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October 18th, 2021
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
AI Ethics and Privacy
Another stellar AI4Society Collaboratories. With the
dramatic advances in AI technology there has been a commensurate increase in public concern around the uses of AI in decision-making that affects people. The Ethics and Privacy Collaboratory would coordinate research and educational initiatives specifically around privacy and ethics issues related to big data and artificial intelligence.
What is AI4Society?
Thank you for joining us! We are a Signature Area at the University
of Alberta, a VPRI (research) initiative that focus in the development of AI in the modern world, we have a large variety of initiatives and events. Please visit our Forum and website for more information.
You will find one of these every fifteen days, if you think some information that can be include please contact us at ai4s@ualberta.ca
AI4Society Team
Dr. Eleni Stroulia
Director
Dr. Geoffrey Rockwell
Associate Director
Dr. Nicolás Arnáez
Project Coordinator
What we have done so far?
Interested in our activities of our first year? check our annual report by clicking on the image below. We thank all our members, students, and associates for the hard work and support, this is a shared success!
AI4Society NEWS
NEW CALL!
AI in Construction - Meet and Greet event
The University of Alberta’s Construction Innovation Centre (CIC) and the AI4Society Signature Area have joined forces to promote and develop research initiatives that relate to the area of Artificial Intelligence for the Construction industry.
Please join us for an online event where you can meet your fellow researchers interested in this area, explore potential overlaps of your research with that of others, and form new research partnerships! The AI4Society and CIC are jointly providing support for these partnerships, including introductions to potential industry partners, grant-development support and seed funding.
More information and registration here
Artificial Intelligence for Information Accessibility (AI4IA) conference 2021
On September 28th, the AI4Society Signature Area helped organize a one day conference on Inclusive Artificial Intelligence to celebrate the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) 2021 https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/accesstoinformationday. The conference was organized by the UNESCO Information For All Programme (IFAP) Working Group on Information Accessibility (WGIA) with support from AI4Society and the Kule Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Alberta. Also supporting the conference were the International Centre for Information Ethics (ICIE), Future Africa at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, the Centre for New Economic Diplomacy (CNED) in ORF, India and the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica. It was organized under the auspices of the UNESCO Cluster Office for the Caribbean, Kingston, Jamaica and the UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Read more about this successful event here
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.
On March 8th our first episode on this new season was
premiered, Jana Rieger: Reinventing rehabilitation medical devices. Visit the official site
AI4Society Dialogues to hear this and our previous episodes.
What's coming
EPISODE 2
Listen to all episodes on these platforms!
Alona Fyshe - Understanding computer "brains" and human brains
When we think about how artificial intelligence works, we often make comparisons to the human brain. Terms like neural networks seem to cement this connection. How much do computer models and the human brain have in common, especially when it comes to processing language? Dr. Alona Fyshe is a computer scientist with research interests that combine computational linguistics, machine learning and neuroscience.
Release date: October 25th, 2021
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 2: Cultural Knowledge and Community Data
November 9 Delaney Lothian, National Research Council of Canada / University of Alberta, “Privacy, sovereignty, and informed consent in Indigenous language data and documentation.”
Register here
WaiTALK: AI Ethics - The Personal and the Practical
Discussion with the Founder and CEO of Ethically Aligned AI about her career journey and learning from her expertise in AI ethics.
AI enabled technologies are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. They are used to make important decisions that can impact a person’s finances, employment, education, and life chances. Yet, there are inequities encoded into AI systems that disadvantage certain groups while privileging others. Often women, those who identify as women, BIPOC and marginalized communities are disadvantaged by these systems in ways that reflect, uphold, and reinforce historical power structures. How do these power imbalances get encoded into technology and how can we take practical steps to address this problem?
In this session, Katrina Ingram shares her personal journey from marketing and media management to AI ethics advisor and entrepreneur.
Join us on October 20th, 2021.
More information here.
Digital Law Tea Time Talks!
October 21, 2021 (12:00 - 01:00 MT) Mat Brechtel: Founding Partner at Seastone IP, presented by "Digital Law Tea Time Talks!"
- Mat Brechtel is passionate about helping entrepreneurs protect their reputation, defend their rights, and build their following. Following extensive experience representing well recognized brands and other clients before the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal of British Columbia, before the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal, the Ontario Superior Courts, the Trademarks Opposition Board, and in several international arbitrations, he recently became a founding partner at Seastone IP. What does the next frontier of digital law hold? Come ask Mat.
- Digital Law Tea Time Talks are a chance for law and tech geeks to learn about topics at the intersection of those fields. A short presentation on a work in progress, recent article or experience will be followed by open Q&A. The 12-1 pm time block includes a "digital commute" allowing everyone to sign in and get settled. The actual presentation and discussion will go from 12:10-12:50 MT.
Meeting Link here
Find the list of future events here
Hosted by the Digital Law & Innovation Society
Canadian Symposium for Computational Neuroscience
Campus Alberta Neuroscience is a pleased to announce the first ever Canadian Symposium for Computational Neuroscience, being held October 26-27 2021. This national symposium will be held virtually and will connect trainees, researchers, and industry representatives from across the country to share knowledge, research, and innovation.
The programming includes panel discussions, research presentations, a facilitated researcher collaboration session, and a keynote presentation (to be announced soon!). Also included is an interactive workshop led and sponsored by the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) and will provide attendees with an understanding of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the real world. No prior knowledge in coding or programming is needed! Attendees will also have the opportunity to learn about how Amii researchers use machine learning to aid in the diagnosis of mental disorders, like Schizophrenia. Principal Researcher Sunil Kalmady and Amii Research Fellow Russ Greiner will give a short presentation on their work and answer any questions you may have.
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
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.
Grant Opportunities
UofA and EPS 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. on December 10, 2021.
Find more information and the full call here
Research Proposals
Research and Knowledge Initiative
The Research and Knowledge Initiative (RKI) is a competitive, merit-based contributions funding program that supports data and research on issues related to public infrastructure and communities. The purpose of the Research and Knowledge Initiative is to advance the understanding of public infrastructure needs, challenges, and opportunities relevant to Canadians. The program aims to strengthen the evidence base on public infrastructure and communities in Canada, facilitate collaboration and partnership among key public infrastructure actors and stakeholders, and support data, research, and knowledge-sharing activities.
The Research and Knowledge Initiative is currently inviting research proposals under the theme: Cultivating Community Data and Research to Inform Public Infrastructure Decision-making.
Submission deadline is October 25, 2021.
More information here
Fellowships
Future of Life
We have graduate and $80k postdoctoral AI fellowship opportunities, usable for research on AI existential safety by Canadians in Canada, by Canadians at foreign universities, by foreigners at Canadian universities.
These elite fellowships are part of our new US $25M grant program aimed at keeping AI safe and beneficial even as it gets much more powerful.
Application forms: https://grants.futureoflife.org
1st application deadline: October 29
Geometry and Statistics in Data Sciences
First announcement: registration
It is our pleasure to announce the thematic three-month program entitled Geometry and Statistics in Data Sciences at the Institut Henri Poincaré (IHP) in Paris. Registration free but mandatory, please do so here
Important: the deadline for financial support requests is March 15th, 2022
The Institut Henri Poincaré can help you to find an accommodation during your stay in Paris.
An Introductory School will be organized at IESC (Corsica), from September 5th to 9th, 2022. Register here
Three conferences will be organized at IHP:
- From October 3rd to 7th, 2022: Non-Linear and High Dimensional Inference Register here
- From October 10th to 14th, 2022: Geometry, Topology and Statistics in Data Sciences Register here
From November 21st to 25th, 2022: Measure-theoretic Approaches and Optimal Transportation in Statistics Register here
We are looking forward to welcoming you!
The organizers: Eddie Aamari, Catherine Aaron, Frédéric Chazal, Aurélie Fischer, Marc Hoffmann, Alice Le Brigant, Clément Levrard, Bertrand Michel
AI EDUCATION
New AI courses at Faculty of Extension, UofA
UAlberta Digital Law Primers
Fall 2021 courses
Get AI informed. Learn what you need to know about Artificial Intelligence and how to effectively manage legal risk, opportunity and solutions.
Join courses tailored to enhance digital literacy in Canada’s legal communities. Whether you are curious or cautious about AI, these courses will equip you as a legal professional to confidently understand and interact with technology to best serve your clients in your day-to-day work.
Now accepting registration, still some spots available! Register now for “AI & Your Legal Business: Artificial Intelligence and Its Implications for Legal Practice” - Course starts on November 6th, 2021!
Find out more about these courses and how to register here
WaiSYMPOSIUM
Our #WaiSYMPOSIUM 2021 was a great success, with amazing speakers across Canada gracing the event sharing their wealth of knowledge and experience about AI in Industry, Startup and Research. We were absolutely honored to have Nicole Janssen, Kianna Adams, Maud Parey-Razafindramboa, and UofA own Lianne Lefsrud and Martha White speak at the event. Thank you once again for being part of WaiSYMPOSIUM Canada and engaging our audience.
More here, video of the event below!
ISAIC
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