September @ Amii | REMI Program launched & our new digital home

Hi there,

As we wrap up the final weeks of summer, we hope you’re set up for success in the transition into a new school year.

This month, we’re pleased to share with you two exciting launches:

• Applications have opened for our REMI program, made possible through the support of the Government of Alberta’s Ministry of Environment and Parks’ TIER Program, to enhance emissions reduction efforts in Alberta.
• We have a new digital home with the revamp of amii.ca – check it out to connect and catch up on our research, events and courses.

These initiatives are big steps toward our goal of inspiring world-changing machine intelligence for good and for all – through connecting together great research, companies and talent. Through this work, we’re excited to provide support and resources that help companies move along the AI adoption spectrum to grow their internal AI capabilities.

See you over video chat soon,

Cam

September Highlights: Research, Industry and Training 

Industry Updates:

• A huge congratulations to FunnelAI for reaching a big step in their ML journey; they’ve hired a new ML Team Lead!
• Amii Fellow Alona Fyshe moderated a panel discussion of Canadian female tech leaders at the Women in AI (WAI) Global Summit on September 8. The Summit welcomed more than 4000 attendees from every continent around the world.

Research Updates:

• Week Five of the Tea Time Talks is up, with presentations from Rory Dawson and Connor Stephens.
• The latest in the 2020 AI Seminar Series features Amii researcher Yixing Luan presenting Leveraging Translations for Word Sense Disambiguation.

Education Updates:

• AlbertaWomen.ai wrapped up this August! This program for young women in STEM launched in January 2020 and we are incredibly proud of our first graduating cohort.
• Last chance to apply for the next ML Technician I Certification program! Demand for AI and ML skills is growing, and this 13-week online program will give you the expertise to meet this demand. Class begins September 15.
• Amii Fellow Matthew E. Taylor is opening his Interactive Machine Learning online course for audit this fall!

Upcoming Event

September 17: Virtual AI Meetup

Gather with the brightest minds in the AI community from Edmonton and beyond at Amii’s Virtual AI Meetup! This month's speakers include:

• Mohammad Motallebi (Amii researcher at the xAI Lab) on the definitions and fundamentals of explainable AI
• Matthew E. Taylor (Amii Fellow & Associate Professor at UAlberta) with a Gentle Introduction to Reinforcement Learning and its Applications

Register today!

October 15: Virtual AI Meetup

Gather with the brightest minds in the AI community from Edmonton and beyond at Amii’s Virtual AI Meetup! Learn about the latest tools and techniques in machine learning, and explore topics that researchers and industry professionals are thinking about or working on.

Register today!

October 21: AI in Health - Learning Health Systems

Healthcare systems around the world are continually developing strategies to individualize care, improve outcomes and contain costs. Join Amii and our partner the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry for this discussion on the burgeoning field of AI in healthcare.

Register today!

Research Conversations & Initiatives

• Amii Fellow-in-residence Russ Greiner is seeking potential projects this semester for students in his course on Probabilistic Graphical Models (PGMs) at the University of Alberta. Interested groups are invited to pitch projects for students at an upcoming open virtual session.
• Amii Fellow Dr. Nathan Sturtevant continues to conduct research on content generation for puzzle games; if you’d like to participate in this study, you can play four levels of the game Snakebird and take a survey (estimated time to complete is 1 hour).
• Amii Fellow Dr. Levi Levis is looking for participants to support his work to understand how solving puzzles in different orders affects a person's ability to solve new puzzles. Play The Witness puzzle game (estimated time to complete is 15 minutes).
• Some Fridays: the UAlberta AI Seminar also goes online for lunch hour presentations by UAlberta (and sometimes visiting) researchers.

Reducing Emissions through Machine Intelligence

It’s no secret that AI holds opportunities to increase revenue, improve operations and solve complex problems. Our Reducing Emissions through Machine Intelligence (REMI) program provides an accelerated opportunity to move your organizational technology adoption strategy forward.

Through the REMI program, Amii will coach teams on how to adopt AI for GHG reduction. The work is designed to progress companies of all sizes along the AI Adoption Spectrum; companies can then apply these skills and knowledge in AI and ML to drive innovation in areas outside of emission reduction.

The program is structured in phases and in cohorts, and will help companies form a business case for investing in AI adoption through a build model (rather than buying or borrowing a pre-made AI solution).

Amii is accepting applications for Energy Cohort 1 until October 2.

Learn more and apply today

AI Strategy & Management Course

Class is nearly in session for the inaugural AI Strategy and Management course!

Modern businesses recognize the transformative power of artificial intelligence but are also facing a severe shortage of skilled workers. The demand for AI and machine learning (ML) expertise is growing across all industries, and it’s through the marriage of domain expertise with technical ML skills that companies can gain competitive advantages.

Our eight-week online course combines synchronous (collaborative) and asynchronous (independent) lectures, readings and discussions, as well as practical assignments and a final capstone project. In the final project, you will work in a group to complete a Machine Learning Project Charter for a specific ML project, and pitch your project to a panel of ML and business experts.

You’ll graduate from the course with the:

• Skills to draft AI adoption strategy for your organization
• Ability to identify ML projects, assemble teams, and execute related business tactics
• Confidence to manage and interact with technical teams

Classes start on September 23.

Learn more and apply!

Recommended Readings 

• Roche Canada assembles An Army of Data: Earlier this year, Amii offered our expertise as part of the Roche Data Science Coalition (RDSC). Roche Canada has released an article entitled “An Army of Data” on RDSC’s contributions to the fight against COVID-19.
• How computers beat us at our own games: Popular Science recently shone a light on game-playing AI, as well as Amii researchers' contributions, in their article "How computers beat us at our own games".
• OKAKI uses AI to address the opioid crisis: In 2019, OKAKI engaged the Amii team with their first AI project in mind: to use machine learning to save lives by preventing opioid overdoses.

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