C. S. Elliott

My name is Shane Elliott. I am a sociologist at the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Department of Sociology and Criminology. My specialties include social theory, technology, and work. 

My current projects include writing Mechanisms of Power: When Systems Share Space. This book is about the emergence of artificial intelligence technologies from a sociological perspective. 

I am working with Douglas Engelman at UNCW to develop the Hawk AI project. This is a large language model application that focuses on enhancing student success by holistically addressing wellbeing, while making the University resources and Wilmington community more accessible for student engagement. 

I am also directing the Human Versus Artificial Intelligence Research Lab. There, we are working to integrate artificial intelligence into pedagogy by empowering students. What kinds of applied interdisciplinary research questions can emerge? The HVA seeks to develop conceptual tools for student use, and collect student contributions in use-case examples, or other applications of the HVA's tools. 

Doug Engelman and I are seeking to address student success at our university by leveraging the utility of large language models. Students will be using these beyond, and alongside, University protocols. When left unchecked in the commercial sphere, questions regarding how data becomes stored -- and how knowledge is constructed -- can be concerning for students. This new frontier in technology reminds us what role Universities play in safeguarding the public good. 

The Hawk AI project researches best practices in using LLMs to meet these needs for students.  publically debates the ethical challenges that University 

A theoretical and conceptual development lab focused on applying sociological theory to history and the natural sciences. Classroom and student projects create spaces for experimentation with the emergent utility of conceptual tools. University and community engagement with the lab's projects is facilitated to create a public record of developing the lab's conceptual framework.