{"id":4026,"date":"2026-05-13T17:59:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/commencement\/?p=4026"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:11:08","slug":"lauren-gallagher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/commencement\/2026\/05\/13\/lauren-gallagher\/","title":{"rendered":"Lauren Gallagher"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Laren<\/figure>\n\n\n
\n
\n

What if the non-player characters (NPCs) in video games could come to life with artificial intelligence? When Lauren Gallagher \u201926, MFA \u201927, asked herself that question, she designed a project that earned her one of the University\u2019s inaugural AI Innovation Grants<\/a>. The\u00a0Becker School of Design & Technology<\/a>\u00a0major is trying to see what boundaries she can push in this new territory of technology. Gallagher created a persona for her NPC \u2014 Jenny Applebaum, a local apple seller \u2014 and connected the character to a local language model to create a playable demo. The goal was for the player to convince the NPC to sell them an apple.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallagher is enrolled in the BSDT\u2019s MFA program and will continue to work on this project as a graduate student. She will also be leading a Game Studio project next academic year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Student spotlights<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\n \"A\n <\/div>\n \n \n\n

Interactive Media: Game Design and Development, B.A.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Design your path in a world that\u2019s still being created<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Program details<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What if the non-player characters (NPCs) in video games could come to life with artificial intelligence? When Lauren Gallagher \u201926, MFA \u201927, asked herself that question, she designed a project that earned her one of the University\u2019s inaugural AI Innovation Grants. The\u00a0Becker School of Design & Technology\u00a0major is trying to see what boundaries she can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":4003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLauren Gallagher | Commencement | Clark University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/commencement\/2026\/05\/13\/lauren-gallagher\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lauren Gallagher\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What if the non-player characters (NPCs) in video games could come to life with artificial intelligence? When Lauren Gallagher \u201926, MFA \u201927, asked herself that question, she designed a project that earned her one of the University\u2019s inaugural AI Innovation Grants. The\u00a0Becker School of Design & Technology\u00a0major is trying to see what boundaries she can […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/commencement\/2026\/05\/13\/lauren-gallagher\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commencement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-13T17:59:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-13T18:11:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2026\/05\/Lauren-Gallagher-22.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laurel McLaughlin\" \/>\n\t<meta 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