News on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
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GREAT SUCCESS!
AI4Society organized the annual Reverse Expo on February 18th. Students, alumni, industry partners, and a broad community with an interest in AI to connected during this three hour conference.
More than 150 registrants met virtually, visiting the 64 posters of AI-related research projects, that included research on data analysis and visualization, information extraction, robotics, search, planning, sensor-data analysis, machine learning, and AI applications, and many others like visual arts, music, and more!
Revisit the posters, videos, and other materials prepared by our researchers in the new website:
August, 25th to 28th | online and on site at Osaka Ibaraki Campus by Ritsumeikan University
This year’s conference theme will be “Games for Learning”. Games in various formats will always have a role in our society, we learn through them, about them, and in playing them. While some might see games as frivolous play, others can see the learning potential gaming can provide. In the right context, games can be a powerful learning tool for children and adults alike.
Please be aware that, as of now, it is not possible to enter Japan on a tourist visa. No exceptions can be made for academic conferences. Participants from outside Japan should assume at this stage that their presentation will be made online.
Submit your proposal before April 15th, 2022
Learn more here
Responsible AI Event during Canadian AI
Drs. Bagheri (Ryerson University), Stroulia (University of Alberta), and Taylor (University of Guelph) are organizing a Responsible AI session during the Canadian AI conference, May 25-28 2022.
Given the many activities that are fortunately happening around the responsible and ethical aspects of AI here in Canada, we were hoping to organize an event in conjunction with Canadian AI 2022 this year to become familiar with what everyone is doing and what activities they are engaged in.
It would be wonderful to have a unified community here in Canada around responsible AI so we can support each other and find ways to more effectively collaborate and synergize. We are aiming for a casual, discussion-oriented event rather than talks or formal presentations.
We would appreciate it if you could let us know (a) if you are interested in attending the (virtual) session, and (b) who else you would recommend we invite to the session.
Please send us your ideas and comments to ai4s@ualberta.ca
AI4Society Support for Students From Under-Represented Groups
AI4Society has partnered with Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science, and Technology (WISEST), the Black Youth Mentorship and Leadership Program and Research Internship Experience and the Verna J. Kirkness Education Foundation, to enable more students to experience AI on our campus and to increase the diversity of our field.
For AI4Society members who wish to host students under these programs, AI4Society will subsidize the host's costs, so that hosts will only have to pay at most 50% of the internship.
We hope that you will consider hosting a student in your lab this summer and get them excited about AI!
Students and Hosts interested find out more here
Mentorship opportunity - Black Youth Mentorship and Leadership Program
The Black Youth Mentorship Program (BYMP) is an interdisciplinary program aimed at preparing Black youths to succeed both in university and in the world of work. The BYMP is currently seeking mentors of any background, especially from AI4 Society, for the mentorship and leadership programs that include Black Youth mentees in Grade 10 and 11. Mentors can assign a project over a 6-week period in July and August and/or meet with students once a week for 1 hour. This will particularly be of interest to researchers who want to promote equity, diversity and inclusion on their research team. Deadline for application is April 1, 2022.
Learn more here
AI4Society Dialogues Podcast
The second season of our AI4Society Dialogues came to an end with near 1000 plays in the more than 7 hours of our 10 episodes. For this ambitious project we collaborated with our research and teaching Signature Areas partner Precision Health. Together, we interviewed University of Alberta highlighted professionals working on Health using AI, we explored how advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning are shaping the direction of healthcare. We talked to researchers working on furthering our knowledge of major diseases, like cancer and diabetes. We found out how fields like computer vision and natural language processing are intersecting with medicine and we talked 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 keep our episodes up for you to listen and share!
Second Season Episodes:
- Episode 1: Dr. Jana Rieger (Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine). Reinventing Rehabilitation Medical Devices
- Episode 2: Dr. Alona Fyshe (Faculty of Science).
Understanding Computer "Brains" and Human Brains- Episode 3: Dr. Daniel Baumgart (Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry).
Data, Virtual Care and Precision Health- Episode 4: Dr. Adam Kinnaird (Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry). Predicting Cancer to Drive Early Interventions
- Episode 5: Dr. Nilanjan Ray (Faculty of Science).
Advances in Computer Vision Supporting Diabetes Research- Episode 6: Dr. Jacob Jaremko ( Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry). Envisioning Medical Scan Data as the 21st Century Stethoscope
- Episode 7: Dr. Adriana Rios Rincon (Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine). Social Robots and Assistive Technologies
- Episode 8: Dr. Bo Cao (Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry).
Machine Learning and Mental Health- Episode 9: Dr. Padma Kaul (Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry). Epidemiological Approaches in Women's Health Data
- Episode 10: Dr. Marilène Oliver (Faculty of Arts).
Knowing Our Virtual Selves
Find AI4Society Dialogues podcast in these platforms
Society, Culture and Technology
Ethical Data and AI - Salon #4
Jueves, March 24th | 4:00pm
Jeanna Matthews is a professor of computer science at Clarkson University.
Her presentation "Creating Incentives for Accountability and Iterative Improvement in Automated-Decision Making Systems" will start an open discussion on the topic
A Physics Lesson: Notes on a Cultural Genealogy of Human Mediatic Forms
Tuesday, March 28th | 3:00pm
This talk proposes a cultural genealogy of contemporary human mediatic forms – that is, the use of humans as the media of other humans.
Neferti X. M. Tadiar is professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University.
Sociophonetic Variation and Human Interaction with Digital Voice Assistants
Thursday, March 31th | 4:00pm
As technology that relies on speech is increasingly integrated into modern American society, voice assistants are becoming a more significant part of our everyday lives. This talk will present the results of three studies that focus on social perception of voice assistants, voice quality variation among the assistants themselves, and how one assistant’s “tone of voice” evaluation reinforces systematic linguistic bias.
Artificial Epistemologies in Computational Thinking
Tuesday, April 5th | 2:00pm
What is algorithmic thought? It is not possible to address this question without first reflecting on how the Universal Turing Machine transformed symbolic logic and brought to a halt the universality of mathematical formalism and the biocentric speciation of thought.
Luciana Parisi is professor of media philosophy in the Program in Literature and the Computational Media, Arts & Cultures Program at Duke University.
Work and other opportunities
Job Opportunity at NAIT
JR Shaw Applied Research Chair in Industrial Informatics. An exciting opportunity has been created to build NAIT’s applied research expertise within the data science life cycle. The JR Shaw Applied Research Chair in Industrial Informatics will support NAIT’s industry partners by extending and supporting digital adoption across enterprises of various sizes.
Job Opportunity at AI4Good
The AI4Good Lab is looking to hire 15+ graduate students on a part-time basis to provide ~15 hrs/week of virtual teaching and mentorship to our Lab participants on the topic of Machine Learning.
The job description is available in this PDF document here and the application form can be found here.
Are you an undergraduate student working on a project in Artificial Intelligence? The Canadian Undergraduate Conference on AI (https://cucai.ca/) is the best opportunity you have to show off all that hard work. Design Team applications open until March 21st. Apply now!
Apply here: https://forms.gle/1aWTM9fjoWPgNXke9
Alberta Innovates High School Youth Researcher Summer Program
We have opened host registration for the Alberta Innovates High School Youth Researcher Summer program (HYRS), which will take place (tentatively in-person) July 4-August 12, 2022. We are seeking researchers from a variety of health & medical science areas, including Alberta Innovates priority areas, to host a Grade 11 student on a research project for 6 weeks this summer.
HYRS students are paid a stipend (as a scholarship) of $2700 paid directly to the student by the HYRS program. Students will come from a variety of high schools across central and northern Alberta, and we particularly encourage students from traditionally underrepresented groups to apply for the HYRS program. In addition to working daily in their host labs, students will also have weekly activities facilitated by HYRS staff to help them explore their academic and career options.
We would appreciate if you could share this invitation with interested faculty. Host applications will be accepted at the link below until April 15, 2022
Apply here
NSERC Alliance International grant
We are pleased to announce the launch of the Alliance International grants, a new funding stream to support Canadian university researchers working with leading international academic researchers to establish and grow international research collaborations and projects of global importance that will generate benefits to Canada.
NSERC recognizes the need to support engagement with international collaborators to further develop areas of Canadian research strength and leadership. Alliance International will support Canadian researchers working with international colleagues to pursue new knowledge, technologies, and solutions to complex problems.
Find more information here
Reading
Internet of Things: Opportunities and Challenges
The need of a Canadian national strategy development for Internet of Things. Read this great article by our Director Eleni Stroulia in Innovative Canada here: https://t.co/cHWOqpi2N2
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.
