December 17th, 2021

Happy Holidays!

from the
AI4Society team

AI4Society calls for proposals for activities, grant support, big questions, and other initiatives for the 2021-2022 academic year.

The Call
AI4Society is a University of Alberta Signature Area that brings together interdisciplinary research around artificial intelligence, big data, ethics, and social impact. Researchers at the University of Alberta in any discipline are invited to propose projects, grant preparation ideas, and big question events for funding support from AI4Society. Applications should:

Be led by a full-time faculty member of the University of Alberta
Include an interdisciplinary team of researchers. (Researchers at other universities and community researchers are welcome)
Be relevant to the focus of the AI4Society Signature Area

Applications will be reviewed over the Fall 2021 term. We will continue to accept applications over the academic year or until our funding is finished.

More information here

Grant Opportunities

NRC's Aging in Place Challenge program and CIHR Institute of Aging joint funding call

This call for proposals is a joint endeavour between the National Research Council of Canada's (NRC) Aging in Place Challenge program and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research - Institute of Aging (CIHR-IA). The focus of this call is to seek technological solutions to assist older adults with mental health conditions and/or those who experience social isolation so they can live well in the community.

Total funding available in this collaborative funding opportunity is $1,350,000 from the NRC and $300,000 from the CIHR-IA to fund 3 projects, for a maximum of 3 years each. The nominated principal applicant (NPA) will be eligible to receive up to $450,000 over a maximum of 3 years in grant funding from the NRC to support their portion of the project. The NPA will also be eligible to receive up to $100,000 over a maximum of 3 years from CIHR-IA to support knowledge mobilization and/or community engagement. Projects with a shorter duration will be considered.

Deadline for submissions: December 22nd, 2021
Find the full call here.

AI in Construction - Academia and Industry

The University of Alberta’s Construction Innovation Centre (CIC) and the AI4Society Signature Area have joined forces to promote the adoption of Artificial Intelligence in the Construction industry.

We have hosted two events that gathered researchers in Construction, Artificial Intelligence, and Industry Partners with the goal of generating discussions on the most prominent needs, opportunities, and challenges of implementing AI in construction. We are aiming to fostering partnerships among researchers and industry partners, so that new teams can access funding and support provided by the CIC and AI4Society for research initiatives related to AI in construction!

We are also open to interested parties who couldn't attend to any of these, there is room for everyone!

Deadlines to apply to the first round of funds: January 10th, 2022

More information here.

University of Alberta and Edmonton
Police Service Seed Grant Program

The Office of the Vice-President (Research and Innovation) (OVPRI), the Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS), and the AI4Society Signature Area (AI4S) at the University of Alberta, in partnership with the Edmonton Police Service (EPS), are pleased to announce the launch of Year 2 of our University of Alberta and Edmonton Police Service Seed Grant Program.
These grants provide support for the co-development of research collaborations between University of Alberta researchers and members of Edmonton Police Service. The program will fund up to three projects per year. Grants are capped at a maximum of $10,000 each, are to be carried out over a period of 18-months, and should focus on one or more the following areas:

Policing among marginalized populations
Police legitimacy and racism
Use of data and analytics in policing
History of Colonialism and the impacts on policing today
Evaluation of Edmonton Police Service training initiatives

The Program Guidelines are attached for your information. They can also be found on our Internal Research Funding website. Applications are to be submitted to Leslie Parsad at uofaepsgrant@ualberta.ca by 4:30 p.m., NEW DEADLINE: Friday on March 11, 2022.

The latest round of CIHR Planning Grants are now live on ResearchNet. The CIHR Institute of Population & Public Health (IPPH) is supporting four opportunities related to our strategic plan through the Healthy Cities Research Initiative, Equitable AI and Global Health Policy priority areas, as well as Social Sciences and Humanities for Population Health. These planning grants will support activities that aid in partnership development, the preparation of grant applications for CIHR’s Project Scheme or similar opportunities from other funders.

Application Deadline: January 18, 2022
Notice of Decision: June 28, 2022
Find more information here

AI4Society EVENTS and CALLS

GRant EXcellence
Applied Professional Grant Proposal Writing Workshop

Do you want to develop a SSHRC grant related to artificial intelligence? The AI for Society Signature Area is working with Heather Young Leslie to organize GrEx, a SSHRC GRant EXcellence programme that will run in the Winter 2022 term. Over the period of a few weeks, participants will get focused help with all key elements of a successful SSHRC grant, from summarizing the idea for a SSHRC panel to crafting a budget. AI4Society will be organizing expertise to support your grant writing.

Please, find more information here, or write us at ai4s@ualberta.ca
Deadline to send us your intension of participation: January 16th, 2021

The Digital Law and Innovation Society at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law is organizing its second annual Digital Law Forum in February 2022. We are inviting students, researchers and professors to submit proposals to present their research in the Forum.

The topic of this year’s Forum will be the myths and realities of the law and artificial intelligence (AI). The reality is that AI already has a significant impact on the legal field, whether lawyers are aware of it or not. Substantive law and institutional processes are challenged by AI applications in areas including: surveillance and information privacy law; jurisdiction and federalism; data governance; and the governance of the networked information society. AI is being used to address legal problems by courts, law firms and new legal tech organizations. Legal rights and obligations are also affected by the often-invisible application of AI in everyday consumer and government processes.

Submit your proposal by January 20th, 2022 to present!
Here more information.

AI4Society NEWS

AI4Society Dialogs - Season 2

After a quite successful first season, we are thrilled to bring to you a second collection of 10 new episodes, this time focused on AI and Health. For this ambitious project we are collaborating with our research and teaching Signature Areas partner Precision Health. Together, we are interviewing University of Alberta highlighted professionals working on Health using AI, we will explore how advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning are shaping the direction of healthcare. We’ll talk to researchers working on furthering our knowledge of major diseases, like cancer and diabetes. We’ll find out how fields like computer vision and natural language processing are intersecting with medicine and we’ll talk about the entrepreneurial journey that some of these researchers are taking and how these exciting developments are paving the way for personalized healthcare.

We will have a break during the holiday period and we will be back on January 10th with a new episode, in the meantime, we invited you to revive our first fantastic five episodes!:

EPISODE 1: Jana Rieger - Reinventing rehabilitation medical devices
EPISODE 2: Alona Fyshe - Understanding computer "brains" and human brains
EPISODE 3: Daniel Baumgart - Data, Virtual Care and Precision Health
EPISODE 4: Adam Kinnaird - Predicting cancer to drive early interventions
EPISODE 5: Nilanjan Ray - Advances in computer vision supporting diabetes research

On December 6th our fifth episode on this new season was premiered, Nilanjan Ray: Advances in computer vision supporting diabetes research. Visit the official site
AI4Society Dialogues to hear this and our previous episodes.

What's coming

EPISODE 6

Listen to all episodes on these platforms!

Jacob Jaremko: Envisioning medical scan data as the 21st century stethoscope
A stethoscope is a functional device, used to examine a patient...but it’s also become an enduring symbol for the use of technology in patient care. Yet...when it comes to advances in technology - what might a new, 21st century stethoscope look like? Dr. Jacob Jaremko believes that with AI enabled technology, we can transform medical imaging at the point of care.
Release date: January 10th, 2022

EVENTS

NRC Responsible Data Speakers Series

AI for Logistics Program / Programme IA Logistique (NRC/CNRC)

Please join us for the 2021-22 NRC Responsible Data Speakers Series.

The bi-weekly series structure, as well as the choice of themes, reflect the feedback we received following the Forum last winter. We have maintained our focus on research, data sharing, and research ethics-type concerns. Talks will occur on alternating Tuesday afternoons (Eastern Time).

This year’s themes are:

Responsible Collection and Use of Internet-Derived Data
Cultural Knowledge and Community Data in research and publication
De-identification and Anonymization of Data for Sharing or Collaborative Research Purposes
Interoperability in Research Data Storage and Analysis Platforms

Theme 3: De-Identification and anonymization of data for sharing and collaboration

December 18th: Dr. Khaled El Emam, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Register here

Responsible AI for Business

Edmonton Chamber of Commerce,
Wednesday January 12, 2022
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM MST

AI has been compared to electricity in terms of how it will transform the way business is conducted across nearly every domain. Some organizations might undertake AI projects directly as part of their digital transformation strategy. Others will encounter AI as part of their supply chain through smart-enabled devices or software as a service. Regardless of how your organization intersects with AI, there are several issues you should be aware of as you decide how AI fits into your business.

Using AI responsibility means:

Understanding key issues around the use of data, privacy and consent
Recognizing how machine learning models can encode bias that leads to discrimination and how to mitigate this risk
Weighing the financial and reputational risks related to liability for AI systems when they go wrong
Grappling with bigger picture questions around the automation of work and the use of robots in the workplace

Speaker: Katrina Ingram
More information here

5th International School on Deep Learning

(DeepLearn 2022 Winter), Bournemouth, UK, January 17-21, 2022

DeepLearn 2022 Winter will be a research training event with a global scope aiming at updating participants on the most recent advances in the critical and fast developing area of deep learning.
Graduate students, postgraduate students and industry practitioners will be typical profiles of participants. However, there are no formal pre-requisites for attendance in terms of academic degrees, so people less or more advanced in their career will be welcome as well.

More information here

2022 AI4Society Reverse EXPO

Is your work related to AI?
Are you developing algorithms for search, planning, data analysis and visualization, machine learning?
Are you applying AI techniques in your discipline?
Are you studying the implications of AI algorithms and applications for our society?

If so, we want to see your work included in the AI Reverse Expo, to take place on February 18, 2022. The expo will be an online showcase of AI research at the UoA, for everyone on campus and our community partners.

More information here

Who

Any UofAlberta community member (faculty, researcher, or student) interested in any and all aspects of Artificial Intelligence!

Why

To stay informed about AI-related funding opportunities and events (research grants, internships, competitions, ...)
To access AI4Society support for research and teaching initiatives
To profile your research and to collaborate with other community members, through our Forum.

How

Send an email with a brief description of your affiliation, interests, and activities related to artificial intelligence to ai4s@ualberta.ca.

Want to share something with AI4Society members?
Send us the information
We'll add it in our next newsletter and social media pages

For information about
AI experts, and AI-related events and opportunities,
visit https://ai4society.ca