VERMILLION, S.D. – The University of South Dakota will host its fourth annual Artificial Intelligence Symposium on Thursday, April 11, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the main campus in Vermillion. Sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the symposium is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
The event aims to bring together experts in AI and data engineering from academia, industry, and government to discuss current issues and areas of collaboration. AI-driven tools are increasingly in demand to address big data challenges in fields such as health care, cyberthreats, quantum computing, sustainable agriculture, and risk management.
“AI is not just for computer science or computer scientists; it’s for all and for good – let us serve the humanities together,” said KC Santosh, Ph.D., chair of the USD Department of Computer Science.
In addition to two keynote speakers, the symposium includes a series of “blitz” talks and a fireside chat.
The speakers include the following.
· Michael Littman, Ph.D., division director for information and intelligent systems at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and professor at Brown University, will give the talk “Conveying Tasks to Computers: How Machine Learning Can Help,” beginning at 9:30 a.m. He will also talk about AI at the NSF from 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
· James Joshi, Ph.D., program director expert at the NSF Directorate of Technology, Innovation and Partnership (TIP) and professor at the University of Pittsburg, will give the talk “Privacy, Ethics and Responsible AI – Cybersecurity Landscape,” beginning at 10:30 a.m.
· Lee Baugh, Ph.D., basic biomedical sciences associate professor at USD, will give the talk “Heavy Lifting: When AI Weighs in on Your Mental Workload,” beginning at 1:30 p.m.
· Matthias Plum, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics at South Dakota Mines, will give the talk “Unraveling the Mysteries of the Cosmos by Harnessing the Power of Machine Learning at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory,” beginning at 2 p.m.
· Mandie Weinandt, Ph.D., director of the USD Center for Teaching and Learning, will moderate a panel at 2:30 p.m.
The University of South Dakota (USD) recently held a pre-symposium workshop titled “AI for Good – From Engineering to Entrepreneurship” on April 5. Featured speakers included USD alumnus Kurtis Van Gent ’16, ‘17, who is a staff software engineer at Google SenseAI, and Naveen Rokkam ‘16, vice president of global strategy transformation at Mygo Consulting Inc.
