LSU AI Showcase
AI Innovation @ LSU
CSC 4700 / HNRS 3025
LLM Application Development is a capstone-style course that prepares exceptional undergraduate students to build real-world applications with large language models. The course is taught by an interdisciplinary LSU team: computer scientist James Ghawaly, business instructor and entrepreneur Henry Hays, and inventor and engineer Vicki Colvin, who also serves as dean of the College of Engineering.
Partner with LSU Undergraduates on AI Business Solutions
Louisiana companies play a major role in the course through project sponsorship. Along with financial support, sponsors offer up an AI business challenge and meet weekly with students to collaborate on a custom solution.
Companies who sponsor courses receive a host of benefits:
- A custom-built AI application, assistant, or agent
- Access to world-class AI faculty experts
- Access to top computer science and business student talent
- Opportunities for mentorship
Contact us to become a 2026 Partner
Students get invaluable experience from the course. Not only do they apply coding and other technical skills but understand the business context for their application and grapple with key considerations in real-world technology deployment, such as change management and return on investment.
Many graduates of the course land full-time AI internships and jobs or pursue additional AI experience in graduate school at LSU.
For more information on serving as a 2026 partner, contact Caitlynn Coco in the LSU Division of Computer Science & Engineering at cagui22@lsu.edu or (225) 578-6095.
Information and Requirements for Companies or Sponsors:
- $25,000 per team plus computational costs (minimal, usually a few hundred).
- Engage for 16 weeks (students spend 3 hours per week of class time and 10 hours per week of project time).
- Detail and explain a company-specific AI project with clear objectives and deliverables.
- Provide the relevant data by week 3 and ensure secure access compatible with company policies.
- Company team of at least two available for in-person weekly meetings 1X/month coinciding with the class time (Monday 5 – 8 pm typically).
- The company team should also meet with the student team, at least weekly, in Zoom meetings.
- Company participants should include subject-matter expert(s), IT professional(s), and, if possible, a project manager
- Team and Sponsor will gain knowledge about Large Language Models (LLM) and related AI topics
- Company owns resulting intellectual property from their representing student team.
In Collaboration With
