Ian Bogost (center) of Washington University in St. Louis speaks during a panel discussion at the Interdisciplinary AI and Data Science Symposium held Nov. 30 at the University of Georgia Continuing Education Center and Hotel. Meg Mittelstadt (left), director of the UGA Center for Teaching and Learning, Tianming Liu (right), Distinguished Research Professor in the School of Computing, and Yujin Kong (not pictured), assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy, also joined Bogost. and discussed progress. With artificial intelligence. (Photo provided by Mike Wooten)
Faculty from across the University of Georgia campus will gather on November 30 to discuss the growing impact of artificial intelligence, share research insights, and explore how AI may shape the future of higher education and society. We have considered.
The university’s first “Artificial Intelligence and Data Science Across Disciplines” symposium was hosted by the Institute for Artificial Intelligence, with support from the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Office of the Provost, the Office of Research, and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
“This symposium is part of a series of events aimed at bringing together UGA’s AI and data science faculty,” said Khaled M. Rasheed, director of the Artificial Intelligence Institute and professor in the Department of Computing. I am. “It was an exciting opportunity for UGA’s AI community to connect and learn.”
The symposium, held at the University of Georgia Continuing Education Center and Hotel, highlighted UGA’s significant investments in the fields of artificial intelligence and data science. These investments include a multidisciplinary, multidisciplinary faculty with the goal of hiring 70 faculty members with expertise in applying data science and artificial intelligence to some of society’s most pressing challenges. Includes recruitment initiatives.
Rather than focusing on a single department, the majority of UGA’s new faculty hires will focus on cross-cutting areas such as infectious diseases, integrated precision agriculture, ethics, cybersecurity, resilient communities, and the environment. Focus on the convergence of data science and AI. .
“With the University of Georgia’s breadth of experience and expertise, we are uniquely positioned to advance scholarship and research in AI and data science,” said Janet Taylor, the university’s vice president for academic affairs. “We can integrate perspectives from different disciplines by considering not only the potential applications of AI, but also the ethical and social issues that arise.”
Ian Bogost, Barbara and Distinguished Professor David Thomas of Washington University in St. Louis, professor and director of film and media studies and professor of computer science and engineering, delivered the symposium’s keynote address.
Bogost urged attendees not to view generative AI such as ChatGPT and Dall-E as tools that optimize processes at the expense of imagination.
“AI is most effective when used to stretch the imagination,” he said.
The symposium featured two short talks by UGA faculty from a wide range of disciplines. Faculty emphasized the use of AI and data science in research topics such as crop modeling and evaluation, physics-based machine learning for infectious disease prediction, data science in advanced manufacturing, and social integration of AI.
A panel discussion concluded the symposium. Participants considered, among other things, the impact of AI and ChatGPT on teaching and learning at UGA, industries that stand to benefit from AI, and the ethics of AI in research and society.
Building on the momentum of the symposium, the UGA lab will host an AI Team Acceleration event on February 5th at the Delta Innovation Hub. This event will include presentations from research teams funded by Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants and an overview of key university resources available to research teams.
UGA is currently gathering input from faculty about potential interdisciplinary research collaborations. The lab will filter responses through her AI to identify affinity groups that faculty can join. AI Team Acceleration events include time for these groups to meet and begin discussions about potential research projects.