with employer demands in today’s data-driven economy, as detailed in his work, Meeting Employers’ Needs in the Data Economy.
We encourage you to register for this course as soon as possible. The earlier you take this course, the more opportunities you’ll have to explore in your later semesters and future career plans.