machine learning / en Space doctor: 老司机直播 researcher co-chairs International Space University program in Brazil /news/space-doctor-u-t-researcher-co-chairs-international-space-university-program-brazil <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Space doctor: 老司机直播 researcher co-chairs International Space University program in Brazil</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-07/croppedDr%20Farhan%20Asrar%20and%20Invited%20Speakers%20SSP23.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=6a-iWH1p 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-07/croppedDr%20Farhan%20Asrar%20and%20Invited%20Speakers%20SSP23.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=K6M8Hk4b 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-07/croppedDr%20Farhan%20Asrar%20and%20Invited%20Speakers%20SSP23.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ehd-0x1J 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-07/croppedDr%20Farhan%20Asrar%20and%20Invited%20Speakers%20SSP23.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=6a-iWH1p" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>mattimar</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-07-26T11:51:35-04:00" title="Wednesday, July 26, 2023 - 11:51" class="datetime">Wed, 07/26/2023 - 11:51</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>From left: John Connolly, NASA lunar mission expert; Jonathan Clark, space medicine expert; Judith Hayes, NASA chief science officer; Safa Siddiqui, nuclear safety analysis engineer at Bruce Power; and Farhan Asrar, associate professor in 老司机直播鈥檚 Temerty Faculty of Medicine (supplied photo)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/mariam-matti" hreflang="en">Mariam Matti</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/temerty-faculty-medicine" hreflang="en">Temerty Faculty of Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/dalla-lana-school-public-health" hreflang="en">Dalla Lana School of Public Health</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/machine-learning" hreflang="en">machine learning</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medical-research" hreflang="en">Medical Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/space" hreflang="en">Space</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Space exploration is often viewed as the realm of astronauts and engineers, but the University of Toronto鈥檚 <strong>Farhan Asrar</strong> is using his expertise in public health to chart an extraterrestrial path in medicine. &nbsp;</p> <p>Asrar, an associate professor in the department of family and community medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine with a cross-appointment with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, researches the physical and psychological effects of space travel on the human body, the challenges astronauts face during prolonged space missions and the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01485-5" target="_blank">potential implications for human health</a>&nbsp;back here on Earth.</p> <p>As a member of the International Space University, he recently travelled to Brazil to co-chair the department of human performance in space of the <a href="https://www.isunet.edu/ssp/" target="_blank">Space Studies Program</a>, an annual nine-week program hosted in different locations around the world that provides participants professional development experience covering all aspects of space. As a co-chair, Asrar played a key role in&nbsp;developing curriculum for the program, organizing talks with astronauts and educational opportunities&nbsp;鈥 including a trip to Brazil鈥檚 Paralympic training site to explore similarities between astronauts and elite athletes 鈥&nbsp;and providing mentorship to attendees.</p> <p>鈥淚 really appreciate that space brings everyone together 鈥 regardless of your background, culture or country,鈥 the Mississauga-based physician and researcher says. &nbsp;</p> <p><em>老司机直播 News</em> caught up with Asrar before he left for South America to ask him about his journey into space medicine, the challenges astronauts face and his role with the International Space University.</p> <hr> <p><strong>What is space medicine?</strong></p> <p>We are looking at what happens to astronauts and their health in space 鈥 we know that the microgravity has impacts on the body including bone and heart health. The space medicine side would introduce countermeasures that can maintain health and bone health in space, especially for someone who is staying for longer periods.</p> <p>It also involves the preventive side because it is looking at individuals who might have medical conditions that would put them in a high-risk situation, and it examines whether their bodies would be able to withstand the strains of this extreme space environment.</p> <p><strong>What are some of the challenges astronauts encounter in space?</strong></p> <p>The distance and extreme environment can be stressful for anyone. When you are in space, you are away from your loved ones. You are in this really confined space with a select number of individuals for the next six months or so. Even simple tasks like going to the bathroom become more complex.</p> <p>In order to prevent issues related to bone and heart health, astronauts have to exercise for two hours on a daily basis. They also have their regular schedule like keeping their premises clean and research projects 鈥 and working to meet all those tasks and needs in an extreme environment can be quite challenging.</p> <p>With further distances away from Earth, the time delay creates challenges in communication. If someone has a medical emergency or needs mental health support, it can be difficult to communicate in a timely manner. These are the sorts of things we鈥檙e examining in space medicine: how do we train people to be better prepared for these challenges?<br> <br> As a member of the <a href="https://tcairem.utoronto.ca/" target="_blank">Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM)</a>, I know that there are developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence that are being explored for use in every aspect of medicine. This also has a role in space medicine and improving the response time from Earth to astronauts.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/scale_image_750_width_/public/2023-07/croppedfarhan.jpg?itok=nZ6Zudje" width="750" height="500" alt="&quot;&quot;" class="image-style-scale-image-750-width-"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>Farhan Asrar leads an introductory lecture on space medicine for Space Studies Program participants (supplied photo)</em></figcaption> </figure> <p><strong>What sort of work will you be doing with the International Space University鈥檚 Space Studies Program?</strong></p> <p>This year, the space studies program is being held in Brazil and I was invited to co-chair the department of human performance and space along with Judith Hayes, NASA's chief science officer under the human health and performance directorate.</p> <p>We helped develop curriculum for the program along with other chairs, directors and academics. We鈥檝e organized talks, educational activities and different sessions that are related to human performance and health and medicine in space. We鈥檒l be there to support and mentor the participants when necessary.</p> <p>We鈥檝e invited CSA鈥檚 flight surgeon and NASA鈥檚 Space psychologist to share their expertise on the health of astronauts, the training they do to prepare for missions and the challenges they face. We鈥檝e also invited NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques to talk about his experience in space. He has worked as a family doctor in the Arctic, so it鈥檒l be interesting to hear about his experiences with extreme environments and challenges he鈥檚 had here on Earth, too.</p> <p>I鈥檝e also been researching the link between sports and space medicine 鈥 so we organized a visit to Brazil鈥檚 Paralympic training site. There are a lot of similarities between athletes and astronauts: they both have to be physically fit, train every day, and their training and professions put a physical strain on their bodies. In this session, we鈥檒l also educate participants about Paralympic training and then get into physical barriers in space.</p> <p><strong>What excites you most about space?</strong></p> <p>I really appreciate that space brings everyone together, regardless of your background, culture or country. It鈥檚 great to have so many individuals working together 鈥 even the crew missions are now more diverse.</p> <p>There鈥檚 also a lot of technology like GPS and infrared thermometers that <a href="https://www.cfp.ca/content/68/11/797" target="_blank">originated from space programs</a> before they became part of our everyday lives. Infrared thermometers, for example, were invented to measure the temperature of distant celestial objects and become very popular during the pandemic to check a person鈥檚 temperature.</p> <p>Similarly, the isolation and extreme environments that astronauts feel on their missions is something we felt during COVID-19. And we used telemedicine during the pandemic, which originated from space and taking care of astronauts at a distance. With the pandemic, we were put in many situations we weren鈥檛 used to 鈥 but you could often look to the space world and say, 鈥淵es, we鈥檝e been doing this for decades and we can share our expertise.鈥</p> <p>There鈥檚 so much that space introduced to our lives that we don鈥檛 even realize.</p> <h3><a href="/news/stars-same-constellation-how-space-and-health-fields-benefit-each-other-s-innovations">Read more about Farhar Asrar鈥檚 research at <em>老司机直播 News</em></a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 26 Jul 2023 15:51:35 +0000 mattimar 302378 at Researchers accelerate development of cellular therapies for damaged tissues /news/researchers-are-creating-algorithms-accelerate-development-cellular-therapies <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Researchers accelerate development of cellular therapies for damaged tissues</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-07/Cellular%20therapy%20algorithm%20research_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=2ekPduYp 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-07/Cellular%20therapy%20algorithm%20research_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=TPorCWEk 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-07/Cellular%20therapy%20algorithm%20research_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=qKJOwOEp 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-07/Cellular%20therapy%20algorithm%20research_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=2ekPduYp" alt="Oreoluwa Kolade, Julie Audet and Sowmya Viswanatha"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>siddiq22</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-07-25T12:17:02-04:00" title="Tuesday, July 25, 2023 - 12:17" class="datetime">Tue, 07/25/2023 - 12:17</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>From left: PhD candidate Oreoluwa Kolade, Professor Julie Audet and Assistant Professor Sowmya Viswanathan are working to identify the optimal cell culture conditions for different donors without doing full sets of detailed experiments (photo by Safa Jinje)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/6738" hreflang="en">Safa Jinje</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/data-sciences-institute" hreflang="en">Data Sciences Institute</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institute-biomedical-engineering" hreflang="en">Institute of Biomedical Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/temerty-faculty-medicine" hreflang="en">Temerty Faculty of Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/machine-learning" hreflang="en">machine learning</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/regenerative-medicine" hreflang="en">Regenerative Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Optimizing conditions to culture therapeutic cells can help reduce the costs and labour of experiments</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Innovations in the ways that human cells are grown in laboratories could help speed up the development of cellular therapy, a branch of regenerative medicine that targets diseases that are currently incurable.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://bme.utoronto.ca/faculty-research/core-faculty/julie-audet/"><strong>Julie Audet</strong></a>, a professor in the University of Toronto's <a href="https://bme.utoronto.ca/">Institute of Biomedical Engineering</a> in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering,&nbsp;is working to address some of the most significant challenges related to producing therapeutic cells.</p> <p>Her research on cell and tissue engineering aims to&nbsp;enhance the therapeutic properties of lab-grown human cells to ensure that they are ready for clinical application.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Audet and&nbsp;her team are developing complex computational algorithms to&nbsp;optimize laboratory&nbsp;experiments for academic and industrial researchers. These tools will allow researchers to create the best conditions to culture therapeutic cells.</p> <p>Cellular therapy acts by transplanting enhanced human cells into the body to replace or repair damaged tissue and cells, in order to treat a variety of diseases and conditions&nbsp;鈥 an approach sometimes referred to as a living drug.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淏ut before cells can be transplanted into a patient, we want to ensure that the cells are not contaminated with compounds that can trigger an adverse reaction,鈥 Audet says.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淲e also need to enhance the&nbsp;therapeutic properties of the cells in a culture process to effect a positive medical outcome.鈥&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>There are many factors to consider when designing cell-culture experiments. For example,&nbsp;there are numerous expensive reagents to select and optimize at different doses&nbsp;鈥 these substances are used to test chemical reactions carried out by the cell. There are also significant technical and biological variations to consider&nbsp;鈥 cells from different donors don鈥檛 always behave the same way in culture.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淥ur algorithms become necessary when experiments are very costly to execute and are extremely labour-intensive,鈥 Audet says.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淭hey are especially useful when the results are impossible to predict because of the complexity of the biological systems under study. In that case, it would not be feasible or possible for researchers to use conventional approaches to design and execute their experiments.鈥&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>With complex computational algorithms based on machine learning, Audet and her team can design experiments that are not only feasible and offer a greater chance of success, but are also less costly, with fewer resources needed to execute the experiment.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>An earlier prototype of such algorithms was used by Audet鈥檚 lab to&nbsp;make&nbsp;a serum-free T-cell medium&nbsp;to treat blood disorders.&nbsp;The algorithm was also used by&nbsp;<a href="https://bme.utoronto.ca/faculty-research/core-faculty/craig-simmons/"><strong>Craig Simmons</strong></a>, a professor in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and the department of mechanical and industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering, and <a href="https://discover.bme.utoronto.ca/meet-two-of-our-newest-students-neal-callaghan-and-john-edgar/"><strong>Neal Callaghan</strong></a>, a PhD graduate from the institute and a former researcher in <a href="https://cml.mie.utoronto.ca/">Simmons' lab</a>, to&nbsp;develop culture media for cardiomyocytes (cardiac muscle cells), a process that is now being commercialized.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淐ardiac tissue engineering is an important application for our tools because when it comes to heart failure and heart disease, there are many conditions that can鈥檛 currently be cured,鈥 Audet says.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淐ellular therapy offers a promising approach to treat heart failure and other cardiac ailments.鈥濃&nbsp;</p> <p>Audet is working with <a href="https://experts.engineering.utoronto.ca/sowmya-viswanathan"><strong>Sowmya Viswanathan</strong></a>, a researcher at the University Health Network's Krembil Research Institute and an assistant professor in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, on research that addresses the distinct characteristics of cell donors that make cells behave differently in culture.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Viswanathan is developing cellular therapies using mesenchymal stromal cells to combat osteoarthritis, a chronic inflammatory disease.</p> <p>鈥淲e have seen that different mesenchymal stromal cell donors prefer different growth conditions,鈥&nbsp;Viswanathan&nbsp;says. 鈥淭his algorithm helps us identify optimal conditions for different donors without doing a full set of detailed experiments.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>The goal of her collaboration with Audet is to also&nbsp;develop categories of conditions that could be matched to diverse groups of donors based on genetic markers.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>Audet and Viswanathan co-supervise <strong>Oreoluwa Kolade</strong>, a PhD candidate at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and a fellow at the <a href="https://datasciences.utoronto.ca/">Data Sciences Institute</a> 鈥 one of several 老司机直播 <a href="https://isi.utoronto.ca/">institutional strategic initiatives</a> 鈥&nbsp;whose work brings together tissue engineering and data science.</p> <p>鈥淢y research involves the statistical design of experiments, looking at the numerous factors that can impact the cell expansion process, such as oxygen levels, cell density and medium composition,鈥 Kolade says.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淚f a researcher wants to see which factors maximize the therapeutic quality of their cells, it isn鈥檛 cost-effective to test all possible combinations. So we are trying to&nbsp;design experiments in such a way that researchers can get the highest impact when they see their results.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>This model would allow researchers to narrow down the varying factors and run combinations into a simulation model to see which experiments they would need to do to get the best cells.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淲e are currently working on the commercialization of the latest version of one of the algorithms that includes these machine-learning modules to help design experiments,鈥 Audet says.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淲e hope this tool will help make cellular therapies both widely available and more accessible by accelerating the development of these therapies while increasing the effectiveness of the enhanced cells.鈥&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 25 Jul 2023 16:17:02 +0000 siddiq22 302373 at New autonomous lab at University of Toronto to improve drug formulation /news/new-autonomous-lab-university-toronto-improve-drug-formulation <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New autonomous lab at University of Toronto to improve drug formulation</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-07/Allen-Lab-5-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HsB4g-ME 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-07/Allen-Lab-5-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=y1c1s3BD 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-07/Allen-Lab-5-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=sWacOpjS 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-07/Allen-Lab-5-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HsB4g-ME" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>siddiq22</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-07-14T16:09:01-04:00" title="Friday, July 14, 2023 - 16:09" class="datetime">Fri, 07/14/2023 - 16:09</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>From left: PhD trainee Zeqing Bao, Professor Christine Allen, Allen Lab Director of Research and Partnerships Pauric Bannigan (photo by Steve Southon)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/eileen-hoftyzer" hreflang="en">Eileen Hoftyzer</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/acceleration-consortium" hreflang="en">Acceleration Consortium</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/6878" hreflang="en">drug development</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institutional-strategic-initiatives" hreflang="en">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/self-driving-labs" hreflang="en">self-driving labs</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneneurship" hreflang="en">Entrepreneneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/leslie-dan-faculty-pharmacy" hreflang="en">Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/machine-learning" hreflang="en">machine learning</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Facility at Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy is one of six at 老司机直播 being funded by $200-million grant to Acceleration Consortium</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A new autonomous lab being built in the University of Toronto's <a href="https://www.pharmacy.utoronto.ca/">Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy</a> will help to design and optimize formulations that will improve bioavailability, stability and efficacy of a variety of drugs.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://www.pharmacy.utoronto.ca/faculty/christine-allen-professor"><strong>Christine Allen</strong></a>, a professor in the faculty whose research focuses on drug development and disease diagnostics,&nbsp;is co-leading the lab with <a href="https://chem-eng.utoronto.ca/faculty-staff/faculty-members/frank-gu/"><strong>Frank Gu</strong></a>,&nbsp; a professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the <a href="https://www.engineering.utoronto.ca/">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a>.</p> <p>鈥淚 see huge potential for artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and automation in pharmaceutical sciences, for formulations and beyond,鈥 says Allen, an expert in drug formulations.</p> <p>鈥淭he world is finally understanding the impact of formulation technology and how powerful it is. Now we can marry that technology with AI and machine learning, so we鈥檙e kind of unstoppable.鈥</p> <p>The new facility is known as a 'self-driving' lab because it uses AI, automation and advanced computing to test different combinations of materials and iteratively develop the best formulations. This approach will allow researchers to evaluate a much larger number of materials, significantly reducing both the cost and time required to identify a new drug formulation.</p> <p>Allen explains that formulation scientists are often working under tight time constraints to get a product to market by deadline, and the final formulations are the best that can be done with the time available&nbsp;鈥 but are not necessarily the best possible option.</p> <p>鈥淲e鈥檙e providing a solution to that&nbsp;鈥 accelerating development while looking for the best formulation,鈥 says Allen, whose team worked in collaboration with Professor&nbsp;<a href="https://www.matter.toronto.edu/basic-content-page/about-alan"><strong>Al谩n Aspuru-Guzik</strong></a>鈥檚 research group to develop a prototype of the self-driving lab last year.</p> <p>The self-driving lab at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy is one of six being built at 老司机直播 through&nbsp;a <a href="/news/u-t-receives-200-million-grant-support-acceleration-consortium-s-self-driving-labs-research">$200-million Canada First Research Excellence Fund grant</a> to the&nbsp;<a href="https://acceleration.utoronto.ca/">Acceleration Consortium</a>, a global network of government, industry and academic researchers accelerating the discovery of materials and molecules needed for a sustainable future.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/scale_image_750_width_/public/2023-07/Allen-Lab-4-crop.jpg?itok=skSQAvtc" width="750" height="500" alt="&quot;&quot;" class="image-style-scale-image-750-width-"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>Researchers say the self-driving lab will help the pharmaceutical industry improve efficiency in drug development and production (photo by Steve Southon)</em></figcaption> </figure> <p>Allen played a key role in launching the Acceleration Consortium during her time as associate vice-president and vice-provost, strategic initiatives.</p> <p>As a co-lead on the project, Gu is bringing his expertise in nanotechnology engineering to develop high-quality, precise formulations that use nanotechnology to improve the delivery, bioavailability and efficacy of drugs.</p> <p>鈥淣anotechnology engineering has revolutionized the pharmaceutical industry, and its potential applications in a self-driving lab are both imminent and paradigm-shifting,鈥 Gu says.</p> <p>鈥淏y harnessing the power of nanotechnology in a self-driving lab for pharmaceutical formulations, my lab is working with Professor Allen鈥檚 team to unlock many advantages that will transform drug development, formulation, modular manufacturing and patient care.鈥</p> <p>Allen says that the lab's strong collaboration between pharmaceutical scientists and computer scientists also provides unique educational opportunities for trainees that will provide them with key skills needed for a career in the pharmaceutical industry.</p> <p>鈥淭he trainees are experts in both fields&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;this is where the future is going, and that to me is the power in all of this. It is true interdisciplinary collaboration,鈥 Allen says. 鈥淭he trainees are gaining knowledge, expertise and experience, and they are then able to secure exciting positions in industry and be leaders in the field.鈥</p> <p>Last year, Allen took a leave of absence from the university to take on a leadership role with adMare Bioinnovations, an organization that helps support Canadian life science companies and researchers. She has now returned to the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy full-time and brings back a wealth of new experience in entrepreneurship that she plans to apply to her research and the work of the Acceleration Consortium.</p> <p>To that end, Allen is also chairing the Acceleration Consortium's committee on commercialization and partnerships, and is also developing a graduate course in innovation and entrepreneurship.</p> <p>With the lab's focus on translational research and commercialization, both Allen and Gu are excited about its potential to generate new formulations that will ultimately improve patient outcomes.</p> <p>鈥淭he self-driving lab is the most cutting-edge technology to help the pharmaceutical industry to drive toward digitization, automation and ultimately improve efficiency in product development and production,鈥 Gu says.</p> <p>鈥淲ith its unique capability in bridging automation and iterative discovery process, it is also the key to helping us accelerate the development and production of personalized medicines, which is prohibitively expensive and labour-intensive to be done today.鈥</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 14 Jul 2023 20:09:01 +0000 siddiq22 302265 at Researchers explore shifting AI landscape at Absolutely Interdisciplinary conference /news/researchers-explore-shifting-ai-landscape-absolutely-interdisciplinary-conference <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Researchers explore shifting AI landscape at Absolutely Interdisciplinary conference</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-07/June21_JamieNapier_DSC01162-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=A3lGwdWu 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-07/June21_JamieNapier_DSC01162-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=qZV6LhSf 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-07/June21_JamieNapier_DSC01162-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=IkjT6MVq 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-07/June21_JamieNapier_DSC01162-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=A3lGwdWu" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>siddiq22</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-07-12T15:00:25-04:00" title="Wednesday, July 12, 2023 - 15:00" class="datetime">Wed, 07/12/2023 - 15:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>Participants at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society鈥檚 annual conference, Absolutely Interdisciplinary, discussed what AI can teach us about social systems, cognition, education, creativity and more (supplied image)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/schwartz-reisman-institute-technology-and-society" hreflang="en">Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/centre-ethics" hreflang="en">Centre for Ethics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/computer-science" hreflang="en">Computer Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/machine-learning" hreflang="en">machine learning</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ontario-institute-studies-education" hreflang="en">Ontario Institute for Studies in Education</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/psychology" hreflang="en">Psychology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Researchers across disciplines gathered recently at the&nbsp;<a href="https://absolutelyinterdisciplinary.com/">Absolutely Interdisciplinary</a> conference to reckon with the ramifications of the evolving AI landscape 鈥 from the technology鈥檚 transformative impacts on work and education, to its implications for human cognition and values.</p> <p>The third annual academic conference held by the&nbsp;<a href="https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/">Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society</a> (SRI) at the University of Toronto featured 23 speakers from diverse fields such as computer science, psychology, law, economics, education, philosophy, media studies, and literature.</p> <p>鈥淭he recent impacts of generative AI tools have really emphasized how important it is to build spaces for interdisciplinary conversations,鈥 said SRI Director and Chair&nbsp;<a href="https://www.law.utoronto.ca/faculty-staff/full-time-faculty/gillian-hadfield"><strong>Gillian Hadfield</strong></a>, the inaugural&nbsp;Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society, CIFAR AI Chair and professor in the Faculty of Law and Rotman School of Management.</p> <p>鈥淥ur goal with Absolutely Interdisciplinary is to foster new research agendas based in the creative interplay of diverse questions and framings as we explore the potentials of these new technologies.鈥&nbsp;</p> <h4>Cognition, storytelling and the future of intelligence</h4> <p>The conference featured an opening keynote by <a href="https://absolutelyinterdisciplinary.com/speakers-2023#Aguera-y-Arcas">Blaise Ag眉era y Arcas</a>, vice-president and fellow at Google Research, and a regular participant in developing cross-disciplinary dialogues about AI and ethics, fairness and bias, policy and risk.</p> <p>鈥淲e鈥檙e all going through a bit of existential angst because most of us believe that we have been the smartest things on Earth for some time now,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that will any longer be the case.鈥</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/scale_image_750_width_/public/2023-07/June21_JamieNapier_DSC00822.jpg?itok=NjJVEONy" width="750" height="500" alt="&quot;&quot;" class="image-style-scale-image-750-width-"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>In his keynote lecture, </em><strong><em>Blaise Ag眉era y Arcas</em></strong><em> of Google Research spoke about the history and potential future of AI development (supplied image)</em></figcaption> </figure> <p>Exploring the historical connections between neuroscience, computer science and cognitive science, Ag眉era y Arcas discussed the progress made in visual perception by neural networks in recent years, and delved into the concept of artificial general intelligence (AGI), including <a href="https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/news/risk-and-uncertainty-what-should-we-do-about-ai">ongoing debates</a> on whether AI might become sentient and pose a risk to humans.</p> <p>鈥淪ome people take AGI to mean superintelligence, others take it to mean consciousness,鈥 said Ag眉era y Arcas, who highlighted storytelling as an essential quality of human experience, and how the construction of personal narratives about ourselves and our past help to predict our future.</p> <p>鈥淲e are the stories that we tell ourselves,鈥 Ag眉era y Arca noted. 鈥淎nd as we interact with people, we construct and edit that story over time.鈥</p> <h4>AI, learning and the role of education</h4> <p>In a session pairing psychology with computational neuroscience, Joel Leibo of Google DeepMind and SRI Faculty Fellow <a href="https://www.psych.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/william-cunningham"><strong>William Cunningham</strong></a>, a professor in 老司机直播鈥檚 department of psychology, presented their ongoing work on modeling human social interactions using artificial agents to test <a href="https://socialcognitivescience.ca/william-cunningham/">social cognitive theory</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p>Leibo and Cunningham showed that by simulating coordination games in multi-agent reinforcement learning, they could test the origins of very human things like in-group bias and coalition-building.</p> <p>SRI Research Lead <a href="https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~ashton/"><strong>Ashton Anderson</strong></a>, assistant professor in the department of computer science, moderated another session on learning from a different perspective: the implications of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT for educators and students.</p> <p>Panelist <a href="https://www.jewishstudies.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/lauren-bialystok"><strong>Lauren Bialystok</strong></a>, an associate professor of social justice education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and acting director of 老司机直播鈥檚 <a href="https://ethics.utoronto.ca/">Centre for Ethics</a>, offered ideas on why we value the concept of 鈥渙riginality鈥 and discipline students who violate it by using ChatGPT to write assignments.</p> <p>鈥淲hat is the benchmark against which cheating emerges as a moral wrong or a pedagogical error?鈥 asked Bialystok.</p> <p>鈥淚s technology the enemy of originality? What about individual originality versus collective originality? We need to start sussing out what really matters to us in student learning and student assessment.鈥</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/scale_image_750_width_/public/2023-07/June21_JamieNapier_DSC01029.jpg?itok=9CEUFVaJ" width="750" height="500" alt="&quot;&quot;" class="image-style-scale-image-750-width-"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>From left to right: Moderator Nicolas Papernot with panelists William Cunningham and Joel Leibo, who described how multi-agent reinforcement learning can be used to test aspects of social cognitive theory (supplied image)</em></figcaption> </figure> <h4>AI鈥檚 capabilities, behaviours and harms</h4> <p>One of the more frequent fears cited about AI is that it will replace workers&nbsp;鈥 a subject tackled in a session moderated by SRI Research Lead <a href="https://www.avigoldfarb.com/"><strong>Avi Goldfarb</strong></a>, the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare and a professor of marketing at the Rotman School of Management. E<span style="font-size: 1rem;">conomist <a href="https://absolutelyinterdisciplinary.com/speakers-2023#rock">Daniel Rock</a> of the University of Pennsylvania鈥檚 Wharton School shared his <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130">recent findings</a> on which occupations are most likely to be impacted by large language models.</span></p> <p>鈥淧eople who process information [and] have knowledge as part of their work are more exposed,鈥 said Rock, who noted that this exposure can be harmful or helpful.</p> <p>鈥淥ne of the key things for economists to add to this conversation is equilibrium,鈥 Rock said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about AI replacing workers&nbsp;鈥 there鈥檚 complementary innovation to be done here; there鈥檚 supply and demand; there鈥檚 the question of whether making one part of work cheap makes another part of it very expensive. There is a lot more work to be done here.鈥</p> <h4>New languages, new frameworks for understanding</h4> <p>The conference closed with a session on AI and creativity led by SRI Faculty Fellow <a href="https://www.english.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/avery-slater"><strong>Avery Slater</strong></a>, an assistant professor in the department of English in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science. The session featured presentations by literary scholar N. Katherine Hayles, whose work has focused on relations between science, literature and technology, and U.K.-based poet Polly Denny, who presented her experiments with text-generating AI systems that have yielded new forms of artistic collaboration.</p> <p>Where Ag眉era y Arcas鈥檚 opening keynote&nbsp;highlighted the role of narration about the self as constitutive of what we might think of as AGI, Hayles also framed the question of whether AI is 鈥渁live鈥 in similarly fundamental terms of how perception and meaning-making construct and define the environments in which we operate.</p> <p>鈥淲here there's life, there鈥檚 cognition. But computational media also have cognitive capabilities,鈥 Hayles said.</p> <h3><a href="https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/news/absolutely-interdisciplinary-2023-ignites-new-conversations-and-insights-on-ai-research">Read the full story at the Schwartz Reisman Institute</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 12 Jul 2023 19:00:25 +0000 siddiq22 302231 at How AI and neuromodulation could help with sleep disorders /news/how-ai-and-neuromodulation-could-help-sleep-disorders <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">How AI and neuromodulation could help with sleep disorders</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-07/XilinLiu_portrait_crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=3AT2oTdE 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-07/XilinLiu_portrait_crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=z72HPOqS 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-07/XilinLiu_portrait_crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=xFkvrajo 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-07/XilinLiu_portrait_crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=3AT2oTdE" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>siddiq22</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-07-11T14:37:12-04:00" title="Tuesday, July 11, 2023 - 14:37" class="datetime">Tue, 07/11/2023 - 14:37</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>Assistant Professor Xilin Liu and his collaborators are developing electronic devices that could help patients suffering from sleep disorders (photo courtesy Xilin Liu)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/selah-katona" hreflang="en">Selah Katona</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/machine-learning" hreflang="en">machine learning</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/neurology" hreflang="en">Neurology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/sleep" hreflang="en">Sleep</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">'We still don鈥檛 fully comprehend what actually occurs in our brains during sleep'</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A new partnership between the University of Toronto's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eecg.utoronto.ca/~xilinliu/"><strong>Xilin Liu</strong></a>, assistant professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, and Andrew G. Richardson, research assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania, will develop a new generation of electronic devices to investigate sleep modulation.</p> <p>Their research will potentially develop new interventions that help deal with a wide range of sleep disorders.&nbsp;</p> <p>On average, we spend a third of our life asleep. During sleep, the brain undergoes important processes that support memory consolidation, neural restoration and the clearance of toxins. Sleep disruptions can interfere with these processes. But while good "sleep hygiene" is increasingly recognized as crucial to both physical and mental health, sleep disorders remain widespread.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥40 per cent of Canadians have sleep disorders, with over 3 million suffering from insomnia,鈥 says Liu, director of <a href="https://www.eecg.utoronto.ca/~xilinliu/lab.html">the X-Lab</a> and affiliate scientist at the the KITE Research Institute.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淪leep deficits negatively affect brain functions such as attention and memory, and immune function, metabolism and heart health. Chronic sleep-wake disruptions are connected to neurodegenerative disorders such as Huntington鈥檚, Parkinson鈥檚 and Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, and cognitive decline with aging.鈥&nbsp;</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/scale_image_750_width_/public/2023-07/Diagram_XilinLiu.png?itok=QvaMo59a" width="750" height="409" alt="image of bed with person sleeping, &quot;physiological signal acquisition, machine learning-assissted sleep pattern recogition and sleep intervention" class="image-style-scale-image-750-width-"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>This diagram describes the process of closed-loop sleep modulation via miniaturized electronics<br> (image courtesy of Xilin Liu)</em></figcaption> </figure> <p>Liu鈥檚 research focuses on developing integrated circuits and systems for advancing health&nbsp;care, digital communication and machine learning. In the new collaboration, he will be building fully integrated wireless systems-on-chips that can autonomously modulate sleep behavior in pre-clinical studies.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淪leep is a complex procedure involving different stages and patterns,鈥 he says. 鈥淭o address this, we are integrating machine-learning algorithms into our devices. These new algorithms can recognize sleep patterns and identify sleep disorders that may not be distinguishable using traditional algorithms.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>Liu and his collaborators hope that these new approaches will enable them to gain a deeper understanding of how our brains function during sleep and how to modulate sleep circuits.&nbsp;</p> <p>They also plan to incorporate various neural interfacing capabilities into the system, which will enable more accurate and precise interventions. The results of this research will contribute to the advancement of neuromodulation, a technology that involves placing devices inside a patient鈥檚 brain, spinal cord or peripheral nerves. These devices are designed to regulate neural activity and help reduce symptoms related to different disorders.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Liu is a faculty member of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.engineering.utoronto.ca/research-innovation/research-institutes-and-centres/crania-neuromodulation-institute-cnmi/">CRANIA Neuromodulation Institute</a>&nbsp;(CNMI) in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, which brings together experts in engineering and neuroscience in a collaborative hub for neuromodulation research.</p> <p>Liu鈥檚 project was recently awarded $2.2 million by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nih.gov/">National Institutes of Health</a>&nbsp;(NIH) through their Research Project Grant Program (R01), and is supported by industry partners such as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cmc.ca/">Canadian Microelectronics Corporation</a> and&nbsp;<a href="http://open-ephys.org/">Open Ephys</a>.</p> <p>The NIH R01 grant is a highly competitive award and Liu and Richardson鈥檚 proposal fell in the top 1 per cent of applications.</p> <p>鈥淭his is a great sign that NIH recognizes the value and impact of this research and the caliber of the team,鈥 Liu says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to receive this funding and over the next four years we hope to get to a stage where the technology can be used in clinical trials.鈥</p> <p>Liu鈥檚 research team has a long-term goal of creating wearable devices for sleep modulation that people can use at home to enhance the quality of their sleep.</p> <p>鈥淲hile there are medications available to treat sleep disorders, the challenge lies in the fact that we still don鈥檛 fully comprehend what actually occurs in our brains during sleep,鈥 Liu says.</p> <p>鈥淚t鈥檚 possible that there are low-cost, high-efficacy treatments available for sleep disorders that we are currently unaware of.鈥</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 11 Jul 2023 18:37:12 +0000 siddiq22 302229 at From machine learning to mentorship, graduate Irene Fang showed leadership during her time at 老司机直播 /news/mentorship-and-machine-learning-graduating-student-irene-fang-leadership <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">From machine learning to mentorship, graduate Irene Fang showed leadership during her time at 老司机直播</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-06/Irene-Fang-Headshot-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=irfKlNon 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-06/Irene-Fang-Headshot-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=5hUVIAaw 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-06/Irene-Fang-Headshot-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=zGob5OIz 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-06/Irene-Fang-Headshot-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=irfKlNon" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>siddiq22</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-06-22T13:43:55-04:00" title="Thursday, June 22, 2023 - 13:43" class="datetime">Thu, 06/22/2023 - 13:43</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>Irene Fang graduated with an honours bachelor of science degree, working on research&nbsp;that could lead to new treatments and therapies for immunocompromised patients (supplied photo)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/david-goldberg" hreflang="en">David Goldberg</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/6899" hreflang="en">Convocation 2023</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-stories" hreflang="en">Graduate Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/human-biology" hreflang="en">Human Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/immunology" hreflang="en">Immunology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/machine-learning" hreflang="en">machine learning</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medical-research" hreflang="en">Medical Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Even while undertaking complex research, the human biology and immunology student took the time to help her peers</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>While studying for her honours bachelor of science degree, new University of Toronto graduate <strong>Irene Fang</strong> capitalized on opportunities both inside and outside the classroom.</p> <p>Majoring in <a href="https://www.hmb.utoronto.ca/">human biology</a> and <a href="https://artsci.calendar.utoronto.ca/section/Immunology">immunology</a> in the <a href="https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a>, Fang researched innovative methods in ultrasound detection driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. She鈥檚 also working on research into cells and proteins in humans that could lead to new treatments and therapies for immunocompromised patients.</p> <p>Even amid&nbsp;that busy schedule, Fang was determined to help others succeed. As a senior academic peer advisor with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.trinity.utoronto.ca/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trinity College</a>, she was admired for her dedication to learning and the 老司机直播 community.</p> <p>鈥淚 want to keep giving back because I am so appreciative of the upper-year mentors I connected with, starting in first year,鈥 Fang says. 鈥淭hey continue to serve as an inspiration, motivating me to further develop personal and professional skills.鈥</p> <p>Fang spoke with Faculty of Arts &amp; Science writer <strong>David Goldberg</strong> about what she learned during her undergraduate studies, the importance of peer support and her post-graduation plans.</p> <hr> <p><strong>Why was 老司机直播 the right place for you to earn your undergraduate degree?</strong></p> <p>老司机直播 provided a plethora of academic, research and experiential learning opportunities alongside a world-class faculty to help cultivate my curiosity and consolidate my knowledge. In conjunction with an unparalleled classroom experience, I gained a real-world perspective with international considerations through the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities/research-opportunities-program">Research Opportunities Program</a>.</p> <p>I would be remiss if I didn鈥檛 also mention how extracurricular activities enhanced and enriched my university experience. The <a href="https://sop.utoronto.ca/groups/">many clubs</a> at 老司机直播 helped me focus on my passions and make meaningful connections with like-minded peers who became my support network, enabling me to reach my full potential.</p> <p><strong>How is your area of study going to improve the life of the average person?</strong></p> <p>It is absolutely fascinating that AI has already revolutionized the medical field. Specifically, AI possesses the potential to aid in the classification of ultrasound images, enhancing early detection and diagnosis of internal bleeding because of injuries or hemophilia. Overall, AI may lead to more efficient care for patients, thereby improving health outcomes.</p> <p>In terms of my immunology research, since the memory B cells expressing the specific receptor are dysregulated in people suffering from some autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases, a better understanding of how memory B cells are regulated could provide valuable insight into the underlying mechanisms of such diseases so we can enable scientists to develop new therapies that alleviate patients鈥 symptoms.</p> <p><strong>What are you hoping to do after graduation?</strong></p> <p>I aspire to pursue a career in the medical field, conduct more research and nurture my profound enthusiasm for science while interacting with a diverse group of people. I hope to devote my career to improving human health outcomes while engaging in knowledge translation to make science more accessible to everyone.</p> <p><strong>Why was working as a peer advisor at 老司机直播 important to you?</strong></p> <p>I remember feeling overwhelmed as a first-year student until I reached out to my academic peer advisors. Had I not chatted with them, I would not have known about&nbsp;鈥 let alone applied for&nbsp;鈥 my first research program. Looking back, it opened the door to many more new, incredible possibilities and opportunities.</p> <p>This experience made me realize the significance and power of mentorship, inspiring me to become an academic peer advisor. Seeing my mentees thrive and achieve their goals has made this role so rewarding&nbsp;鈥 so much so that I am determined to engage in mentorship throughout my career after graduation.</p> <p><strong>What advice do you have for current and incoming students to get the most out of their 老司机直播 experience?</strong></p> <p>Ask all questions&nbsp;鈥 because there are no silly questions. Get involved, whether it be volunteering, partaking in work-study programs, sports or joining a club. Meeting new people and talking to strangers can be daunting, but the undergraduate career is a journey of exploration, learning and growth.</p> <p>Be open-minded and don鈥檛 be afraid to try something new. Immersing yourself in distinct fields enables you to discover your interests and passions, which can lead you to an unexpected but meaningful path.</p> <p>Also, be kind to yourself because failures are a normal part of the learning process&nbsp;鈥 what鈥檚 important is that you take it as an opportunity to learn, grow and bolster your resilience.</p> <p>And finally, although academia and work can keep you busy, remember to allocate time for self-care. Exercise, sleep and pursue hobbies because mental health is integral for success in life.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 22 Jun 2023 17:43:55 +0000 siddiq22 302075 at New PhD graduate Guodong Zhang hopes to lead the next generation of AI experts /news/new-phd-graduate-guodong-zhang-hopes-lead-next-generation-ai-experts <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New PhD graduate Guodong Zhang hopes to lead the next generation of AI experts</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-06/Guodong-Zhang-Headshot-revised-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=xwbeZX-7 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-06/Guodong-Zhang-Headshot-revised-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=GIsgOyV- 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-06/Guodong-Zhang-Headshot-revised-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=r-J7G89M 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-06/Guodong-Zhang-Headshot-revised-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=xwbeZX-7" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-06-07T12:05:23-04:00" title="Wednesday, June 7, 2023 - 12:05" class="datetime">Wed, 06/07/2023 - 12:05</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>Graduating PhD student Guodong Zhang's work on&nbsp;theoretical foundations and practical algorithms for machine learning have already been adopted by major players in the AI sector&nbsp;(supplied image)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/david-goldberg" hreflang="en">David Goldberg</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/6899" hreflang="en">Convocation 2023</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/computer-science" hreflang="en">Computer Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/geoffrey-hinton" hreflang="en">Geoffrey Hinton</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/machine-learning" hreflang="en">machine learning</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/vector-institute" hreflang="en">Vector Institute</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Zhang decided to pursue graduate studies in computer science at 老司机直播 after being inspired by AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>As issues around the usage and ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) continue to evolve, new University of Toronto graduate <a href="https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~gdzhang/"><strong>Guodong Zhang</strong></a> is ready to address those challenges.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淭he public should embrace AI as a catalyst for positive change,鈥 says Zhang, who graduates this month with his PhD from the <a href="https://web.cs.toronto.edu/">department of computer science</a> in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science.</p> <p>鈥淓nsuring that AI systems align with human values and remain under human control becomes increasingly critical. Addressing AI safety is one of the most important and impactful problems we face today.鈥</p> <p>Zhang intends to be part of the solution. He applied to 老司机直播 for his PhD several years ago, inspired by the 鈥済odfather of AI鈥&nbsp;<a href="/news/deep-learning-pioneer-geoffrey-hinton-receives-prestigious-royal-medal-royal-society"><strong>Geoffrey Hinton</strong></a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards-funding/university-professors/">University Professor</a>鈥痚meritus in the department.&nbsp;</p> <p>As a PhD student, Zhang taught many courses at 老司机直播. His study of theoretical foundations and practical algorithms for machine learning have already been adopted by major AI players, including Google Brain, DeepMind and OpenAI.</p> <p>Ahead of convocation, Faculty of Arts &amp; Science writer <strong>David Goldberg</strong> spoke with Zhang about his research and how 老司机直播 prepared him for a future career in AI.</p> <hr> <p><strong>Why was 老司机直播 the best place to earn your PhD?</strong></p> <p>I was captivated by the immense potential of deep learning, so 老司机直播 was an obvious choice for me given its leadership in this area. Geoffrey Hinton and his students shocked the world with their results on ImageNet in 2012 with AlexNets, a neural network architecture which started a golden age for deep learning. Furthermore, the prospect of collaborating with the <a href="https://vectorinstitute.ai/">Vector Institute</a> rendered 老司机直播 even more special.</p> <p><strong>How do you explain your work with AI to people outside your field?</strong></p> <p>I focused on developing neural network models and algorithms that excel in fast training, robust generalization and accurate uncertainty estimation. With neural networks often comprising millions or billions of parameters, the challenge lies in understanding effective optimization techniques for these networks. I am also exploring the phenomenon of why neural networks have such impressive generalization abilities. And finally, another key aspect of my research was investigating whether neural networks can possess awareness of their knowledge gaps.</p> <p><strong>How is your work with AI going to improve life for the average person?</strong></p> <p>My research on neural network training dynamics holds significant importance in the realm of large language models and AI research. These models used in programs such as ChatGPT, which have become ubiquitous in our daily lives, play a vital role in various applications. For example, they assist us with translation, enhance our essay writing and serve as virtual assistants to address our queries.</p> <p><strong>There鈥檚 controversy surrounding some of the ways AI is being used 鈥 why do you think people need to embrace its potential?</strong></p> <p>The public should embrace AI as a catalyst for positive change because it enhances efficiency and productivity across industries, automates mundane tasks allowing for more meaningful work and improves problem-solving and decision-making through data analysis. In addition, it augments human capabilities and drives innovation while also helping us to address societal challenges like inequality and sustainability.</p> <p>Embracing AI responsibly ensures transparency, accountability and ethical considerations, unlocking AI's potential for positive impact in our society. I think the public should also be involved in regulating AI, as AI systems could be very powerful and misuse of them could lead to catastrophic consequences.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>What career path will you pursue after graduation&nbsp;鈥 and how will your 老司机直播 education help you excel?</strong></p> <p>I will work as an AI researcher in industry, focusing on large language models. My education at 老司机直播 has equipped me with extensive knowledge in deep learning and artificial intelligence. Under the guidance of my advisor, Associate Professor <a href="https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~rgrosse/"><strong>Roger Grosse</strong></a>, and collaboration with colleagues, I have gained valuable insights into neural network training dynamics and AI safety.</p> <p>This expertise enables me to enhance the efficiency of large language model training while ensuring alignment with human values. My PhD work on understanding neural network training with a noisy quadratic model has already been used by many big industrial labs (including Anthropic, DeepMind, OpenAI) in training the latest models.</p> <p><strong>What advice do you have for people considering their PhD&nbsp;鈥 in your field or beyond?</strong></p> <p>I recommend everyone maintain a curious mindset and pursue their passions. Curiosity is vital for scientific progress. It is also crucial to remain open-minded and committed to lifelong learning. Our field is rapidly evolving, rendering knowledge from just a few years ago potentially outdated, so continuous learning is essential.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 07 Jun 2023 16:05:23 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 301890 at Research shows decision-making AI could be made more accurate when judging humans /news/research-shows-decision-making-ai-could-be-made-more-accurate-when-judging-humans <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Research shows decision-making AI could be made more accurate when judging humans</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-05/thumbnail_scales-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Ax3BG70g 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-05/thumbnail_scales-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=sdmLkXSN 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-05/thumbnail_scales-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=GsTOwlcw 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-05/thumbnail_scales-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Ax3BG70g" alt="an illustration of the scales of justice "> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>siddiq22</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-05-23T18:08:43-04:00" title="Tuesday, May 23, 2023 - 18:08" class="datetime">Tue, 05/23/2023 - 18:08</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p>(photo by wildpixel/iStock)</p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jovana-jankovic" hreflang="en">Jovana Jankovic</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-secondary-author-reporter field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/alexander-bernier" hreflang="en">Alexander Bernier</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/schwartz-reisman-institute-technology-and-society" hreflang="en">Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/equity" hreflang="en">Equity</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/machine-learning" hreflang="en">machine learning</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">New study by researchers from 老司机直播 and MIT suggests that clearly labelling data might help reduce bias</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A new study from researchers at the University of Toronto and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is challenging conventional wisdom on human-computer interaction and reducing bias in AI.</p> <p>The paper, which was <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq0701">published this month</a> in the journal <em>Science Advances</em>, demonstrates empirical evidence on the relationship between the methods used to label the data that trains machine learning (ML) models and the performance of those models when applying norms.</p> <p>MIT PhD student <strong><a href="https://aparna-b.github.io/researcher/">Aparna Balagopalan</a></strong>, a <strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WaikW7aSp0">graduate of 老司机直播</a></strong>'s masters program in applied computing, is lead author, with co-authors <strong><a href="https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/who-we-are/#gillian-hadfield-bio">Gillian Hadfield</a></strong>, director of 老司机直播鈥檚 <a href="https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/">Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology</a> (SRI), Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society, CIFAR AI Chair, and a professor of law and strategic management in the Faculty of Law; <a href="https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~madras/">David Madras</a>, a PhD student in the <a href="http://learning.cs.toronto.edu/">Machine Learning Group</a> at the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science and the Vector Institute; research assistant <a href="https://ca.linkedin.com/in/david-yang-1986b8b1">David H. Yang</a>, a graduate student in the applied computing program in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science; <a href="https://healthyml.org/marzyeh/">Marzyeh Ghassemi</a>, a faculty affiliate at SRI and an assistant professor at MIT; and Dylan Hadfield-Menell, an assistant professor at MIT.</p> <p>Much of the scholarship in this area presumes that calibrating AI behaviour to human conventions requires value-neutral, observational data from which AI can best reason toward sound normative conclusions. But the new research suggests that labels explicitly reflecting value judgments, rather than the facts used to reach those judgments, might yield ML models that assess rule adherence and rule violation in a manner that humans would deem acceptable.</p> <p>To reach this conclusion, the authors conducted experiments to see how individuals behaved when asked to provide factual assessments as opposed to when asked to judge whether a rule had been followed.</p> <div class="align-center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2023-05/thumbnail_composite-trio-inside-750-500.jpg" width="750" height="500" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> </div> <p><em>From left to right: MIT PhD student Aparna Balagopalan, SRI Director Gillian Hadfield and SRI Faculty Affiliate Marzyeh Ghassemi (supplied photos)</em></p> <p>For example, one group of participants was asked to label dogs that exhibited certain characteristics 鈥 namely, those that were large, not well groomed, or aggressive. Meanwhile, another group of participants was instead asked whether or not the dogs shown to them violate a building pet code predicated on the same characteristics, rather than assessing the presence or absence of specific features.</p> <p>The first group was asked to make a factual assessment 鈥 and the second, a normative one.</p> <p>Hadfield says the researchers were surprised by the findings.</p> <p>鈥淲hen you ask people a normative question, they answer it differently than when you ask them a factual question,鈥 she says.</p> <p>Human participants in the experiments were more likely to recognize (and label) a factual feature than the violation of an explicit rule predicated on the factual feature.</p> <p>Current thinking on this topic presumes that calibrating AI behaviour to human conventions requires value-neutral, observational data from which AI can best reason toward sound normative conclusions.</p> <p>But this new research suggests that labelling data with labels that explicitly reflect value judgments, rather than the facts used to reach those judgments, might yield ML models that assess rule-adherence and rule-violation in a manner that we humans would deem acceptable.</p> <p>The results of these experiments showed that ML models trained on normative labels achieve higher accuracy in predicting human normative judgments. Essentially, they are better at predicting. Therefore, if we train automated judgment systems on factual labels 鈥 which is how several existing systems are being built 鈥 they are likely overpredicting rule violations.</p> <p>The implications of the research are significant. Not only does it show that reasoning about norms is qualitatively different from reasoning about facts, but it also has important real-world ramifications.</p> <p>鈥淧eople could say, 鈥業 don鈥檛 want to be judged by a machine 鈥 I want to be judged by a human,鈥 given that we鈥檝e got evidence to show that the machine will not judge them properly,鈥 Hadfield says.</p> <p>鈥淥ur research shows that this factor has a bigger effect [on an ML model鈥檚 performance] than things like model architecture, label noise and subsampling 鈥 factors that are often looked to for errors in prediction.鈥</p> <p>Ensuring that the data used to train decision-making ML algorithms mirrors the results of human judgment 鈥 rather than simple factual observation 鈥 is no small feat. Proposed approaches include ensuring that the training data used to reproduce human assessments is collected in an appropriate context.</p> <p>To this end, the authors of the paper recommend that the creators of trained models and of datasets supplement those products with clear descriptions of the approaches used to tag the data 鈥 taking special care to establish whether the tags relate to facts perceived or judgments applied.</p> <p>鈥淲e need to train on and evaluate normative labels. We have to pay the money for normative labels, and probably for specific applications. We should be a lot better at documenting that labelling practice. Otherwise, it鈥檚 not a fair judgment system,鈥 Hadfield says.</p> <p>鈥淭here鈥檚 a ton more research we need to be doing on this.鈥</p> <p>The study was funded by the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and the Vector Institute, among others.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 23 May 2023 22:08:43 +0000 siddiq22 301760 at Researchers develop interactive 鈥楽targazer鈥 camera robot that can help film tutorial videos /news/researchers-develop-interactive-stargazer-camera-robot-can-help-film-tutorial-videos <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Researchers develop interactive 鈥楽targazer鈥 camera robot that can help film tutorial videos</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-05/20230515_Stargazer-Robot_Jiannan-Li_02_edit-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ytPWrguY 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-05/20230515_Stargazer-Robot_Jiannan-Li_02_edit-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=D3scWMZG 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-05/20230515_Stargazer-Robot_Jiannan-Li_02_edit-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=KgHRDWb- 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-05/20230515_Stargazer-Robot_Jiannan-Li_02_edit-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ytPWrguY" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>siddiq22</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-05-19T15:02:56-04:00" title="Friday, May 19, 2023 - 15:02" class="datetime">Fri, 05/19/2023 - 15:02</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p>Research led by 老司机直播 computer science PhD candidate Jiannan Li explores how an interactive camera robot can assist instructors and others in making how-to videos (photo by Matt Hintsa)</p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/computer-science" hreflang="en">Computer Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-information" hreflang="en">Faculty of Information</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/machine-learning" hreflang="en">machine learning</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A group of&nbsp;computer scientists from the University of Toronto&nbsp;wants to make it easier to film&nbsp;how-to videos.&nbsp;</p> <p>The team of researchers&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~jiannanli/stargazer/stargazer.html">have developed Stargazer</a>, an interactive camera robot that helps university instructors and other content creators create engaging tutorial videos demonstrating physical skills.</p> <p>For those&nbsp;without access to a cameraperson, Stargazer can capture dynamic instructional videos and address the constraints of working with static cameras.</p> <p>鈥淭he robot is there to help humans, but not to replace humans,鈥 explains lead researcher&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~jiannanli" target="_blank"><strong>Jiannan Li</strong></a>, a PhD candidate in 老司机直播's department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science.</p> <p>鈥淭he instructors are here to teach. The robot鈥檚 role is to help with filming 鈥&nbsp;the heavy-lifting work.鈥</p> <p>The Stargazer work is outlined in a&nbsp;<a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3544548.3580896">published paper</a>&nbsp;presented this year at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, a leading international conference in human-computer interaction.</p> <p>Li鈥檚 co-authors include fellow members of 老司机直播's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dgp.toronto.edu/">Dynamic Graphics Project</a>&nbsp;(dgp) lab: postdoctoral researcher&nbsp;<a href="https://mauriciosousa.github.io/" target="_blank"><strong>Mauricio Sousa</strong></a>, PhD students&nbsp;<a href="https://karthikmahadevan.ca/" target="_blank"><strong>Karthik Mahadevan</strong></a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~bryanw/" target="_blank"><strong>Bryan Wang</strong></a>, Professor&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~ravin/" target="_blank"><strong>Ravin Balakrishnan</strong></a>&nbsp;and Associate Professor&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tovigrossman.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Tovi Grossman</strong></a>; as well as Associate Professor&nbsp;<a href="https://ischool.utoronto.ca/profile/tony-tang/" target="_blank"><strong>Anthony Tang</strong></a>&nbsp;(cross-appointed with the Faculty of Information);&nbsp;recent 老司机直播 Faculty of Information graduates&nbsp;<strong>Paula Akemi Aoyaui</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Nicole Yu</strong>; and third-year computer engineering student Angela Yang.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2023-05/Fig14_3x2.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>A study participant uses the interactive camera robot Stargazer to record a how-to video on skateboard maintenance&nbsp;(supplied photo)</em></figcaption> </figure> <p>Stargazer uses a single camera on a robot arm, with seven independent motors that can move along with the video subject by autonomously tracking regions of interest. The system鈥檚 camera behaviours can be adjusted based on subtle cues from instructors, such as body movements, gestures and speech that are detected by the prototype鈥檚 sensors.</p> <p>The instructor鈥檚 voice&nbsp;is recorded with a wireless microphone and sent to Microsoft Azure Speech-to-Text, a speech-recognition software.&nbsp;The transcribed text, along with a custom prompt, is then sent to the GPT-3 program,&nbsp;a large language model&nbsp;which labels the instructor鈥檚 intention for the camera&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;such as a standard versus&nbsp;high angle and normal versus&nbsp;tighter framing.</p> <p>These camera control commands are cues naturally used by instructors to guide the attention of their audience and are not disruptive to instruction delivery, the researchers say.</p> <p>For example, the instructor can have Stargazer adjust its view to look at each of the tools they will be using during a tutorial by pointing to each one, prompting the camera to pan around. The instructor can also say to viewers, "If you look at how I put 鈥楢鈥 into 鈥楤鈥 from the top,鈥 Stargazer will respond by framing the&nbsp;action with a high angle to give the audience a better view.</p> <p>In designing the interaction vocabulary, the team wanted to identify signals that are subtle and avoid the need for the instructor to communicate separately to the robot while speaking to their students or audience.</p> <p>鈥淭he goal is to have the robot understand in real time what kind of shot the instructor wants," Li says.&nbsp;"The important part of this goal is that we want these vocabularies to be non-disruptive. It should feel like they fit into the tutorial."</p> <p>Stargazer鈥檚 abilities were put to the test in a study involving six instructors, each teaching a distinct skill to create dynamic tutorial videos.</p> <p>Using the robot,&nbsp;they were able to produce videos demonstrating physical tasks on a diverse range of subjects, from skateboard maintenance to interactive sculpture-making and&nbsp;setting up virtual-reality headsets, while relying on the robot for subject tracking, camera framing and camera angle combinations.</p> <p>The participants were each given a practice session and completed their tutorials within two takes. The researchers reported all of the participants were able to create videos without needing any additional controls than what was provided by the robotic camera and were satisfied with the quality of the videos produced.</p> <p>While Stargazer鈥檚 range of camera positions is sufficient for tabletop activities, the team is interested in exploring the potential of camera drones and robots on wheels to help with filming tasks in larger environments from a wider variety of angles.</p> <p>They also found some study participants attempted to trigger object shots by giving or showing objects to the camera, which were not among the cues that Stargazer currently recognizes. Future research could investigate methods to detect diverse and subtle intents by combining simultaneous signals from an instructor鈥檚 gaze, posture and speech, which Li says is a long-term goal the team is making progress on.</p> <p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fQ9JeptOgZ0" title="YouTube video player" width="750"></iframe></p> <p>While the team presents Stargazer as an option for those who do not have access to professional film crews, the researchers admit the robotic camera prototype relies on an expensive robot arm and a suite of external sensors. Li notes, however, that the&nbsp;Stargazer concept is not necessarily limited by costly technology.</p> <p>鈥淚 think there鈥檚 a real market for robotic filming equipment, even at the consumer level. Stargazer is expanding that realm,&nbsp;but looking farther ahead with a bit more autonomy and a little bit more interaction. So&nbsp;realistically, it could&nbsp;be available to consumers,鈥 he says.</p> <p>Li says the team is excited by the possibilities Stargazer presents for greater human-robot collaboration.</p> <p>鈥淔or robots to work together with humans, the key is for robots to understand humans better. Here, we are looking at these vocabularies, these typically human communication behaviours,鈥 he&nbsp;explains.</p> <p>鈥淲e hope to inspire others to look at understanding how humans communicate ... and how robots can pick that up and have the proper reaction, like assistive behaviours."</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-add-new-author-reporter field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Add new author/reporter</div> <div class="field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/krystle-hewitt" hreflang="en">Krystle Hewitt</a></div> </div> </div> Fri, 19 May 2023 19:02:56 +0000 siddiq22 301759 at Researcher uses 鈥榝uzzy鈥 AI algorithms to aid people with memory loss /news/researcher-uses-fuzzy-ai-algorithms-aid-people-memory-loss <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Researcher uses 鈥榝uzzy鈥 AI algorithms to aid people with memory loss</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1360338645-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=CCHmLHu5 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/GettyImages-1360338645-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=IffIOG4D 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/GettyImages-1360338645-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=m9TMxAC8 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1360338645-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=CCHmLHu5" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-07-14T10:06:32-04:00" title="Thursday, July 14, 2022 - 10:06" class="datetime">Thu, 07/14/2022 - 10:06</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"> (Image by Eugene Mymrin via Getty Images)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/matthew-tierney" hreflang="en">Matthew Tierney</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/brain" hreflang="en">Brain</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/electrical-computer-engineering" hreflang="en">Electrical &amp; Computer Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/machine-learning" hreflang="en">machine learning</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/memory" hreflang="en">Memory</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A new computer algorithm developed by the University of Toronto鈥檚&nbsp;<strong>Parham Aarabi</strong>&nbsp;can store and recall information strategically&nbsp;鈥 just like our brains.</p> <p>The associate professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering, in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering,&nbsp;has also created an experimental tool that leverages the new algorithm to help people with memory loss.</p> <p>鈥淢ost people think of AI as more robot than human,鈥 says Aarabi, whose framework is explored in a paper being presented&nbsp;this week at the <a href="https://embc.embs.org/2022/">IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Conference</a>&nbsp;in Glasgow.&nbsp;鈥淚 think that needs to change.鈥</p> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <div><img alt src="/sites/default/files/Parham.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 244px;"><em><span style="font-size:12px;">Parham Aarabi</span></em></div> </div> <p>In the past, computers have relied on their users to tell them exactly what information to store. But with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques such as deep learning and neural nets, there has been a move toward 鈥渇uzzier鈥 approaches.</p> <p>鈥淭en years ago, computing was all about absolutes,鈥 says Aarabi. 鈥淐PUs processed and stored memory data in an exact way to make binary decisions. There was no ambiguity.</p> <p>鈥淣ow&nbsp;we want our computers to make approximate conclusions and guess percentages. We want an image processor to tell us, for example, that there鈥檚 a 10 per cent chance a picture contains a car and a 40 per cent chance that it contains a pedestrian.鈥</p> <p>Aarabi has extended this same fuzzy approach to storing and retrieving information by copying several properties that help humans determine what to remember 鈥 and, just as critically, what to forget.</p> <p>Studies have shown that we tend to prioritize more recent events over less recent ones. We also emphasize memories that are more important to us&nbsp;and we compress long narratives to their essentials.</p> <p>鈥淔or example, today I remember that I saw my daughter off to school, I made a promise that I鈥檇 pay someone back&nbsp;and I promised that I鈥檇 read a research paper,鈥 says Aarabi. 鈥淏ut I don鈥檛 remember every single second of what I experienced.鈥</p> <p>The capacity to overlook certain information could supercharge existing models of machine learning.</p> <p>Today, machine learning algorithms trawl through millions of database entries, looking for patterns that will help them correctly associate a given input with a given output. Only after countless iterations does the algorithm eventually become accurate enough to deal with new problems that it hasn鈥檛 already seen.</p> <p>If bio-inspired artificial memory enables these algorithms to give prominence to the most relevant data, they could potentially arrive at meaningful results much more quickly.</p> <p>The approach could also support tools that process natural language to help people with memory loss keep track of key information.</p> <p>Aarabi and his team have set up such a tool using a simple email-based interface. It reminds participants of important information based on algorithmic priority and a relevant index of keywords.</p> <p>鈥淯ltimately, it鈥檚 geared to people with memory loss,鈥 Aarabi says. 鈥淚t helps them remember things in a way that鈥檚 very human, very soft, without overwhelming them. Most task management aids are too complicated and not useful in these circumstances.鈥</p> <p>The demo is free and available for anyone to play with; simply send an email to&nbsp;<a href="mailto:mem@roya.vc">mem@roya.vc</a>&nbsp;for instructions.</p> <p>鈥淚鈥檝e been using it myself,鈥 says Aarabi. 鈥淭he goal is to put the demo in people鈥檚 hands 鈥 whether they鈥檙e dealing with significant memory degradation or just everyday pressures 鈥 and see what feedback we get. The next steps would be to build partnerships in health care to test in a more comprehensive way.鈥</p> <p>鈥淭hese days, AI applications are increasingly found in many human-centred fields,鈥 says Professor&nbsp;<strong>Deepa Kundur</strong>, chair of the department of electrical and computer engineering. 鈥淧rofessor Aarabi, by researching ways to better integrate AI with these 鈥榮ofter鈥 areas, is looking to ensure that the potential of AI is fully realized in our society.鈥</p> <p>Aarabi says that this algorithm is just the beginning.</p> <p>鈥淏iologically inspired memory may very well take AI a step closer to human-level capabilities.鈥</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 14 Jul 2022 14:06:32 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 175629 at