November 15th, 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

Grants/Funds 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

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.

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

Awards

Globalink Research Award Thematic Call

Attention UofA AI researchers! Mitacs has a call for the Globalink Research Awards in specific thematic areas:

1. Advanced computing (Quantum and AI)

Quantum computing
Advanced materials for computing and other advanced computing technologies
AI and health
AI and climate change
Cybersecurity

2. Achieving Net Zero

Sustainable technologies
Future cities/IoT
Environmental sustainability
Circular economy
Water
Food Security

3. Global Health

OneHealth
Innovations in therapies and prevention
Biomanufacturing
Healthy aging
Mental health and wellbeing

Professors can submit projects by December 1, 2021, at 5 p.m. PT. Please fill out this webform to request an application package.

Find more information here, GRA thematic call info session recording: ENG or FR version.

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

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.

On November 8th our third episode on this new season was premiered, Daniel Baumgart - Data, Virtual Care and Precision Health. Visit the official site
AI4Society Dialogues to hear this and our previous episodes.

What's coming

EPISODE 4

Listen to all episodes on these platforms!

Adam Kinnaird - Predicting Cancer to Drive Early Interventions
What if we had better ways to predict cancer and a tailored plan to intervene early in the process? Dr. Adam Kinnaird is conducting leading edge research in the area of prostate cancer, which affects 1 in 7 men in Canada throughout their life. We talk about his research into early interventions in cancer, why prostate cancer is so hard to diagnose, using AI/ML techniques in precision diagnostics, surgical robots, interdisciplinary research collaboration and why he’s excited about the future of precision medicine.
Release date: November 22nd, 2021

Photo-Illustration: Sam Whitney; Getty Images

Article on AI ethics - Jonathan Cohn

An Ethics Bounty System Could Help Clean Up the Web

IN MAY 2021, Twitter user @capohai shared a screenshot of a Google search for “what do terrorists wear on their head,” which returned, as the first result, the Palestinian keffiyeh scarf. At the same time, the French senate had just voted to prohibit women under 18 from wearing hijabs in public, and President Macron’s LREM political party had pulled support from candidate Sarah Zemmahi for wearing a hijab in a campaign ad. How many others asked Google the same question and took its response as validation of their own prejudices or as an objective statement of fact? How many others were hurt by the results?

Read the full article in The Artificial Intelligence Database section of Wired.com here: https://www.wired.com/story/big-tech-ethics-bug-bounty/

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 23: Kayla Las-Son, Indigenous Programs and Services Librarian, X̱wi7x̱wa Library, UBC, “Waahkoomiwayk and Relationality: Ethical Data Practices with Indigenous Communities”

Register here

Digital Law Tea Time Talks!

November 25, 2021 (12:00 - 01:00 MT) Len Polsky, Manager, Legal Technology and Mentorship at the Law Society of Alberta, presented by "Digital Law Tea Time Talks!"

On October 1, 2021, the Benchers approved the creation of an Innovation Sandbox at the Law Society of Alberta. The Innovation Sandbox allows the Law Society to support innovators in testing new ideas and models for the delivery of legal services in a controlled environment, with the Law Society providing both guidance and oversight. Come find out more about this exciting new development from Len Polsky.
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

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.

Alberta Innovates Summer Research Studentship Program
Undergraduate Research Initiative

The Undergraduate Research Initiative (URI) is beginning to recruit faculty adjudicators for the 2022 Alberta Innovates Summer Research Studentship (SRS) program and URI Stipend program, and we are also gauging interest and asking for input into the 2022 High school Youth Researcher Summer program (HYRS). The following short survey is a way for faculty to indicate interest in adjudicating summer awards and/or the HYRS program. We will reach out to respondents early in the winter term with more information about the programs they have indicated an interest in.

If you can join us, please fill this survey by November 22nd.

Thanks in advance!

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