Like her artwork, educator’s dissertation explores using AI to supplement student creativity
Menomonie, Wis. – For more than 125 years, University of Wisconsin-Stout’s stately Bowman Hall and its distinctive clock tower have served as landmarks for the campus and the community.
This holiday season, they provided artistic inspiration for a doctoral student who designed an annual greeting card sent by UW-Stout Chancellor Katherine Frank to hundreds of recipients. The image — created with a combination of digital tools, including an artificial intelligence assistant — shows the familiar campus building reimagined as a glowing 3D blueprint.
“I wanted the design to capture both my student experience and the character of UW-Stout,” explained Desiah Melby of Scandinavia, Wisconsin, who is pursuing an Ed.D. in career and technical education leadership. “My mind went to the clock tower — but I wanted to reimagine it to reflect the changes in education right now!”
Among those ongoing changes is the use of AI in higher education, which Melby is examining as part of her doctoral dissertation as well as in her professional career at Mid-State Technical College, which has four central Wisconsin campuses. Melby is a communications instructor at Mid-State, where she teaches courses in writing, literature, workplace communication and technical reporting while also leading institutional initiatives around AI integration in teaching, learning and faculty development.
‘A Blueprint for the Future’
“We are excited about this year’s design, which shows, through student work, what it means to learn at a polytechnic university,” stated Frank, who sends out the seasonal cards annually. “Desiah’s design is the result of applied research and learning. What she has produced tells a story about the tangible results of a polytechnic education that have an impact today through the card’s design and message, and will continue to impact students through the innovative educational experience that Desiah creates in her own classroom well into the future.”
This is the third year that UW-Stout students have been invited to submit designs for the chancellor’s seasonal card. Melby learned about the contest through a campus email, and she pursued the opportunity to connect her current academic pursuit with her personal curiosity and creativity.
“This design reimagines UW-Stout’s iconic Bowman Hall clock tower as a glowing, holographic blueprint — blending history with innovation,” Melby wrote in an artist’s statement. “The tower honors the university’s proud traditions, while the futuristic aesthetic reflects its role as Wisconsin’s only polytechnic and its forward-facing embrace of technology, creativity and applied learning.”
In addition to the artist’s statement, the card carried the phrase “A Blueprint for the Future” emblazoned on its front.
Melby’s creative process integrated both traditional and cutting-edge processes. After sketching an initial concept by hand, she refined the composition using a photograph in Adobe Illustrator. Next, she uploaded the image to Midjourney, a generative AI service, where she used iterative prompting to reach the holographic-style blueprint style she was seeking. From there, Melby brought the image into Photoshop, where she adjusted the color palettes, layout and background until she was satisfied with the result.
“For me, the refinement stage is always the most enjoyable: adjusting compositional balance, nudging elements and reworking details,” she said. “That’s the ‘play’ part of the process.”
Supporting creativity with technology
Melby completed her M.S. education with an emphasis in curriculum and instructional design at UW-Stout in 2023, and soon after decided to pursue her doctorate at UW-Stout as well.
“My master’s experiences left me with a sense that my work wasn’t finished — I knew there were deeper questions I wanted to explore, especially around educational leadership, instructional design and emerging technologies,” Melby said. UW-Stout’s Ed.D. program was a “perfect fit,” she explained. She is now writing her doctoral dissertation and expects to graduate in May.
“Crucially, the program lets me focus on my professional passions: innovative pedagogy, workforce preparation and the evolving landscape of digital learning,” she said. “It has also informed much of the work I am doing both in my classroom and leading AI in teaching and learning at my college.”
As a full-time faculty member and committee leader at Mid-State, Melby is grateful that UW-Stout’s online model has allowed her the flexibility to integrate what she’s learning into her professional life. “Instead of education happening outside of my work, it has genuinely shaped the work I do every day,” she said.
Likewise, both her work in the classroom and her academic interests lie at the intersection of traditional and AI-enhanced methods. “My dissertation examines how integrating AI tools into first-year writing instruction influences student perceptions of writing, confidence and learning,” she said. “I created a curriculum model that integrates AI literacy, workplace use cases and ethics into writing instruction. Instead of replacing critical thinking, I believe that AI can serve as a scaffold — supporting brainstorming, revision and idea development — when students are taught to use it transparently, responsibly and with academic integrity.”
Melby said she is surprised that her design was chosen but is grateful for the opportunity to represent her educational journey at UW-Stout in a unique way.
“This project embodies the heart of my dissertation: student learning and creativity supported by technology,” she said. “I used digital tools to extend, not replace, my artistic intent — much like I ask students to use AI to extend their thinking and writing, not bypass it. The design is my practical demonstration of human creativity augmented by thoughtful technological choices, which is exactly the paradigm I believe education must embrace.”
UW-Stout, a member of the Universities of Wisconsin, is Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, with a focus on applied learning, collaboration with business and industry, and career outcomes. Learn more via the FOCUS2030 strategic plan.
