In our CORE 456 class, we were thrown into a fast-paced challenge: create a 5-minute presentation with a partner in just 15 minutes about a specific AI tool. The catch? We had no idea there was an additional twist waiting for us at the end. My partner, Hunter Dolphin, and I decided to dive into Jasper AI, an AI tool designed for content creation. Fueled by the adrenaline of the time crunch, we scrambled to gather information and put together a PowerPoint presentation. Just as we were about to present, our professor dropped the bombshell: the real focus wasn’t the AI tool, but the process we used to prepare the presentation itself.

The main point of this challenge was not for us to learn about a new AI tool, but rather to force us to critically think about how we approached a difficult situation and solved problems along the way. The most obvious issue was that we had no prior experience with this AI tool. To address this, I turned to a resource that has helped me throughout my four years of engineering school: YouTube. Here, I found videos explaining how to use the AI tool and providing a simple description of what it does. This proved extremely helpful, especially since access to the AI tool was blocked by a paywall, preventing my partner and me from actually using it. While I focused on research, my partner, Hunter, used PowerPoint to organize the information I found into a format suitable for our 5-minute presentation. This teamwork proved highly effective, allowing us to create a presentation on a topic we had no prior knowledge about.

This twist turned the exercise into a test of adaptability and quick thinking, mirroring real-world job interview scenarios where you’re evaluated on your thought process under pressure. From there, we had to pivot and explain how we approached researching Jasper AI, overcoming obstacles like limited access to the tool’s website, and collaborating effectively to meet the deadline.