As we wind down the Winter term, the DawsonAI Initiative would like to share some final announcements for the year, and celebrate the work and contributions of the 2021-22 A.I. Fellows. New Teaching Community of Practice Portfolios The portfolios of the 2021-2022 class of the Dawson A.I.-themed teaching Community of Practice are now available on…
Eight Dawson students have presented the work they have been doing at ScienceFest 2022 as interns as part of DawsonAI’s collaboration with industry partner Ciena, a postdoctoral researcher and university partners from Concordia and ÉTS to promote the study of innovative AI-enabled applications for the future of 5G in Canada. This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity…
Partnerships: DawsonAI has joined forces with AI Launch Lab to offer Dawson students free access to hands-on workshops where they learn principles of data science and artificial intelligence and apply that knowledge towards real-world problems and projects. There are plans to run this workshop series again in future semesters. DawsonAI is collaborating with the Computer…
Dawson College will again be hosting its free one-day software conference in Montreal. This conference is bringing speakers from around the world to speak to students and developers on a wide range of topics concerning software development. You chose to be a programmer and one of the commitments this entails is to lifelong learning. DawsCon is the ideal place to start or continue!
The event is free to attend and targeted at students, professional software developers and anyone with a general curiosity.
Click Read More to go the event page with the schedule and more information.
The DALC, DawsonAI, and Korbit Technologies invite the entire Dawson community to a talk by the CEO of Korbit Technologies (Iulian Serban), followed by a hands-on interactive workshop on the theme of intelligent tutoring systems. When: Friday, May 7th 2021 from 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM. The talk will end at around 3:20 PM and…
Monday, April 12, from 4-5:15 p.m.
Abstract: This talk will propose a map of the main ethical issues raised by recent developments in artificial intelligence: the existential risk of a hostile AI, human replacement, surveillance, and manipulation. It will also discuss the best way to program robots, such as autonomous cars or chatbots.
Zoom link: https://dawsoncollege.zoom.us/j/95584252870
The entire Dawson community is invited to attend (no RSVP needed, unless you intend to bring a class). For more information, please email Carl Saucier-Bouffard at cbouffard@dawsoncollege.qc.ca.
Bio: Martin Gibert is a researcher in the ethics of artificial intelligence at the Université de Montréal (affiliated with IVADO and the Centre de recherche en éthique). He has published Faire la morale aux robots: une introduction à l’éthique des algorithmes (Atelier 10), L'imagination en morale (Hermann) and Voir son steak comme un animal mort (Lux). He also keeps a blog on the ethics of artificial intelligence, La quatrième blessure.
Filmmaker Shalini Kantayya´s Coded Bias, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, will be available to everyone at Dawson College for a week beginning Monday, April 12. Presented by DawsonAI, the film explores the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini´s startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces and women accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all.
For faculty wishing to screen this film synchronously with their students and/or make the screening part of their asynchronous curricular activities, please inform Myriam Dimanche via email at mdimanche@dawsoncollege.qc.ca.
To get your free access to view the film on demand April 12-18, send an email to ai@dawsoncollege.qc.ca
Our colleague Garry Chu, who teaches Mathematics, will give a talk entitled “Concepts in AI Algorithms” March 12 from 4:30 PM to 5 p.m..
We are all invited to attend.
Zoom link: https://dawsoncollege.zoom.us/j/98129041419
Abstract: Do you know how machines sort emails? Can Toffoli score in his next NHL game? Is there any ethical issue in AI algorithms? We will explore these AI concepts together in this talk.
One additional teaching portfolio, that of Dan Pomerantz, was recently published on the DawsonAI website. Dan, who teaches in the department of Computer Science, was part of the second cohort of fellows of the AI-Themed Teaching Community of Practice. He is inviting all faculty members to explore and make use of the teaching materials he has developed during his Fellowship.
Dan’s portfolio notably includes four PowerPoint slide decks that could be interesting to those looking for engaging teaching materials about the ethical implications of Big Data, surveillance technologies, text-generating systems, and facial recognition technologies. Link: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/ai/portfolios/daniel-pomerantz/
Part of this portfolio will constitute the basis of a talk entitled “The Hazards of Using Big Data,” which Dan will deliver via Zoom April 14 at 2:30 PM. The entire Dawson community is invited to attend (no RSVP needed)!
Zoom link: https://dawsoncollege.zoom.us/j/93695558993
For more details, please email Carl Saucier-Bouffard at cbouffard@dawsoncollege.qc.ca.
Last month, Vanessa Gordon (Faculty, Political Science) had the pleasure of attending FWD50, an annual gathering of some of the world's leading public sector innovators. Spanning five days and featuring well over 200 speakers, this year's theme addressed how to use technology to bring people together. Vanessa sent this note to D News:
As a Dawson Artifical Intelligence (AI) fellow, I was there to learn about how to teach AI at school: it didn't disappoint! Dr. Paris Buttfield-Addison was one of the stand-outs. He gave a compelling talk about AI in Australian school education. He also recommended the book "Future Frontiers: Education for an AI world", available here: https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/teaching-and-learning/education-for-a-changing-world/media/documents/Future_Frontiers-Text.pdf.
This is a work where sci-fi and education meets. For example, I learned that by the time my kids are my age, AI is forecast to outperform humans in all tasks. What does this mean for my kids?
As the Aussies say: "This is a lot to do. A lot." This book courageously attempts to elucidate the new skills and values that today's kids will need to live good lives in this world of exponentially evolving AI technologies.
This Christmas, I plan to keep reading this book, along with William Gibson's Neuromancer. Here's to time well spent!
Last Modified: June 2, 2022
