Computer Science

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Subheadline

The new model expands on the capabilities of Google DeepMind's AlphaFold, the leading AI system for predicting protein structures

Researchers at the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ have developed a deep-learning model that can predict all possible shapes of peptides – chains of amino acids that are shorter than proteins, but perform similar biological functions.

Called PepFlow, the model combines machine learning and physics to model the range of folding patterns that a peptide can assume based on its energy landscape.

Peptides, unlike proteins, are dynamic molecules that can take on a range of conformations. They are involved in many biological processes that are of keen interest to researchers who are developing therapeutics.

“We haven’t been able to model the full range of conformations for peptides until now,” said Osama Abdin, first author on the study and recent PhD graduate of molecular genetics at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research. “PepFlow leverages deep-learning to capture the precise and accurate conformations of a peptide within minutes.

“There’s potential with this model to inform drug development through the design of peptides that act as binders.”

The study was recently published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence.

A peptide’s role in the human body is directly linked to how it folds since its 3D structure determines the way it binds and interacts with other molecules.

“Peptides were the focus of the PepFlow model because they are very important biological molecules and they are naturally very dynamic, so we need to model their different conformations to understand their function,” said Philip M. Kim, the study’s principal investigator and a professor at the Donnelly Centre. “They’re also important as therapeutics, as can be seen by the GLP1 analogues, like Ozempic, used to treat diabetes and obesity.”

Peptides are also cheaper to produce than their larger protein counterparts, said Kim, who is also a professor of computer science in �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s Faculty of Arts & Science and a professor of molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

The new model expands on the capabilities of AlphaFold, the leading Google DeepMind AI system for predicting protein structure. It does this by generating a range of conformations for a given peptide. Taking inspiration from highly advanced physics-based machine learning models, PepFlow can also model peptide structures that take on unusual formations, including the ring-like structure that results from a process called macrocyclization. Peptide macrocycles are currently a highly promising venue for drug development.

“It took two-and-a-half years to develop PepFlow and one month to train it, but it was worthwhile to move to the next frontier beyond models that only predict one structure of a peptide,” Abdin said.

There are, however, limitations given that PepFlow represents the first version of a new model. The study authors noted a number of ways in which PepFlow could be improved, including training the model with explicit data for solvent atoms, which would dissolve the peptides to form a solution, and for constraints on the distance between atoms in ring-like structures.

Yet, even as a first version, the researchers say PepFlow is a comprehensive and efficient model with potential for furthering the development of treatments that depend on peptide binding to activate or inhibit biological processes.

“Modelling with PepFlow offers insight into the real energy landscape of peptides,” said Abdin.

The research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Learning rewired: �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ researcher sparks kids’ interest in tech with animatronic critters

bresgead — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 18:22:39 +0000

Learning rewired: �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ researcher sparks kids’ interest in tech with animatronic critters

bresgead Tue, 07/16/2024 - 14:22

Cutline

Paul Dietz, a distinguished engineer in residence and director of fabrication in �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s computer science department, hopes his paper animatronic creations can engage more kids in STEM through the power of storytelling (photo by Polina Teif)

Topic

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Robotics

STEM

Subheadline

Paul Dietz says robotic paper creations are a creative – and more inclusive – way to get kids interested in STEM fields

Could a talking paper octopus be the key to igniting kids' curiosity about technology?

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ engineer Paul Dietz certainly thinks so. With the help of a menagerie of mechanically controlled puppets, he has a plan to help students learn to think creatively across a wide range of fields.

All it takes is some simple circuitry, a few arts and crafts supplies – and a lot of imagination.

A distinguished engineer in residence and director of fabrication in the Faculty of Arts and Science’s computer science department, Dietz is the whimsical mind behind the Animatronics Workshop. The program collaborates with schools to provide opportunities for children to create, design and build their own robotic shows.

Dietz has been partnering with schools where kids create their own animatronic stories – from staging pre-programmed puppet shows to hosting Q-and-As with Shakespeare – departing from the competition-based competitions typical of many youth robotics efforts.

Dietz’s program has been his passion project for a decade and a half, developed on the side while he worked day jobs engineering innovations for companies like Microsoft, Mitsubishi and Disney, as well as his own startups.

Now, at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ, Dietz is focusing on bringing accessible and affordable animatronics to classrooms across Canada. The goal, he says, is to teach kids to use technology as a tool for storytelling, dismantling what he sees as a false divide between the arts and sciences.

“One of the first participants in this program was a young girl who was really into writing creative stories and really loved science. And she saw these as two conflicting parts of her world,” says Dietz, who is also a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.

“After what she did in animatronics, it suddenly dawned on her that you can do both. If you do engineering right, it is a creative art.”

In a capstone course on physical computing in K-12, Dietz encouraged undergraduate students to explore how computer-based systems can bring stories to life in the classroom (photo by Polina Teif)

Dietz had a similar realization as a teenager in the late 1970s, when a behind-the-scenes tour of Walt Disney Imagineering got him tinkering with an animatronic robot penguin.

This early fusion of technical skills and storytelling sensibilities set Dietz on a path that turned flights of imagination into real-world breakthroughs that shape our engagement with technology.

A prolific inventor and researcher, Dietz is best known for co-creating an early progenitor of the multi-touch display technology that’s ubiquitous in today’s smartphones and tablets. Other innovations include 'Pal Mickey,' an interactive plush toy that guided visitors through Disney theme parks, and parallel reality displays that allow multiple viewers to see individualized content on the same screen.

Dietz says his storied career debunks the common misconception – often reinforced in schools – that creativity is exclusive to artistic pursuits, while science is the domain of strict rationality, where there are prescribed methods of inquiry to arrive at a single correct answer.

As Dietz sees it, weaving a narrative and programming a robot are propelled by the same creative impulse – they just exercise different skills. He believes a well-rounded education should equip students with a diverse arsenal of tools to explore new ideas.

“If you’re an artist, you have to learn the mechanics of sculpting or painting or whatever your medium is,” he says. “We should be looking at engineering and technology as those tools, and the key is … learning how to use them creatively to achieve things that are actually positive for our society.”

The universal appeal of storytelling also serves to make technology accessible and exciting to kids of all ages and genders, Dietz adds.

Bridging the gender divide in STEM has been core to Dietz’s animatronics mission since its inception.

When his daughter was in middle school, Dietz took her to a robotics competition – but she was turned off by the contest, which seemed pointless to her. However, when the two of them worked together on an animatronic raccoon, he saw her passion for creating ignite.

“This light bulb went off in my head: Maybe the problem isn’t that we’re doing tech,” says Dietz. “Maybe kids like my daughter need to see some application that makes sense to them – like telling a story.”

Kids at the Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study are encouraged to develop creative and computer science skills (photo courtesy of JICS)

Over the years, Dietz has partnered with several schools to set up animatronics workshops that attracted an even number of boys and girls and ensured every kid participated in all aspects of the projects – from storytelling and character design to robot building and programming.

But as his career took him across the U.S., Dietz found it difficult to sustain and replicate the success of the programs because of the prohibitive costs of full-scale animatronic robots and the significant technical expertise required from teachers.

At �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ, Dietz is working to bring animatronics to schools of all resources, allowing students to develop creative and computer science skills by harnessing the endless storytelling possibilities of paper.

Undergraduate students demo an interactive diorama during a capstone showcase at the Bahen Centre for Information Technology (photo by Polina Teif)

At the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study (JICS) at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, students from kindergarten through Grade 6 have put Dietz’s paper animatronics kits to the test, bringing characters to life with kinetic, vocal creations.

The laboratory school has hosted a series of pilot projects where kids fashioned characters out of construction paper, recorded voices and wired motorized movements to animate creations ranging from a chomping, sharp-toothed maw to a bouncing kitten.

Dietz hopes the pilot program at JICS, pictured, can be scaled up to schools across the country (photo courtesy of JICS)

Nick Song, a special education and technology teacher at JICS, says he sees enormous educational potential for paper animatronics to engage students in hands-on, interactive learning that simultaneously develops technology skills and fosters creative expression.

“The kids love doing things with technology because it gives them a really cool feedback loop where they can try something and see it work immediately,” says Song. “All of this is very motivating for kids, seeing something pick up their voice and start moving, and you almost feel like it’s coming to life.”

Building on the pilots at JICS, Dietz is aiming to scale up the program to schools across the country in hopes of nurturing the next generation of out-of-the-box innovators.

“It’s very different from the technical work that I’ve generally done … but it feels very right,” says Dietz. “I think we’re doing something important for Canada.”

With �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ innovators front and centre, Collision conference wraps up five-year Toronto run

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 14:52:23 +0000

With �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ innovators front and centre, Collision conference wraps up five-year Toronto run

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 06/21/2024 - 10:52

Cutline

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ alumna Nuha Siddiqui, co-founder and CEO of Erthos, on stage at the Collision tech conference (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Adina Bresge

Topic

Institutional Strategic Initiatives

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Entrepreneurship

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Geoffrey Hinton

Innovations & Partnerships Office

Budding entrepreneurs, leading scientists and future business leaders from the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ community played a leading role at the 2024 Collision tech conference in downtown Toronto.

Running over three days this week, the conference drew some 40,000 attendees from across the spheres of tech, business and media, including more than 1,600 startups and 700 investors.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies and their impact on business and society were key themes for many of the conference’s keynotes and exhibits – so it was no surprise that �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s AI luminaries were front and centre.

They included �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ alumnus Aidan Gomez, co-founder of language processing startup Cohere – which has raised hundreds of millions from investors and generated significant industry buzz.

He urged businesses to commit to adopting AI tools to support their workers.

“Making sure that you’re delivering the tools that your employees need to be competitive and effective is crucial,” Gomez said during his talk on Tuesday.

He added that augmentation of workforces with AI co-pilots and assistants is inevitable – including in industries that might not stand out as obvious adopters of the technology. He shared the example of a natural resources insurance firm that built an AI co-pilot – powered by Cohere – to help their actuaries speed up their research, craft more accurate bids and win more contracts.

“I never would have thought a natural resources insurance company would be adopting LLMs [large language models], but they are, and it’s having an impact. It’s actually helping them win more business,” Gomez said. “So I think the technology is completely horizontal.”

Gomez also cited the medical sector – particularly, drug discovery – as another area that’s poised to benefit massively from AI advances.

Aidan Gomez, a �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ alumnus, talked about how AI will be used to augment the workforce (photo by Polina Teif)

University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton, the influential computer scientist often dubbed the “godfather of AI,” also identified medical care and productivity as two key areas that will see significant improvements thanks to AI. However, much of his discussion, titled "Can We Control AI?", focused on his previously-cited concerns about how AI development could ultimately wrest control from humans given the current race to develop the technology and the absence of sufficient safeguards.

“Even if I’m totally benevolent and I just want to achieve what you asked me to achieve, I’ll realize that if I get more control, it will be easier to do that,” Hinton said of AI agents.

“And actually, if these things are much smarter than us, they’ll realize: Just take the control away from people and it will be much more efficient … and that seems to be like a very slippery path.”

Geoffrey Hinton warned of the existential dangers posed by unchecked AI development (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Gomez, for his part, said he doesn’t believe AI poses a serious threat.

“The notion that the technology is going to start self-improving, that it’s going to start manipulating people, that it’s going to take over, seize power and displace humans: that’s a sci-fi narrative,” he said. “I am empathetic to it – we’ve been writing stories about that exact scenario for decades, since before computers, and so it’s very deeply embedded in our cultural brainstems ... I just don’t think it’s true.”

Earlier at the conference, Raquel Urtasun, founder of self-driving trucking startup Waabi, spoke about generative AI and how Waabi is applying the technology to autonomous trucks. Her keynote took place following the company’s announcement that it raised US$200 million in Series B funding to support the deployment of driverless trucks in 2025.

“Everything will be controlled by generative AI systems inside the vehicle and nothing else. This is a breakthrough for the industry, where such a thing has never happened before,” said Urtasun, a professor in the department of computer science in �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ's Faculty of Arts & Science.

Raquel Urtasun spoke about her self-driving truck startup Waabi (photo by Polina Teif)

The conference also featured demos from other promising �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ startups including Erthos, which has invented sustainable alternatives to plastics and is now using machine learning to accelerate biomaterials discovery.

“Our platform allows us to design effective biomaterials five times faster and with 92 per cent less cost compared to our industry,” said co-founder and CEO Nuha Siddiqui.

Collision’s final year in Toronto was expected to draw some 40,000 attendees (photo by Johnny Guatto)

During the conference, �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s booth near the main stage featured exhibits from campus-linked accelerators, institutional strategic initiatives, academic divisions and the Innovations and Partnerships Office. �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s Black Founders Network was also at Collision as one of the organizers of the Black Innovation Zone.

Collision 2024 marked the fifth and final edition of the annual conference in Toronto.

AI safety, cybersecurity experts take on key roles at Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 15:18:33 +0000

AI safety, cybersecurity experts take on key roles at Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 06/14/2024 - 11:18

Cutline

From left to right: David Duvenaud and Roger Grosse have been appointed Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society; David Lie has been appointed director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (supplied images)

Adina Bresge

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Law

Subheadline

Roger Grosse and David Duvenaud named Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society, while David Lie becomes the institute’s new director

A leading expert in cybersecurity and two renowned AI safety researchers are set to take on leading roles at the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.

David Lie, who is known for his seminal work that led to modern trusted execution processor architectures, has been named the new director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute (SRI), which aims to explore and address the ethical and societal implications of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

His four-year appointment, which takes effect July 1, coincides with two renowned experts in AI safety – Roger Grosse and David Duvenaud – being named Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society for five-year terms.

“I think one of the top priorities is ensuring that SRI and �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ are the primary places in Canada – and perhaps in the world – for AI safety discussion and research,” says Lie, a professor in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering’s Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering.

“My vision is to make us one of the leaders. Canada has already contributed greatly to machine learning and AI through the contributions of previous scholars like [University Professor Emeritus] Geoffrey Hinton, and I think we have a very strong role to play in this important technology going forward.”

The appointments come as inaugural director and chair Gillian Hadfield prepares to conclude her term as chair this month (she stepped down as director at the end of last year). The institute, created following a historic gift in 2019 from business leaders Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman, brings together experts from disciplines across �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s three campuses to steer AI development to prioritize safety and human welfare.

“We are thrilled to welcome David Lie, Roger Grosse and David Duvenaud to their new roles at the Schwartz Reisman Institute,” says Melanie Woodin, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. “Their expertise and leadership will be instrumental in fostering the interdisciplinary collaboration needed for the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ to remain at the forefront of technological innovation that benefits humanity.”

Lie, who has served as a research lead at SRI and holds cross-appointments in the department of computer science and the Faculty of Law, says his decades of research on making computer systems more secure and trustworthy – including contributions to computer architecture, formal verification, techniques using operating systems and networking – have equipped him to tackle the complex issues posed by AI, which will require researchers to anticipate and adapt to the unexpected.

“As AI become more powerful, they may do things – or are already doing things – that we didn’t anticipate or expect,” says Lie. “Bringing cybersecurity skills, thinking and tools into the AI safety discussion will be absolutely critical to solving the problem.”

Lie emphasizes that interdisciplinary collaboration is key to addressing potential AI disruption, noting that it has been pivotal in his own research and other roles.

His current research focuses on securing mobile platforms, cloud computing security and bridging the divide between technology and policy. He is also an associate director at the Data Sciences Institute, a �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ institutional strategic initiative, a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and a senior fellow at Massey College.

“It’s really one of the things that I love about a place like �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ, because it's big and you have experts in every imaginable field to collaborate with,” he says. “I feel very strongly that we can always accomplish way more together than we can individually. That's true for people, but that's also true for disciplines.”

As incoming Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society, Grosse and Duvenaud have vital roles to play in driving SRI’s research agenda and sharing its findings with the world, says Lie.

“One of the main ways universities contribute to society is through research, but we also contribute through discourse; we contribute by translating knowledge and providing that to policymakers, decision-makers and stakeholders,” he says. “I see SRI playing an important part in these roles.”

Both Grosse and Duvenaud are associate professors of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, faculty affiliates at SRI, founding members of the Vector Institute and Canada CIFAR AI chairs – and both are working at San Francisco-based Anthropic, a research company focused on AI safety and alignment.

Grosse, whose research applies our understanding of deep learning to the safety and alignment of AI systems, says academia has an essential role to play in guiding AI development by looking beyond short-term incentives to ask how these technologies can be safely and ethically integrated for the long-term benefit of humanity.

“I'm very excited to be able to understand and mitigate catastrophic risks from AI, to be part of an interdisciplinary community that's especially well positioned to make progress in these issues, and I really appreciate the leadership that donors are showing and supporting this work,” he says.

“I think academia is great for being able to ask the more fundamental questions, to carry out maybe more forward-looking research that might not be directly on a company's critical path, but will contribute to safety efforts at many different organizations.”

Duvenaud’s research, meanwhile, focuses on probabilistic deep learning, artificial general intelligence governance and dangerous capabilities evaluation.

He envisions SRI as a “centre of gravity” where academics, industry members, government leaders and other stakeholders can engage with each other and shape the future of AI technologies.

“The idea is that by having this institute dedicated to this direction, we’ll be able to do things like host visitors and engage with academics from all sorts of disciplines –such as law, economics, and other parts of civil society – so that, ultimately, when policy discussions come up, we’ll be equipped and credible as people who can help governments navigate these decisions,” says Duvenaud, who is cross appointed to the department of statistical sciences.

Sheila McIlraith, an associate director and research lead at SRI, professor of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, and a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute, underlines the importance of rallying diverse disciplinary experts from across �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ to address the opportunities and challenges that AI will wield in the coming years.

“AI is no longer the sole purview of computer scientists. It is reshaping the way we live, work, and interact with each other, and it will take experts from a broad range of disciplines to help ensure that AI is developed and deployed for the benefit of humanity, and that Canada adapts swiftly to protect our institutions," says McIlraith, who is an expert in AI safety research herself.

“Threats are already upon us; now is the time to act.”

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s AI thought leaders take centre stage at Collision 2024

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 14:14:37 +0000

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s AI thought leaders take centre stage at Collision 2024

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 06/14/2024 - 10:14

Cutline

Left to right: Geoffrey Hinton, Aidan Gomez and Raquel Urtasun – all �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ community members who are leaders in the AI field – are among the most anticipated speakers this year's Collision tech conference (photos by Johnny Guatto, Piaras Ó Mídheach/Collision via Sportsfile and Polina Teif)

Mariam Matti

Topic

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Entrepreneurship

Creative Destruction Lab

Entrepreneurship

Geoffrey Hinton

Subheadline

“�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ is Canada's leading engine for research-based tech and AI startups and talent - and you see that reflected in both the lineup for Collision speakers, and the entrepreneurs who attend”

Some of the most anticipated speakers at this year’s Collision tech conference are artificial intelligence luminaries from the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ – and they will be sharing their insights on how the revolutionary technology is poised to transform industry and society.

Known as the "godfather of AI," Geoffrey Hinton, a cognitive psychologist and �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ University Professor Emeritus of computer science, will host a session on June 19 titled “Can We Control AI?” that explores the potential benefits and risks inherent in AI advancement.

Aidan Gomez, one of Hinton’s former interns at Google Brain, is speaking on June 18 about the real-world impact of AI. He’s CEO and co-founder at Cohere, which he and two �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ alumni founded, and which has been dubbed one of the “buzziest AI startups around right now.”

And Raquel Urtasun, a �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ professor of computer science and the founder and CEO of self-driving truck company Waabi, which launched with one of the largest rounds of seed funding in Canadian history, will share her insights on the trajectory of AI-driven transportation solutions during a session on June 19.

Jon French (photo by Brian de Rivera Simon)

He adds that the conference also gives the university an opportunity to promote “our innovative ecosystem and connect with corporate partners from around the world and investors looking to grow their pipelines, governments and academic institutions at home and aboard.”

Anticipated to draw more than 40,000 attendees, Collision runs from June 17 to 20 at the Enercare Centre in Toronto and will feature startup founders, business leaders, investors, scientists, journalists and celebrities, including tennis star Maria Sharapova.

Before the conference officially kicks off, �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Entrepreneurship will host two tours of the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus in partnership with the City of Toronto and the Government of Ontario. It will also have a booth at Collision to showcase �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, featuring self-driving lab and robot demos from the Acceleration Consortium and CRAFT Microfluidics – both �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ institutional strategic initiatives – and a “Startup Spotlight.”

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s Black Founders Network is part of a group of community organizers leading the Black Innovation Zone, which will have its own booth with programming for Black innovators.

French says the conference provides �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ startups and entrepreneurs a chance to pitch their ideas and connect with global mentors, advisers, investors, partners and peers.

“For many founders, it is an eye-opening conference that gets them thinking bigger about the markets they serve and often leads to participating in programs and opportunities in geographies around the world,” he says.

Nuha Siddiqui (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Nuha Siddiqui is among the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ-connected entrepreneurs participating in Collision this year. She is the co-founder and CEO of Erthos, which has developed a plant-based resin that can be used as a substitute for traditional plastics when manufacturing everyday products. She launched the company with Kritika Tyagi while they were studying at the university and received support from �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s entrepreneurship community, including the Creative Destruction Lab at the Rotman School of Management.

Siddiqui said she’s “incredibly thankful” for �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s continued support to Erthos’s growth.

“My co-founder and I started Erthos years ago while we were still students, and since graduating, �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ has continued to broaden our network, contribute to meaningful media coverage and remain active champions of our success,” she says.

“It's an absolute honour to represent the entrepreneurship community on the main stage at Collision this year and to have the opportunity to amplify our mission towards building a more material-conscious future."

Here are just a few other �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ faculty, alumni and other community members who will be shaping the dialogue around innovation, tech and entrepreneurship at this year’s conference:

Christian Weedbrook, founder and CEO at Xanadu and a former �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ post-doctoral researcher, will discuss the future of data centres and how quantum computing can be leveraged to avoid future economic and climate issues.
Mike Murchison, �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ alum and founding CEO of Ada, which received support from the Creative Destruction Lab, will discuss the evolution of AI customer service agents and their implications for brands and consumers.
Curtis VanWalleghem, co-founder and CEO at Hydrostor and a �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ alumnus, will speak about Hydrostor’s innovative technology that utilizes underground spaces for a sustainable long-term energy storage.
David Wong, chief product officer at Thomson Reuters and �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ alumnus, will explore the transformative power of AI and offer insights on how organizations can unlock its full potential for business operations.
Mara Reiff, �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ alumna, chief customer officer and interim co-CEO at Freshbooks, and Dan Richards, assistant professor, teaching stream, at the Rotman School of Management, will discuss how to empower small business owners to make smart decisions.

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ initiative encourages computer science students to incorporate ethics into their work

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 19:22:07 +0000

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ initiative encourages computer science students to incorporate ethics into their work

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 04/26/2024 - 15:22

Cutline

(photo by urbazon/Getty Images)

Krystle Hewitt

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Subheadline

Total enrolment in courses featuring Embedded Ethics Education Initiative modules exceeded 8,000 students this year

Computer science students at the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ are learning how to incorporate ethical considerations into the design and development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence with the help of a unique undergraduate initiative.

The Embedded Ethics Education Initiative (E3I) aims to provide students with the ability to critically assess the societal impacts of the technologies they will be designing and developing throughout their careers. That includes grappling with issues such as AI safety, data privacy and misinformation.

Program co-creator Sheila McIlraith, a professor in the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and an associate director at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (SRI), says E3I aims to help students “recognize the broader ramifications of the technology they’re developing on diverse stakeholders, and to avoid or mitigate any negative impact.”

First launched in 2020 as a two-year pilot program, the initiative is a collaborative venture between the department of computer science and SRI in association with the department of philosophy. It integrates ethics modules into select undergraduate computer science courses – and has reached thousands of �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ students in this academic year alone.

Malaikah Hussain is one of the many �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ students who has benefited from the initiative. As a first-year student enrolled in CSC111: Foundations of Computer Science II, she participated in an E3I module that explored how a data structure she learned about in class laid the foundation of a contact tracing system and raised ethical issues concerning data collection.

“The modules underlined how the software design choices we make extend beyond computing efficiency concerns to grave ethical concerns such as privacy,” says Hussain, who is now a third-year computer science specialist.

Hussain adds that the modules propelled her interest in ethics and computing, leading her to pursue upper year courses on the topic. During a subsequent internship, she organized an event about the ethics surrounding e-waste disposal and the company’s technology life cycle.

“The E3I modules have been crucial in shaping my approach to my studies and work, emphasizing the importance of ethics in every aspect of computing,” she says.

The program, which initially reached 400 students, has seen significant growth over the last four years. This academic year alone, total enrolment in computer science courses with E3I programming has exceeded 8,000 students. Another 1,500 students participated in E3I programming in courses outside computer science.

Clockwise from top left: Steven Coyne, Diane Horton, David Liu and Sheila McIlraith (supplied images)

In recognition of the program’s impact on the undergraduate student learning experience, McIlraith and her colleagues – Diane Horton and David Liu, a professor and associate professor, teaching stream, respectively, in the department of computer science, and Steven Coyne, an assistant professor who is jointly appointed to the departments of computer science and philosophy – were recently recognized with the 2024 Northrop Frye Award (Team), one of the prestigious �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Alumni Association Awards of Excellence.

Horton, who leads the initiative’s assessment efforts, points to the team’s recently published paper showing that after participating in modules in only one or two courses, students are inspired to learn more about ethics and are benefiting in the workplace.

“We have evidence that they are better able to identify ethical issues arising in their work, and that the modules help them navigate those issues,” she says.

Horton adds that the findings build on earlier assessment work showing that after experiencing modules in only one course, students became more interested in ethics and tech, and more confident in their ability to deal with ethical issues they might encounter.

The team says the initiative’s interdisciplinary nature is key to delivering both a curriculum and experience with an authentic voice, giving instructors and students the vocabulary and depth of knowledge to engage on issues such as privacy, well-being and harm.

“As a philosopher and ethicist, I love teaching in a computer science department,” says Coyne. “My colleagues teach me about interesting ethical problems that they’ve found in their class material, and I get to reciprocate by finding distinctions and ideas that illuminate those problems. And we learn a lot from each other – intellectually and pedagogically – when we design a module for that class together.”

E3I is founded upon three key principles: teach students how – not what – to think; encourage ethics-informed design choices as a design principle; and make discussions safe, not personal.

“Engaging with students and making them feel safe, not proselytizing, inviting the students to participate is especially important,” says Liu.

The modules support this type of learning environment by using stakeholders with fictional character profiles that include names, pictures and a backstory.

“Fictional stakeholders help add a layer of distance so students can think through the issues without having to say, ‘This is what I think,’” Horton says. “Stakeholders also increase their awareness of the different kinds of people who might be impacted.”

McIlraith adds that having students advocate for an opinion that is not necessarily their own encourages empathy, while Liu notes that many have a “real hunger” to learn about the ethical considerations of their work.

“An increasing number of students are thinking, ‘I want to be trained as a computer scientist and I want to use my skills after graduation,’ but also ‘I want to do something that I think will make a positive impact on the world,’” he says.

Together, the E3I team works with course instructors to develop educational modules that tightly pair ethical concepts with course-specific technical material. In an applied software design course, for example, students learn about accessible software and disability theory; in a theoretical algorithms course, they learn about algorithmic fairness and distributive justice; and in a game design course, they learn about addiction and consent.

Steve Engels, a computer science professor, teaching stream, says integrating an ethics module about addiction into his fourth-year capstone course on video game design felt like a natural extension of his lecture topic on ludology – in particular, the psychological techniques used to make games compelling – instead of something that felt artificially inserted into the course.

“Project-based courses can sometimes compel students to focus primarily on the final product of the course, but this module provided an opportunity to pause and reflect on what they were doing and why,” Engels says. “It forced them to confront their role in the important and current issue of gaming addiction, so they would be more aware of the ethical implications of their future work and thus be better equipped to handle it.”

By next year, each undergraduate computer science student will encounter E3I modules in at least one or two courses every year throughout their program. The team is also exploring the adoption of the E3I model in other STEM disciplines, from ecology to statistics. Beyond �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ, the team plans to share their expertise with other Canadian universities that are interested in developing a similar program.

“This initiative is having a huge impact,” McIlraith says. “You see it in the number of students we’re reaching and in our assessment results. But it’s more than that – we’re instigating a culture change.”

What Now? AI, Episode 4: AI and Creativity

mattimar — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 21:22:39 +0000

What Now? AI, Episode 4: AI and Creativity mattimar Thu, 04/25/2024 - 17:22

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

What Now? AI

Faculty of Information

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga

The creative industry is poised to be forever changed by artificial intelligence.

Writing tools like ChatGPT and image generators like Midjourney and DALL-E have exploded into the mainstream. Adobe built its own version of generative AI technology for its creative suites and OpenAI announced its text-to-video model, Sora.

What impact will these tools and models have on the creative process? How will they change the role of an artist?

In the fourth episode of What Now? AI, hosts Beth Coleman and Rahul Krishnan dive into these questions with AI researchers Sanja Fidler of the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ and Nick Frosst, who co-founded the startup Cohere.

Listen to episode four on  Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, iHeartRadio and Amazon. Watch episode four on YouTube. 

Fidler, the vice president of AI research at NVIDIA and an associate professor of mathematical and computational sciences at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga, says that while AI technology is still in its early stage, it has the potential to provide artists with more adaptability and creative control.

“When artists see these methods like text-to-x, text-to-image or text-to-video, I feel that they have pushback because now there is only text that allows you to control the content,” says Fidler, an affiliate faculty member at the Vector Institute, which she co-founded.

“I think artists do want to have this iterative creative control. They have some idea in their head, and they have all these tools that allowed them to go from that idea into the final product. We want to do the same thing with AI as well.”

Frosst, who sings in the band Good Kid, says he doesn’t use large language models to help him write songs – only to help analyze lyrics and themes.

“I’m not really looking to optimize my artistic expression,” says Frosst, who completed his undergraduate degree in computer science and cognitive science at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ.

“I don’t really want to write a new Good Kid song and be less involved. I want to be more involved.”

Frosst believes AI will change the way art is created, but not to the point where people aren’t interested in the artists who are making it.

“We want to know who made it, and that’s mostly what’s enjoyable about it.”

About the hosts:

Beth Coleman is an associate professor at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the Faculty of Information. She is also a research lead on AI policy and praxis at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. Coleman authored Reality Was Whatever Happened: Octavia Butler AI and Other Possible Worlds using art and generative AI.

Rahul Krishnan is an assistant professor in �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. He is a Canada CIFAR Chair at the Vector Institute, a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and a faculty member at the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM).

What Now? AI, Episode 3: Innovation for Good

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 20:47:11 +0000

What Now? AI, Episode 3: Innovation for Good Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 04/18/2024 - 16:47

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Unity Health

What Now? AI

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Faculty of Information

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga

While the news headlines about AI often focus on dangers and risks, the potential for life-saving innovation in fields such as health care is huge.

In the third episode of What Now? AI, co-hosts Beth Coleman and Rahul Krishnan of the �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ are joined by experts Christine Allen and Andrew Pinto to discuss AI’s potential to advance drug development and dramatically improve primary care.

Listen to episode three on Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, iHeartRadio and Amazon. Watch episode three on YouTube.

Allen, a professor in �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and an expert in drug formulation and development, co-founded Intrepid Labs Inc. with Alán Aspuru-Guzik, a professor in the departments of chemistry and computer science in �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s Faculty of Arts & Science.

One of the first startups to emerge from the Acceleration Consortium at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ, Intrepid Labs is accelerating pharmaceutical drug development through the integration of AI, automation and advanced computing.

“It’s this concept of using AI to explore the unexplored,” Allen says.

“What if that formulation could really transform the properties and performance of your drug is one of those unexplored formulations. That will then take that drug through clinical development smoothly and get it to patients faster, which is really the goal.”

Meanwhile, Pinto, a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and director of the Upstream Lab, Unity Health Toronto, focuses his research on addressing the social determinants of health by running clinical trials of interventions and using AI tools for surveillance of respiratory illness.

“When we started to do this work around AI in primary care, we wanted to be directed by primary care providers and patients,” says Pinto, an associate professor in the department of family and community medicine in �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Reducing health-care inequities is top of mind for Pinto. His lab focuses on implementing AI to prioritize community engagement and bridge socioeconomic gaps to mitigate biases.

“We’re using these tools to look at all of the patients in a population and then focus our attention on the people who need it most.”

About the hosts:

What Now? AI, Episode 2: Safe and Accountable

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 12:57:17 +0000

What Now? AI, Episode 2: Safe and Accountable Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 04/11/2024 - 08:57

Mariam Matti

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

What Now? AI

Faculty of Information

Faculty of Law

�ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga

As AI becomes more integrated into our lives, how do we make sure it aligns with our values while minimizing risks?

In the second episode of What Now? AI, hosts Beth Coleman and Rahul Krishnan are joined by �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ experts Gillian Hadfield and Roger Grosse as they tackle critical questions surrounding AI safety, regulation and alignment.

Listen to episode two on Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, iHeartRadio and Amazon. Watch episode two on YouTube.

Grosse, an associate professor of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and a founding member of the Vector Institute, joined the technical staff on the alignment team at Anthropic, an AI safety and research company based in San Francisco, during a sabbatical last year.

He calls working on AI research and systems while investigating safety a “difficult needle to thread.”

“As you move up the ladder of different AI capabilities, new requirements start kicking in – in terms of keeping the models secure from bad actors and being able to make sure they won’t intentionally carry out harmful plans,” says Grosse, a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.

Hadfield, a professor of law and strategic management in the Faculty of Law and the inaugural Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society, has proposed a national registry for large AI models. She thinks companies should disclose to governments what they’re building, the data being used and the AI model’s capabilities.

“This is a unique moment in human history,” says Hadfield, who holds a CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute for AI and served as a senior policy adviser to OpenAI from 2018 to 2023. “I think this is the first time that you have such a powerful technology that is being developed almost exclusively within private technology companies, so the public and the academic sector don’t have full visibility into how the technology is working.”

About the hosts:

Beth Coleman is an associate professor at �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ Mississauga’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the Faculty of Information. She is also a research lead on AI policy and praxis at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. Coleman authored Reality Was Whatever Happened: Octavia Butler AI and Other Possible Worlds using art and generative AI.

Rahul Krishnan is an assistant professor in �ܼ��ѿ��ȫ’s department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. He is a Canada CIFAR Chair at the Vector Institute, a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and a faculty member at the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM).

Jordan Jacobs on AI’s ‘profound’ implications, responsible development – and why he backed Cohere

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 22:39:50 +0000

Jordan Jacobs on AI’s ‘profound’ implications, responsible development – and why he backed Cohere

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 04/04/2024 - 18:39

Cutline

(photo courtesy of Cohere)

Adina Bresge

Topic

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Entrepreneurship