As part of CDIL’s ongoing Student AI Advisors initiatives, Assistant Director of Design Innovation, Tim Lindgren, partnered with Belle Liang’s Purpose Lab to facilitate the inaugural AI Advisors Summer Internship program in summer 2025.

Interns Toby Ting and Sara Bufi worked closely with Lindgren and were mentored by graduate student Elisa Liang as they developed their expertise in qualitative research methodology, including study design, interview data collection, and thematic analysis. Their responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Toby Ting ‘27

My name is Toby Ting. I am a current senior, and I am a philosophy and theology major.

Why are you interested in GenAI?

Ever since I was a kid, I have been interested in AI, starting with movies and TV shows that raised philosophical questions about AI ethics. Some of these movies and shows include WarGames starring Matthew Broderick, Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, and Blade Runner starring Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer. I watched a lot of these shows with my dad and sister, and we often talked about what it would be like if AI really existed. Since then, I’ve been interested in all sorts of AI and robot-related activities. I spent several years on a robotics team in middle school and high school and competed at the highest level.

Why were you interested in this internship?

I had heard about Dr. Lindgren and his work over the years, and I met with him before I started working to discuss potentially helping at CDIL. In our conversation, he pretty much convinced me that it was a great opportunity where the sky is the limit. Ever since, I’ve just been trying to research things that are interesting to me and that I think are helpful to the university and community.

What did you do as part of your internship?

Currently, I am doing a research study on the effects of the psychological environment in a classroom on the way that students use AI. Over the course of working in CDIL, I have helped to conduct interviews, Code data, develop survey prompts, give feedback on upcoming CDIL programs, and anything that Dr. Lidgren thinks would be helpful.

What is one thing you’ve learned over the course of your internship that you’d like to share with others?

Pursuing your own interests and pursuing the betterment of your community can often go hand in hand. Finding something you like to do that also helps others has made my work very rewarding.

How has your perspective changed as a result of your internship?

Honestly, I came into the lab with a pretty closed mind about AI, its benefits and dangers, compared to now. After talking to dozens of students, faculty, and industry representatives, I have learned a whole host of new things that I never would’ve thought of on my own. For example, interviewing students who are non-native English speakers helped me grasp the true value of AI as an equalizer for those with language barriers.

Sara Bufi ‘27

My name is Sara Bufi. I am majoring in applied psychology and biology with a dance minor and a concentration in special education. I am currently a senior at BC.

Why are you interested in GenAI?

I am interested in GenAI because of its prevalence in education and in the future. I plan on going into physical therapy, so for a while I never thought AI would enter that space. I also find the concept of AI interesting, given the many ways it can be used.

Why were you interested in this internship?

In this internship, I was interested in not only seeing how my peers use AI in their daily education, but also the response they were getting from faculty and how it impacts their sense of purpose. Especially looking at their majors/career paths, I was interested in how much they could use AI.

What did you do as part of your internship?

For my internship, Toby and I worked together to curate and conduct Zoom interviews, asking our peers questions about their AI usage and how that affects their motivation, purpose, and relationship with professors. We were then able to transcribe and extract data points from the transcripts, giving us valuable insights as to what AI usage looks like across campus.

What is one thing you’ve learned over the course of your internship that you’d like to share with others?

The main thing I want others to know is that AI can be used in many different ways. I think there is such a stigma about using it; some students steer away from it completely. I realized through these interviews that I could have been using AI to generate practice questions, create study guides, and much more.

How has your perspective changed as a result of your internship?

I think I am more hopeful about the future and want to engage in more conversations about AI in the future. If AI is going to permeate the future, I think we should all educate ourselves on safe and effective uses, creating guidelines for the future instead of just shaming it.