SPARK Projects

Faculty Mentor: Natasha Ritsma, Museum Studies, nritsma@aurora.edu

The student will evaluate the museum’s current marketing and outreach efforts, identify opportunities to increase visibility and engagement, and work with the museum director to determine effective communication strategies. The student will identify key audiences and community groups, including retirement communities, area high school students and seniors, lifelong learners, and organizations interested in art, culture, education, and community programming. Through research, the student will develop targeted outreach strategies to strengthen connections between the museum and the community. The student will also create audience-specific marketing and communication materials promoting exhibitions, programs, events, and educational opportunities, including social media content, digital and print materials, emails, flyers, and newsletters.

Possible tasks for SPARK fellows:

• Review and assess promotional materials and communication channels
• Gather feedback from the community
• Identify key audiences and community groups and develop targeted outreach strategies

This project is a good fit for students who:

• Are interested in marketing and/or art
• Are creative
• Like to manage a project

Faculty Mentor: John McCormack, History, jmccormack@aurora.edu

We will design a game that will lead students through conflicts over the expansion of Spanish power in Mexico, including debates about the enslavement of Indigenous peoples, the legitimacy of warfare, and the role of the Catholic church in society. We will be researching specific roles for individual students to play, figuring out what they would need to read in order to play knowledgably and have fun.

Possible tasks for SPARK fellows:

• Reading religious and political documents from the 1500s
• Coming up with gaming mechanisms to express ideas, encourage competition, and establish victory
• Writing instructions and goals for characters in the game

This project is a good fit for students who:

• Interested in history
• Like to read
• Enjoy games (online or offline)

Faculty Mentor: Patrick Dunn, English, pdunn@aurora.edu

Students will assist me in writing a novel by conducting research, beta reading chapters, and assisting with other parts of the creative project as they arise. Students will receive mention in the acknowledgements in the event of the novel’s publication. I generally work on several pieces at the same time, so students may work on multiple projects in various stages of completion.

Possible tasks for SPARK fellows:

• Research
• Read chapters and offer feedback for verisimilitude and sensitivity
• Assist with the paperwork involved in publishing

This project is a good fit for students who:

• Enjoy reading, particularly young-adult psychological horror and young-adult survival stories
• Have diverse identities, including LGBTQ+ students, neurodiverse students, and students of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds

Faculty Mentor: Denise Hatcher, Spanish, dhatcher@aurora.edu

I believe music is an amazing way to have students practice language skills inside and outside of class. I am currently working on my third OER (Open-access educational resource) and would like to incorporate music. This new OER is thematic and it would be helpful for me and useful for a student with some Spanish knowledge to be able to select songs based on the various themes and then to create exercises to use with them. This would be a very useful project for a student who wants to major or minor in the Spanish language.

Possible tasks for SPARK fellows:

• Find appropriate songs and musicians
• Create various “fun” practice activities such as cloze activities, comprehension questions, short answer questions

This project is a good fit for students who:

• Are organized
• Have an interest in Spanish-language music
• Speak Spanish

Faculty Mentor: Gerald Butters, History, gbutters@aurora.edu

I have a book being published in 2027 entitled “Censoring the City: Chicago, Morality, and the Politics of Cinema, 1895-1920.” This project is a sequel to this book, covering the period after 1920. My research base are the files of the Motion Picture Censorship Board of Chicago at Northeastern University. I need a student who is technically proficient and interested in history to help me navigate online databases such as the Historical Chicago Tribune to research this subject.

Possible tasks for SPARK fellows:

• Researching online databases
• Finding primary and secondary sources on individual films
• Editing material

This project is a good fit for students who:

• Have excellent skills in online research
• Have the ability to conceive of many different search terms for the same subject
• Interested in history
• Enjoy reading and researching about movies

Faculty Mentor: Zachary Bishop, Museum Studies, zbishop@aurora.edu

This project will support the stewardship and interpretation of the Schingoethe Center museum’s contemporary art collection, which predominantly features works by Native American artists. The student will research and document the artists, cultural contexts, and current market values of selected artworks to help the museum make decisions regarding conservation priorities, resource allocation, and insurance coverage. The student will also be involved in compiling reliable sources about the artists and producing accessible descriptive labels for works displayed in the Contemporary Native American Art Gallery.

Possible tasks for SPARK fellows:

• Research contemporary artworks in the collection
• Write reports about the cultural and monetary value of artworks
• Write interpretive labels about artworks

This project is a good fit for students who:

• Are detail-oriented
• Enjoy research
• Are interested in art and museums

Faculty Mentor: David Lash, Computer Science, dlash@aurora.edu

This project studies how AI coding agents change software development and what early-career students can accomplish with them. I am seeking two early-career Computer Science majors in the Software Engineering track (not CYB or IT) who have completed Intro to Programming (CSC1700); Data Structures (CSC2150) is strongly preferred. Using AI agents such as Claude Code, the students will build a classroom attendance tool for large classes, with me acting as the customer. They will meet with me every two weeks to demo progress and respond to changing requirements, much like a real client project. The research will measure what sophomores can build with agents, where they struggle, and whether they understand the code they ship. Results will inform the department’s curriculum redesign and a spring 2027 capstone pilot. For the students, this is a rare chance to learn AI-assisted development early, ship software that is actually used, and build a portfolio piece.

This project is a good fit for students who:

• Have completed CSC1700 Intro to Programming
• Will commit to steady, weekly work and meet deadlines on their own
• Are Computer Science majors who enjoy digging into code until it works
• Are curious about AI
• Are comfortable saying when they don't understand something yet