UAA Business Showcase Builds Bridges Within Community

The showcase also included lectures about AI in business applications. In the Finance Lab, attendees could view art created by AI and then meander down the hall to pose for a photo and watch robotic arms transform the image into a cocktail napkin sketch portrait. The event also hosted a personal visit from Aurora, the robotic dog deployed this summer at Fairbanks Airport to scare away birds and other wildlife from the runway.

Interim CBPP Dean Terry Nelson, a professor of leadership and business administration, said the focus on AI was connected to an earlier session the university held on the topic.

“We couldn’t get people to leave the room,” she said.

“A lot of things have been happening in the last few years,” she said, noting the Weidner Center for Real Estate Management, the First National Bank of Alaska Finance Lab, and other business partnerships on display in UAA’s Rasmuson Hall.

In the Finance Lab, The Bridge Company catering and summertime restaurant owners Tana Skye Nevada and Lexa Joy took a self-portrait against the backdrop of a restaurant that looks much like the Ship Creek-straddling restaurant they operate, drawn by AI using a prompt.

Nevada, who’s also a member of the UAA Alumni Board, says The Bridge has been a showcase sponsor for the past two years, but she has been a volunteer at the event for three. The event provides an opportunity for the university to show off all the ways they are fostering growth and working with the community, she says.

Wrapping up the evening, Nelson called on Kevin Berry, the Harold T. Caven Professor of Business and Finance, who announced to the group that the 2025 Showcase focus will be, “Building a Sustainable Future Economy for Alaska.”