Exeter experts organize global Artificial Intelligence summit to tackle pandemics

A global summit which aims to boost effective collaboration between experts working in Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being organised by academics at the University of Exeter.

Working with MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) and STEMM Global, the University of Exeter’s Professor Anna Baldycheva and a PhD candidate Kate Berseneva are launching the AI in Healthcare Summit, which will take place online on October 1st and 2nd, and is now open for registration.

Professor Baldycheva, who heads up the organising committee, said: “Artificial Intelligence research is a key focus for the University of Exeter, and in light of Covid-19, the future is now. Galvanizing global experts is crucial to avoiding future pandemics. It’s now crucial that we launch and drive innovation and development of AI for good, and our international summit will boost effective collaboration among leading AI academics, healthcare experts and business leaders to support innovation in healthcare.”

The experts will discuss how AI is helping to address the ongoing healthcare crisis and look at the technologies being developed now that will change the future of healthcare.

The summit provides a platform to enable collaboration around cutting-edge research including contact tracing, vaccines, ethics, diagnostics, precision medicine, electronic healthcare records and more. The program is focused on the ways that AI helps address the biggest challenges in the healthcare industry and features panel discussions uniting experts across business and academia.

It comes as the University of Exeter recently launched its new Institute for Data Science and artificial Intelligence, in conjunction with the Met Office. One of the key focuses for the new Institute is health research.

Daniela Rus, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and the director of MIT CSAIL will convene the summit. She said one of the key goals was to promote women in AI research and industry and to highlight women in STEM making improvements to healthcare.

“Curing disease is among the most important grand challenges facing humanity today, and for this we need all the talent, creativity, and diversity of experiences that women bring to the table. This symposium highlights amazing work in AI and healthcare by incredible women. Our world is so much richer for these contributions.”

Through a virtual platform, participants will have an opportunity to discuss the latest AI breakthroughs in Healthcare, generate and influence the discussion, host meetings and interact through video calls. Live streaming of the talks will be available at no cost to the general public.

University of Exeter PhD student Kate Berseneva said: “The STEMM Organizing Committee is proud that the collaboration between the STEMM Global Scientific Community and MIT CSAIL has enabled us to hold this virtual event on AI in Healthcare at this scale. It’s crucial now for AI experts and business leaders to have a platform to align with each other, connect, and share the experience on managing pandemics but also finding new ways for the future.”

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