Welcome to This Month at Amii, our monthly update on Alberta’s growing machine intelligence ecosystem and exciting opportunities to get involved – from attending events to immersing yourself in new research, and finding ways to incorporate machine intelligence into your business.
One of the most exciting new initiatives to share with you is a scholarship program for our ML Technician Certificate! Applications are now open for our 16-week online training course, running September – December. Through the generous support of a soon-to-be-announced partner, we’re able to offer 20 scholarships for Canadian newcomers (immigrants and refugees) and those experiencing job loss or underemployment due to COVID-19.
I encourage you to read on to learn more about some of the exciting developments from the past month, register for an upcoming event, and explore the current job opportunities with our industry partners and researchers.
See you over video chat soon!
Cam
CEO, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute
May Highlights: Research, Industry and Training
Industry Updates:
Member company Okaki has graduated from their current ML Advisement with Amii. Their journey with us allowed them to expand multiple ML-based projects, support one developer to specialize in ML through our ML Tech program, and hire an in-house CS grad to help them with their future science ventures.
Congratulations to alumni company DrugBank on their graduation from the 2019/2020 Creative Destructive Lab (CDL) Program! CDL is a seed-stage accelerator program for massively scalable, science-based companies.
Congratulations are also in order for alumni company Medo.ai! Earlier this week, they announced that they have received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the world’s first tool using artificial intelligence to detect hip dysplasia.
Research Updates:
Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair Dr. Alona Fyshe has been named a co-recipient of a $2.5 million grant for a project she co-directs studying literacy across a variety of backdrops.
CIFAR announced that nine research projects will be funded by the CIFAR AI Catalyst Grants program.
UAlberta AI Seminars on now on our YouTube channel — check out the first videos of Scott Niekum, Mark Schmidt and Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair Dr. Lili Mou.
Education Updates:
The first cohort of the Machine Learning Technician Certificate program wrapped up classes last week!
Upcoming Events
June 25: AI in Health – the Future of Research and Application
Join us as we explore research intersections and discuss the future of AI in healthcare! This special event features medical professionals and AI experts such as Amii Fellow Dr. Russ Greiner, Amii CEO Cam Linke, and Dr. Lawrence Richer & Dr. Brenda Hemmelgarn from the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta.
July 16: Virtual AI Meetup
Discuss the latest topics in artificial intelligence, learn about the latest tools and techniques, discover how companies are using AI to drive value, and network with thought leaders from Amii, local companies, service providers and corporate labs at Amii’s monthly AI Meetup!
Research Conversations & Initiatives
Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair Dr. Nathan Sturtevant is still conducting 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 continues to work to understand how solving puzzles in different orders affects a person’s ability to solve new puzzles; if you’d like to participate in his study, you can 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.
Mondays thru Thursdays: the Tea Time Talks gathers the RLAI Lab and visitors at the end of summer days for short talks on technical topics.
ML Tech Course + Scholarship Applications
We’re thrilled to announce our next ML Technician Certificate course begins on September 15, 2020. The 16-week course takes place online for $4,995 + GST (CAD). Applications are now open!
Now more than ever, businesses recognize the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) 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.
Combine your domain expertise with the power of technical machine learning (ML) skills to unleash unlimited opportunities for your future! Our facilitators take a comprehensive approach to ML – developing your statistical, mathematical, and computational skills so that you can approach ML projects with confidence.
Scholarships are available; no additional submission required – simply fill out the Financial Aid and Employment sections in the application for consideration.
Career Opportunities
Our friends at FunnelAI are looking for an Edmonton-based Machine Learning Team Lead! If you have a deep understanding of ML and a burning passion to help businesses grow, take a look at the job opportunity.
The Intelligent Robot Learning (IRL) Lab, affiliated with the University of Alberta and Amii, has an immediate opening for a postdoctoral fellow to work with Matthew E. Taylor and multiple graduate students.
The Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta seeks candidates for a postdoctoral appointment to be held jointly in the Fyshe and EdTeKLA research groups.
Looking to boost your skillset from home?
Try one of our Coursera specializations! Learn how to implement a complete reinforcement learning solution and understand how to apply AI tools to solve real-world problems in the Reinforcement Learning Specialization; and master techniques for implementing a machine learning project in the real world in the Machine Learning: Algorithms in the Real World Specialization.