Campus News

AI and data science institute launches speaker series

Inside UB's SMART Motion Capture Lab, students lie on the floor creating a simulated environment to demonstrate how autonomous air and ground robots can work together.

Inside UB's SMART Motion Capture Lab, students create a simulated environment to demonstrate how autonomous air and ground robots can work together. Photo: Douglas Levere

By CORY NEALON

Published March 22, 2022

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“Artificial intelligence and data science offer hope for solving the world’s most pressing problems, such as climate change and developing new treatments for diseases. It’s fitting, then, that UB provide a forum for some of the most accomplished scholars in these fields to discuss how their innovative work can reshape the world. ”
Venu Govindaraju, vice president for research and economic development

Last year, UB merged two institutes on data science and artificial intelligence to form a new Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.

Its purpose is to help UB grow its research and educational expertise in AI and data science, which are at the forefront of innovation in sectors that are key to the United States’ future economy and security.

Now, the institute has launched a speaker series designed to bring the fields’ most thought-provoking leaders to UB.

“Artificial intelligence and data science offer hope for solving the world’s most pressing problems, such as climate change and developing new treatments for diseases. It’s fitting, then, that UB provide a forum for some of the most accomplished scholars in these fields to discuss how their innovative work can reshape the world,” says Venu Govindaraju, vice president for research and economic development.

The series aims to bring a new speaker to UB on the third Tuesday of the month, either virtually or in person. The lectures are free and open to the public. Attendees must register.

“We want to bring the brightest minds of artificial intelligence and data science to UB,” say series co-organizers David Doermann and Nalini Ratha. “Events like this ignite ideas and foster connections that help change the world.”

Doermann is director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, and an Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Ratha is an Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

The series kicked off on March 15 with a talk, via video conference, by Alex Pentland, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, titled “Building a New Economy: Data as Capital.”

Other speakers lined up include Milind Tambe, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and director of the Center for Research in Computation and Society at Harvard University. He will deliver a lecture titled “AI for Social Impact: Results from deployments for public health and conservation” at 3 p.m. April 19 in 330 in Student Union.

Closing the series for the semester will be Yann LeCun, Silver Professor of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. LeCun, who is also vice president and chief AI scientist at Meta, will deliver a virtual lecture at 2:30 p.m. May 17.

For details on the series, visit the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science website.