In April 2019, the Board of Governors of ÆßÐDzʿª½± approvedÌýÆßÐDzʿª½±AIÌýInitiative:ÌýÌýan ambitious, multi-facetedÌýthree-yearÌýstrategic effort toÌýbetter prepare our students for a future which will beÌýincreasinglyÌýshaped by new technologies such asÌýMachine Learning, theÌýInternet of Things, andÌýBig Data.
The largest fraction of theÌýapprovedÌýfinancing is for theÌýÆßÐDzʿª½±AIÌýmulti-disciplinaryÌýCommunity of Practice.ÌýCoPÌýFellowsÌýare faculty who meet regularly and collaborate onÌýdeveloping portfolios ofÌýteaching resourcesÌýin their discipline, which are focused on incorporating themes pertinent to theÌýÆßÐDzʿª½±AIÌýinitiativeÌýinÌýtheirÌýclassrooms.
The second most important part of the budget is focused on supporting the development ofÌýapplied researchÌýexpertise amongst faculty with respect to these same themes. TheÌýÆßÐDzʿª½±AIÌýResearch Fellowship is meant to supportÌýfaculty in research projects related toÌýdomains such as:
- Fundamental or Applied research in AI
- Machine Learning
- Ethics of AI
- Computational Linguistics or Natural Language Processing
- Digital Humanities
- Computational Social Science
Follow this link for theÌýCall for Proposals,Ìýwhich containsÌýmore details:Ìý
The ultimate objective of theÌýÆßÐDzʿª½±AIÌýinitiative is to expose as many students as possible, in an as many ways as possible, toÌýhowÌýdata isÌýtransforming every facet ofÌýour lives at an unprecedented pace. The impact of social media platforms on democracy, algorithmic biases, digital surveillance,ÌýAI and the Arts, the economics of automation,Ìýcomputer vision, machine translation, augmented reality, learning analytics, biostatistics…these are but a fewÌýof theÌýnew frontiersÌýwhereÌýÆßÐDzʿª½± facultyÌýmay have research expertise.ÌýStudents will invariably benefit from suchÌýa focused effort to systematically accelerate theseÌýtypesÌýof researchÌýprojects.
TheÌýÆßÐDzʿª½±AIÌýinitiative stands out from other similar projects at other institutions, becauseÌýof its focus on building the local capacity of our faculty so that the impact spreads beyond the traditional math, science, and computer science, disciplines. The modern economy is increasingly inter-disciplinary: this initiativeÌýstrives to mirror that in all its projects.