Ideas That Matter Events
Ideas that Matter: Artificial Intelligence 2024-25
Events for Artificial Intelligence
Spring 2025
- Feb 11, 2 PM: . Workshop on Teams sponsored by TLC, led by Alexis Clifton and Laurie Fox
- March 13, 4 PM. , on Teams
- Sharon Peck, Associate Professor, School of Education
- Tara Sweet, Assistant Professor of Biology & Psychology
- Alan Witt, Librarian, Milne Library
- Alexis Clifton, Moderator
- AI and Visual Arts -- workshops with Dan DeZarn, GREAT Day: Wednesday April 23
- AI and Poetry -- Lederer gallery exhibit of student work, from workshop with Lytton Smith. GREAT Day: April Wednesday April 23
- Development of Campus-wide AI statement: draft is
Community Engagement for Artificial Intelligence
Our 2024-2025 Ideas that Matter Community Outreach will bring our theme of Artificial Intelligence to local school districts through collaborative projects on professional learning.
Dr. Peter Kalenda, School of Education, will be partnering with the Rush-Henrietta Central School District (RHCSD) this academic year to assist with co-developing and co-facilitating professional learning opportunities for teachers on generative-AI using Magic School.
Professional learning for 2024-205 will focus on helping teachers become comfortable using Magic School to support their own needs, such as developing activities, lesson planning, analyzing data, or even writing an email. Once foundational skills are established, the 2025-2026 school year will lead to teachers developing skills to support their students with using Magic School to enhance classroom learning.
Fall 2024
AI and Pedagogy Faculty Roundtable, Friday Sept 20, 2:30 PM, Doty Tower Room
- David Levy (Philosophy) slides, Cassie VanStolk (Psychology), Peter Kalenda (Education), Lytton Smith (English), Michael Restivo (Sociology), Javier Velasco (Global Languages & Cultures)
- All are welcome. Target audience is faculty and students entering the teaching profession
- Doty Tower Room
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Reception to follow in Doty 1st floor lobby
Physics Colloquium: Anil Ananthaswamy, "Why Machines Learn." (Thursday October 3, 4pm, Newton 204)
Algorithms tell us about the steps involved in getting a machine to, say, learn about patterns that exist in data. Such machine learning algorithms, however, can also be viewed from the perspective of the math that makes learning possible. In this talk, Anil Ananthaswamy will discuss why machines learn, by using one narrative thread from the storied history of machine learning: the arc that takes us from Frank Rosenblatt's 1959 perceptron (which was the first artificial neuron that could learn) to modern-day deep neural networks. He'll talk of Rosenblatt's single layer neural networks as linear classifiers, their failure to solve simple non-linear classification problems, and how it took two and a half decades for what's in hindsight a simple advance: the use of the chain rule of calculus to train multi-layer neural networks to do what single-layer perceptrons could not.
As soon as [A]I write: a structured learning experience in poetry and AI with Dr. Lytton Smith
- Workshop 1: Friday 9/20, 4-6pm, Macvittie College Union Lounge (former Kinetic Gallery)
- Workshop 2: Friday 10/18, 4-6pm, Macvittie College Union Lounge (former Kinetic Gallery)
- Gallery Exhibition: Tuesday 12/10-Monday 12/16
- Gallery Opening: Tuesday 12/10, 12-2pm
AI: The Good, The Bad, and The Human, Wednesday October 23, 7 PM, Newton 204
- A Panel Discussion sponsored by the Philosophy Department
- Participants: Jonathan Auyer (Philosophy), Mark Rider (Entrepreneurship), Sedar Ngoma (Math), Reece Torres (Sociology), Tara Sweet (Neuroscience), Jeff Peterson (Chemistry), Dan DeZarn (Office of Sustainability)
- Moderator: Amanda Roth (Philosophy)
Keynote address:
Paul Fain, "How is Artificial Intelligence changing the skills needed in the workforce?"
- Monday October 28, 2:30 PM, Doty Recital Hall
- Paul Fain is author of The Job, by Work Shift, and new podcast, The Cusp.
- Moderator: Jessie Stack Lombardo, Director of Career Design
- Reception following in Doty Lobby
- Questions for Dr. Fain will be gathered ahead of time, and he will answer them in a Q&A format with Jessie Stack Lombardo, Director of Career Design, as interviewer.
Dance Dance Revolution and Beat Saber — using AI to build step charts; a structured learning experience with David Warden
Ideas that Matter popup AI Events:
- Mock Trial Club
- Iris Magazine
- Dance Dance Revolution