Amii Monthly News - February 2023

Hey there,

We’ve had a pretty busy month here at Amii: we started it off with big news on the future of artificial intelligence research in Alberta. 

Amii is investing $30 million into expanding our research program, which will help recruit 20 new AI researchers at the University of Alberta. This money will deepen our collaboration with our partners at the U of A, and take advantage of their existing strengths to further AI research that will greatly impact our world. 

With this announcement, we're focusing on AI research that will tackle the major problems facing the world today — things like climate change, healthcare and food insecurity. We want to use AI to push the boundaries of what's possible in other fields like physics, land use, and Indigenous leadership. 

This announcement is just the start. Now we begin a worldwide search to find the right people for these positions and bring their expertise to Edmonton. 

This is an excellent opportunity to grow our already strong  AI research community in Alberta, and we'll be sure to keep you updated as things progress. 

See you soon,

February Highlights

Industry & Community Updates:

• Learn more about Amii's $30 million investment into AI research at the University of Alberta. The 20 new interdisciplinary AI research positions we're creating show the potential that artificial intelligence has to benefit many areas of life
• Racist and hateful comments online can be traumatizing for readers. But they can be just as harmful for the people moderating them. pipikwan pehtakwan is working with Amii to develop AI that works to protect human moderators.
• It's almost time for CIFAR's Deep Learning + Reinforcement Learning Summer School. In-person learning begins again this July. Apply now to attend 5 days of talks by renowned experts, networking sessions, social events & a career fair.
• Registration is now open for StrikeUP Conference, a free digital conference dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs and providing a forum for growth, mentorship, and financing.

Research Updates:

• Learn all about federated learning in healthcare projects at AI Meetup next week! Amii's Payam Mousavi leads a panel discussion feat. Ross Mitchell, Ruchika & Neeraj Kumar, three co-authors of a recently published study in Nature.
• Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair Alona Fyshe will give a TED Talk on what it really means to say AI understands language. Check it out Feb. 27 at the TED@Destination Canada event in New York. 
• "Why Do ML Projects Fail?" Scott Greig from Willowglen Systems, looks at the vital ingredients for success in machine learning projects in his AI Seminar. 

Training Updates:

• Tim is running out to take advantage of our 50% off deal on ML Foundation 1 and 2. The offer is good until March 31, thanks to support from Scale AI.
• Gain an introduction to what artificial intelligence and machine learning are and their real-world applications. Sign up for the ML Foundations 1 course on March 2.
• Build on that knowledge further with ML Foundations 2. Applications for the March 9 class are open now. 
• Get AI-ready in 5 weeks for free. Our ML Exploration program is designed for startups that are interested in learning more about machine learning and how it can directly impact their business. Apply for the April and May cohorts now. 

Upcoming Events

Feb. 17, 2023

AI Seminar – Ehsan Imani

Presenter: Ehsan Imani, University of Alberta

Title: Representation Alignment in Neural Networks

The University of Alberta Artificial Intelligence (AI) Seminar is a weekly meeting where researchers (including students, developers, and professors) interested in AI can share their current research. Presenters include local speakers from the University of Alberta and industry as well as other institutions. The seminars discuss a wide range of topics related in any way to Artificial Intelligence, from foundational theoretical work to innovative applications of AI techniques to new fields and problems of interest. Learn more at the AI Seminar website and by subscribing to the mailing list!

More details

February 21, 2023

AI Meetup – February 21, 2023

Gather with the brightest minds in the AI community from Alberta 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.

This month's meetup is a panel discussion on the topic of tackling healthcare projects using federated learning. Moderated by Payam Mousavi, Amii's Applied Research Scientist, the panel features three Amii co-authors of Federated learning enables big data for rare cancer boundary detection, a paper recently published in Nature. Featuring panellists Ross Mitchell (Amii Fellow), Ruchika (Amii Associate Machine Learning Scientist) and Neeraj Kumar (Amii Machine Learning Educator)

Learn more

March 11, 2023

Science FUNday 2023

Science FUNday is our annual science exhibition, brought to you in partnership by Science FUNdamentals and the Faculty of Science at the University of Alberta. We feature over 100 interactive demonstrations, presentations and tours. We are ideal for families and tailor towards elementary children! 

We present a variety of engaging demos including DNA extractions from strawberries, flying tea bags, giant dry ice bubbles, colour-changing lollipops, a Rube Goldberg machine, and much more!

RSVP now

March 17 - March 18, 2023

YYC Data Con 2023

On March 17-18, 2023, over 700 people will join YYC Data Con, a data convention organized by the YYC Data Society for the data community.

Amii's very own Associate Machine Learning Scientist, Atefeh Shahroudnejad will be speaking about computer vision and medical imaging.

YYC Data Con's experts will be sharing their years of knowledge, strategies and insight. Whether you're tuning state-of-the-art deep learning models or just wondering how AI will transform your industry, our experts have the answers you're looking for.

Learn more

Career Opportunities

• Does the idea of translating our research and applied AI excellence into interactive demos excite you? If so, you might be the perfect fit for Amii's Director of Engineering. Apply by Feb. 21.
• We're looking for a Financial Reporting Analyst to join our team. Apply before the closing date of Feb. 26.
• The Finance & Admin team is also looking for a System Administrator to join Amii. Get your application in before Feb. 21.
• Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair Marlos C. Machado is looking for a postdoc fellow to work on a project involving deep reinforcement learning and representation learning. Learn more about the project here.