The AUDIT Lab is an Aletheia Research Institution lab hosted at Canisius where accounting students work with real data, faculty and industry professionals to tackle emerging issues such as artificial intelligence (AI) — gaining professional experience before they graduate.
For Ashley Hedges BS ’25 MS ’26, one of the biggest differences between working in Canisius University’s AUDIT Lab and completing a traditional accounting class project was simple: the data wasn’t already cleaned up for her.
While working on a white paper examining the use of artificial intelligence in internal audit, Hedges and her fellow student researchers worked with more than 3,000 survey responses. They had to clean the data themselves, determine what questions it could answer and decide how best to analyze it.
But why is that important?
“It’s a very different skill than working on a homework problem where the data is already clean, the question is framed for you, and there’s a definite correct answer,” says Hedges, who has worked as a corporate accounting assistant at Astronics and will begin her career as an audit associate with PwC.
That difference is at the heart of the AUDIT Lab at Canisius University. The experience is a form of experiential learning, giving students the opportunity to apply accounting knowledge to problems that extend beyond the classroom.
Launched in January 2026, the Accounting, Upstream Disciplines and Industry Technology (AUDIT) Lab gives Canisius accounting students an opportunity to move beyond the classroom and work on questions the accounting profession is actively trying to answer.
Rather than simply learning about emerging technologies and trends, students get to investigate them firsthand — working with real data, collaborating with faculty and alumni, and engaging with professionals who are navigating those issues in the workplace.
For students considering careers in accounting, audit, data analytics or related fields, it is an opportunity to gain professional-level experience while still an undergraduate.
Accounting Students Gain Real-World Experience
Traditional accounting courses give students the foundation they need. The AUDIT Lab gives them an opportunity to put that knowledge to work.
For Eric Redpath, portfolio director at Aletheia Research Institution and director of the AUDIT Lab , the opportunity ultimately is about preparing students for the profession they will enter — not simply the profession as it exists today.
“They aren't doing assignments for the AUDIT Lab. They're producing published research that practitioners read,” says Redpath.
Students help identify topics worth exploring, divide responsibilities, analyze information and develop their findings into professional research. Current projects include research examining AI adoption in internal audit, as well as initiatives involving tax and technology.
“The profession is changing faster than curricula traditionally move, and AI is accelerating that,” he says. “The AUDIT Lab closes the gap.”
That approach builds on Canisius’ longstanding emphasis on preparing students through practical experiences. The Wehle Business School emphasizes immersive, experience-based learning through partnerships with businesses and the broader community.
For Bella Peters ’28, an accounting and accounting systems and analytics dual major, that experience has changed how she thinks about the profession.
“One of the biggest differences from the classroom was working with real-world data and questions that did not necessarily have one obvious answer,” Peters says. “Instead of being given a neatly organized problem with all of the necessary information, we had to work with the information available, look for meaningful patterns, think critically about what those patterns actually told us, and consider whether our conclusions were truly supported by the data.”
That kind of experience helps students develop skills employers increasingly value: critical thinking, data analysis, communication, collaboration and the ability to make sound decisions when the answer isn't immediately obvious.
Accounting Students Work With Industry Professionals
The AUDIT Lab gives students access to a broader network of researchers and professionals while keeping the student experience at the center of the work.
Students collaborate with Canisius faculty, alumni and industry practitioners, gaining a firsthand understanding of how accounting professionals approach complex problems.
Mike Levy, CEO and managing principal of Cherry Hill Advisory and principal advisor for the Lab's Internal Audit Initiative, says that exposure gives students an advantage when they enter the workforce.
“They're interacting with people in the professional workforce before graduation, so they understand some of the expectations and get feedback in real time,” Levy says.
“Working with faculty, alumni and industry professionals has been one of the most valuable aspects of the AUDIT Lab,” says Bryce McCarthy ’27, an accounting major. “Their guidance has broadened my understanding of the opportunities available within accounting and helped me approach my career with greater confidence and curiosity.”
Students also begin building professional relationships and learning about career paths they may not have encountered in a traditional accounting curriculum, including internal audit, risk and technology.
For Peters, one of the most rewarding moments came when a professional shared the students' research and recommended it to others in the field.
“It was one of the first times I saw something that I had helped contribute to move beyond the classroom and actually reach people working in the field,” she says.
Building Career-Ready Accounting Skills
The Lab also asks students to take ownership of their work.
They aren't simply completing a project for a grade. They are contributing to research intended for a professional audience, which means their work is reviewed, challenged and refined along the way.
For Hedges, that process taught her an important lesson about the accounting profession.
“Our advisor sent back a full round of review notes on our draft and it was honestly a bit of a wakeup call but in a good way,” she says. “A lot of the feedback wasn't about our writing but rather about being intellectually honest.”
That means understanding how conclusions were reached, recognizing limitations and being willing to acknowledge what the data does — and does not — show.
Those lessons can be difficult to replicate in a classroom, but they are essential in the workplace.
“The difference between knowing the material and practicing the profession” is what students learn through the Lab, Redpath says.
Something More to Bring to an Employer
The experience also gives students something tangible to discuss when they begin applying for internships and jobs.
Students have contributed to published research, presented their work at academic conferences and worked on research intended for industry professionals. The Lab's work includes two published papers on AI adoption and a peer-reviewed publication on protecting technology at the border, with additional research underway.
For an undergraduate student, that can make for a very different conversation in a job interview.
“I think the biggest advantage would be being able to point to something specific,” Hedges says. “I could walk an interviewer through a model I had to refit myself to double check someone else's numbers and full sections of a whitepaper I wrote and then had to stand by after an advisor's line-by-line review.”
Peters agrees.
“One of the biggest ways the AUDIT Lab will set me apart is that I can show an employer something tangible that I contributed to rather than simply saying that I have experience with research, data, or professional writing,” she says.
That experience complements the internships, classroom learning and other high-impact opportunities students pursue at Canisius.
“The greatest advantage of the AUDIT Lab is not simply having a research project on my resume,” Peters says. “It is being able to tell an employer that, as an undergraduate, I worked with real data, collaborated with professionals and contributed to research addressing a current issue in accounting — and can show them what I helped produce.”
The AUDIT Lab experience is part of Canisius’ broader emphasis on experiential learning, giving accounting students opportunities to apply classroom knowledge to real-world problems, work with industry professionals and develop career-ready skills before graduation. Through its partnership with Aletheia Research Institution, students also gain access to a broader research network focused on emerging issues in accounting with a reach that includes policymakers and international organizations. Read more about the AUDIT Lab →
