AI4Society is one of the University of Alberta’s five Signature Research Areas and is focused on artificial intelligence and its applications. Over the past 30 years, the University of Alberta has been consistently ranked as one of the top three institutions worldwide for AI research and is a lead player in Canada’s national AI strategy.
Building on this recognition, AI4Society’s goal is to stimulate interdisciplinary research and teaching in this field by supporting initiatives at the University of Alberta. We also provide continuing institutional leadership by coordinating and designing innovative training programs and representing the institution in new initiatives with public, private, and international partners.
AI4Society Dialogues, S2E7 - Social robots and assistive technologies
As advances are made in artificial intelligence, questions are being raised about how we should relate to AI, especially when it’s embodied intelligence. In other words – how will we relate to robots? Dr. Adriana Ríos Rincón is a researcher who uses robots in her work with children. We talk about her thoughts on artificial intelligence, the importance of play in her research (and what she does for fun), how AI intersects with assistive technologies and her work to democratize access to these technologies and the role of robots in care.
“AI can potentially help rehabilitation professionals detect early stages of cognitive decline that precedes dementia in older adults. Using alternative means such as playing video games may be more interesting or engaging for older adults than the application of standardized screening tools and can be used for monitoring cognitive status in a playful way.” – Adriana Ríos Rincón
Dr. Adriana Ríos Rincón is Assistant Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta. Her current research is devoted to investigating the use of assistive technologies to assess and promote cognitive skills and engagement in play in individuals with disabilities, mainly those with motor and cognitive impairment including those living with dementia. She is also interested in exploring the use of information and communication technologies and artificial intelligence to support decisions about transitions across the continuum of care in older adults and individuals with disabilities.
10 Jan 2022
AI4Society Dialogues, S2E6 - Envisioning medical scan data as the 21st century stethoscope
A stethoscope is a functional device, used to examine a patient…but it’s also become an enduring symbol for the use of technology in patient care. Yet…when it comes to advances in technology – what might a new, 21st century stethoscope look like? Dr. Jacob Jaremko believes that with AI enabled technology, we can transform medical imaging at the point of care. We talk about his thoughts on artificial intelligence in the context of medicine, his journey from an undergrad civil engineer to medical student to the world of artificial neural networks, what he’s learned in becoming an entrepreneur and thoughts on healthcare data, AI and ethics.
“Diversity is absolutely crucial to innovation. The way to produce innovation most reliably and effectively is to take smart people from different backgrounds and put them together in a room to solve a problem…everyone sees it differently…and new ideas come out of that. ” – Jacob Jaremko
Dr. Jacob Jaremko is a pediatric musculoskeletal radiologist, who is an Associate Professor and AHS Endowed Chair in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta. He’s also a Canada AI Chair and CIFAR fellow. Dr. Jaremko has been working with artificial intelligence since 1999, completing his PhD thesis in biomedical engineering. More recently, he co-founded MEDO, one of Alberta’s most promising health tech startups.
7 Jan 2022
AI4Society Dialogues, S2E4 - Predicting cancer to drive early interventions
What if we had better ways to predict cancer and a tailored plan to intervene early in the process? Dr. Adam Kinnaird is conducting leading edge research in the area of prostate cancer, which affects 1 in 7 men in Canada throughout their life. We talk about his research into early interventions in cancer, why prostate cancer is so hard to diagnose, using AI/ML techniques in precision diagnostics, surgical robots, interdisciplinary research collaboration and why he’s excited about the future of precision medicine.
“Prostate cancer is a spectrum, [from low to high risk]…my particular research looks at the patient population for low risk prostate cancer…and doing active surveillance. We’re trying to better risk stratify men…we are using advanced imaging techniques, MRI and micro-ultrasound …as well as next generation genetic sequencing… We’re trying to come up with a composite risk score at the individual patient level.” – Adam Kinnaird
Dr. Adam Kinnaird is Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, surgery department, at the University of Alberta. He is a urological surgeon and graduated as a Vanier Scholar with the Governor General’s Gold Medal at the University of Alberta. Dr. Kinnaird is an award-winning researcher and recently completed an international fellowship at UCLA.
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