Guest Speaker Program
Share what AI looks like in your work
We are a student organization at Penn State dedicated to helping students understand how AI is changing the way businesses operate. We are looking for professionals who can share what that looks like in practice.
30-45 minutes
Including Q&A
Zoom or in person
Your preference
All fields welcome
Finance to nonprofits
Your experience
Real insight over slides
Who we are and what we do
The Applied AI Club is a student organization at Penn State dedicated to helping students understand how AI is changing the way businesses operate. Our membership is primarily based in the Smeal College of Business, though we welcome students from all colleges and majors. AI is already appearing in job descriptions, internship interviews, and classroom conversations, and our goal is to make sure students are prepared for that shift before they enter the workforce.
Events and Programming
Our primary program brings guest speakers and working sessions to campus. We invite people who use AI in their professional lives to share what that experience actually looks like, and we run hands-on tool walkthroughs where members work directly with ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Perplexity, and other tools that are becoming standard across industries.
Labs
Our technical division, where a smaller group of members build real applications from start to finish. Labs members learn to scope AI projects, develop working prototypes, run automated tests, and ship finished products using the same tools and workflows found in professional engineering teams.
Explore AI
A public registry of 18 AI tools across four categories, organized by what you want to accomplish. Each listing provides a straightforward description of what the tool does, who makes it, and how students can use it.
We begin formal meetings in Fall 2026 at Penn State University Park. In the meantime, we have a growing mailing list, an active GroupMe, and a board of four students building the foundation for what comes next.
Who we are looking for
We are looking to learn from professionals whose work has been shaped by AI in some meaningful way. Technical expertise is valuable, and so is a perspective from someone whose role had little to do with technology until recently.
We welcome speakers from any field, whether that is finance, marketing, consulting, healthcare, law, education, startups, or government. The common thread is a willingness to speak candidly about how AI has changed the way you work and what you have learned along the way.
What matters most to us is that you can communicate your experience in a way that a student with no background in your field could follow. We are looking for real insight over polished presentations.
What we ask
- 30 to 45 minutes of your time, including Q&A
- Zoom or in person at Penn State University Park, whichever works best for your schedule
- A brief description of what you would like to discuss, so we can share it with our members ahead of time
What you get
- An engaged audience of students who are actively learning AI and show up because they want to be there
- A recorded copy of your session, if you would like one for your own use
- A lasting connection to a student community that will remember the people who invested in them early
Interested in speaking?
Fill this out and we will follow up within a week.
Ask about speaking
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appliedaipennstate.com/speakers