Real Learning, Artificial Intelligence

Ohio State University junior Sagar is studying computer science and neuroscience, with the intent of understanding how the two intersect to create artificial intelligence (AI). The country’s largest contract candle manufacturer might seem like an odd fit for that skillset, but as it turns out, Sagar and Alene Candles are a perfect match.

At Alene, all employees are encouraged to suggest ways AI can be incorporated into their jobs to help the company innovate. This year, Alene created a summer internship position to help turn some of those ideas into reality.

“When I came in, I started helping with the generative chat, especially on the back end,” says Sagar of the in-house chatbot that Alene Candles has been building. The chatbot is one of the many AI pilot programs Application Developer Daniel M. and his team are working on.

“Whether that's retrieving documents in a way that makes them easier for a human to understand or being able to ask questions about procedures or step-by-step guides, the first thing we were looking to solve was how we can get some of these documents into an AI chatbot so we can interact with them,” says Daniel. “[Employees can] ask thoughtful questions and get thoughtful responses and even images back from those documents,” with all the information being specific to Alene’s machines and procedures.

AI in manufacturing often centers on a subset called machine learning, or ML. Programming machines to interpret production data helps optimize the production process and better predict and prevent machine failure. AI is also used by some companies to improve efficiency in the supply chain and enhance product design. 

Sagar, who has expanded his internship into a part-time role, is now working on a project using machine learning and computer vision—another subset of AI where computers analyze visual data—to understand whether these technologies are useful in other areas of the business.

“Our manager has given us a lot of freedom to explore, which I think is another really important aspect of this—not just handing over assignments, but letting us explore, see different possibilities and then bringing those to the table and saying, ‘this is what we could implement,” said Sagar.

For Sagar, this experience is a dual opportunity—applying fundamental concepts he learns in school while bringing that real-world experience back to the classroom. 

“Anytime you get hands-on experience it’s a lot different from school. I think it's been a great opportunity as a whole.”