AI-Assisted Research Workflows: A Hands-On Session with Yaotian Liu

To close out the NSF NRT Spring Retreat, we are excited to feature a hands-on, practical session led by one of our own: Yaotian Liu, a PhD student in Computer Engineering at Dr. Zhang’s Lab at Arizona State University.

Learning AI from a Peer Researcher

There is something especially powerful about learning from a fellow graduate student, someone who understands the daily challenges of research workflows, the tools that are actually available, and the real questions that come up when trying to use AI effectively in a scientific context. Yaotian brings exactly that perspective to this session.

His case study on AI-Assisted Research Workflows will walk participants through practical, applied strategies for integrating AI tools into the research process, covering prompting, coding assistance, and quality verification.

What the Session Will Cover

The session will include:

• Prompting strategies: how to write effective prompts that get useful, reliable results from AI tools
• Coding assistance: using AI to support and accelerate programming tasks in research workflows
• Quality checking: methods for verifying AI outputs and ensuring accuracy and integrity
• Hallucination detection: interactive exercises to identify when AI tools produce incorrect outputs
• Tool comparison: a side-by-side look at different AI research tools and their strengths and limitations

Interactive and Practical

Date: April 28, 2026

Time: 1:30 – 3:00 PM

Location: ISTB4, Room 492, Tempe Campus

This session is designed to be hands-on. Participants will engage in exercises, not just listen to a lecture, making it one of the most practically useful sessions of the Retreat. Whether you are already using AI tools in your research or are just beginning to explore them, you will leave with concrete skills and strategies you can apply right away.

See you at the Retreat!