Please join the Research Institute in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (RIDSAI) at our upcoming seminar on Bias and Fairness in Generative Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. The event will feature short presentations by UNB researchers on this theme followed by refreshments and a networking opportunity. Comprehensive details are below, including speaker bios, talk titles, and abstracts. 

Kindly RSVP by Monday 10^th of September 2024, using the following link: 

https://forms.office.com/r/1U8k5jfjnu

Featured Speakers: 

Dr Matt Maguire, Assistant Professor Faculty of Education & McKenna Institute Digital Education Fellow

Topic
Toward GenAI Guidelines in the Faculty of Education

Abstract
While AI has existed for decades, GenAI tools have quickly risen to the forefront of transformative technologies in today’s digital society. GenAI tools are being used by teachers, learners, and researchers, resulting in a transforming educational landscape across all levels and jurisdictions. While GenAI tools in education offer exciting new opportunities for teaching, learning, and research, they also pose significant risks and challenges. As a response to this, the UNB Faculty of Education aims to create a comprehensive set of guidelines around GenAI in education. In this presentation, Dr. McGuire shares seven statements around GenAI tools with corresponding dilemmas and questions to evoke discussion and considerations for university faculties interested in developing their own set of guidelines based on faculty vision, values, and goals. The statements will be used as a jumping off point at a Faculty of Education AI retreat to be held in November 2024.

Bio
Dr. Matthew RT McGuire is a nationally recognized Canadian educator and scholar in the Faculty of Education at the University of New Brunswick. He has extensive practical and research expertise in the use of educational technologies and in the scholarship of instructional systems design. He is the inaugural McKenna Fellow in Digital Education where he works to advance digital competencies across K-12 and university contexts. McGuire has a background in arts methodologies. His doctoral work investigated how educational responses to the COVID-19 pandemic transformed teacher pedagogy and schooling. When he is not at the university, you can find him at home with his family, recording original music and podcasts, or making fine hand-crafted soaps.

Catherine Gracey, Open Scholarship & Applied Sciences Librarian at UNB Libraries

Topic
Impacts of Generative AI on Academic Information Discovery and Literacy 

Abstract
The methods for collecting information to inform academic research have changed substantially over the past several decades, and AI, specifically Generative AI, has only sped up this rate of change. With advances in AI, users can employ natural language in their search queries and have millions of results ranked by relevancy. However, much of the interpretation of queries and relevancy ranking occurs within a black box into which the average user has little insight. In the case of Generative AI, the training data used to formulate a response is often hidden, and without sources, it can be challenging to determine the relevance or reliability of the information. This presentation will explore current patterns in the usage of Generative AI for research and tangible actions that can be taken to develop information literacy in the context of Generative AI.

Bio
Catherine Gracey is the newly appointed Open Scholarship and Applied Sciences Librarian at UNB and serves as the subject librarian for Computer Science on the Fredericton Campus. Her background is in the Health Sciences, and she previously worked in a Health Science Academic Library. Her research interests include exploring how information is accessed and synthesized in academic research contexts, and research integrity.

Dr Willis Munroe, Assistant Professor Classics and Ancient History

Topic
Understanding the History of the Entire World: Big and Small Tasks for Humanistic and Computational Research

Abstract
Understandings of scale across disciplines are often incommensurable, what is big in one field might be tiny in another, and an easy method might be impossible. This issue is especially pertinent in the interaction between humanistic data and computational methods. For the past eight years I have been working on a project at the heart of this issue, the Database of Religious History. This talk will give an overview of the project, its aims and methods, and some of recent analysis. The talk will highlight how a computational approach to humanistic data can results in valuable collaborative insight.

Bio
M. Willis Monroe is a historian who specializes on the long history of cuneiform writing and culture in ancient Mesopotamia. He also works on the interaction between computational approaches and historical data. He is an assistant professor at the University of New Brunswick and co-director of the Database of Religious History.