AI and Research: From Personal Productivity to Building Your Own Tools
Location
In-person
Date & Time
Friday 31 Oct 2025 All day -
Delivered by Dominik Lukes
This course will also run on Friday 28 November, all day. Booking for this course will open soon.
This full-day workshop will equip researchers with comprehensive knowledge and practical skills for integrating generative AI throughout the research lifecycle. The session will explore AI across three dimensions: as a personal productivity and ideation assistant for literature reviews, research design, and academic writing; as a research tool for qualitative data analysis; and as a subject of research (investigating capabilities of LLMs).
Participants will gain hands-on experience with Large Language Models, understand their capabilities (or their semantic baseline) and limitations, and learn to build simple AI applications without coding expertise. The workshop will also address strategic implications for research project planning, staffing, and budgeting in an AI-enhanced research environment.
The workshop is designed for researchers at all levels and in all disciplines. Participants are welcome to bring their own research topics.
The primary tools we will be using during the workshop is Google AI Studio and NotebookLM. They are free and accessible to all participants using their Oxford login credentials.
Key points covered
- How can researchers effectively use AI as a personal productivity assistant for literature reviews, project management, and academic writing?
- What are the fundamental capabilities and limitations of Large Language Models that researchers need to understand?
- How can AI serve as a research tool, and what methods exist for studying AI model behaviors systematically?
- What emerging capabilities like multimodality, reasoning, and tool use offer new research opportunities?
- How can researchers without programming experience build custom AI applications using tools like Google AI Studio?
- What are the implications for research project planning, staffing, and resource allocation when incorporating AI?
- How should research groups approach budgeting for AI capabilities and orchestrating intelligence in their projects?
