The University of Lynchburg’s Office of Marketing and Communications and Percy Wootton Research Center have launched ThoughtLab, a digital hub where members of the University community can share their passions, ideas, insights, and research in an easily digestible way.
For about a year, the research center has been working with MarCom on “how to better showcase the scholarly pursuits of faculty and to provide a lay review of faculty research so nonspecialists could benefit,” said Dr. Tom Bowman, the research center’s executive director.
“The goal of ThoughtLab is to reflect the scholarship that faculty, staff, and students are doing to expand reach and showcase the expertise of our campus community.”
Bowman presented the idea to faculty last fall and said it was “received well.” He hopes to recruit “faculty from a broad range of disciplines” to participate.
ThoughtLab articles are written by faculty, staff, and student contributors and summarized — in the case of dense research articles — using artificial intelligence. Articles are then fact-checked by the contributor. Each post also includes an AI-generated podcast.
“We’re proud of the work our faculty and students are doing, and we want more people to see it and understand it,” said Andrew Young, MarCom’s executive director of marketing. “The ThoughtLab makes their research easier to discover, easier to understand, and easier to connect to the world beyond campus.”
You can visit ThoughtLab here.
