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Steps taken to improve education using AI at 2019 AI for Good Global Summit

An Interview with Cristina Conati: Artificial Intelligence and Educational Games

Iridescent founder and CEO Tara Chklovski recently sat down with Cristina Conati, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia. Professor Conati is interested in creating intelligent interactive systems that can adapt to individual users’ needs. One application of this is educational games that need to both entertain and […]

An Interview with Yoshua Bengio: thoughts on neural networks, deep learning and being a dreamer

Yoshua Bengio is best known for his groundbreaking work in artificial intelligence, particularly his work on artificial neural networks and deep learning.

Event Recap: AI Experts Answer NYC Teens’ Questions and Concerns About the Technology and Its Impact on Their Lives

Recently Iridescent and The Cooper Union hosted a panel featuring influential women working in artificial intelligence (AI) across a variety of industries. Applying their diverse experience and perspectives from AI in research, neuroscience, and art, they addressed NYC teens’ questions and concerns about the impact of AI on their lives in Cooper Union’s Great Hall.

5 Women working in AI to Know

AI is reshaping our world, from the way we hire people for jobs to the way we drive, but currently it’s a poor reflection of the world it’s changing. Most leading machine learning researchers are white men – and we know that a lack of diversity in the people who build technology is reflected in […]

An Interview with Rose Luckin: Using Artificial Intelligence to Support Human Intelligence and Learning

Rose Luckin is a Professor of Learner Centered Design at the UCL Knowledge Lab in London. She researches how educational technology is designed and how it is evaluated. Professor Luckin is particularly interested in using AI to show teachers and students how people learn and how learning is cognitively, socially and emotionally shaped. She is […]

Why K-12 Education is Key to American Leadership in AI

This week the Trump administration released an executive order on American leadership in artificial intelligence (AI). The order outlined education and funding priorities necessary for the U.S. to remain competitive in AI, one of the most rapidly advancing technologies in history. Recently Iridescent CEO and founder, Tara Chklovski, shared her initial thoughts about the plan with […]

Machine Learning and Medicine: An Interview with Daphne Koller

Daphne Koller leads Insitro, a company applying machine learning to pharmaceutical drug development. She is also a co-founder of Coursera (one of the world’s largest online education platforms with 30 million + users), a MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and Computer Science Professor at Stanford University. Recently, she discussed machine learning in the biomedical industry as well as […]

5 Women You Should Know Working in AI

AI is changing the world – everything from the way we shop for groceries to the way we hire people for jobs, but it doesn’t really reflect the world it’s changing. Wired estimates that only 12% of leading machine learning researchers are women, and we know that a lack of diverse AI researchers means that […]

An interview with Pierre Bonnet and Alexis Joly: AI, plant recognition, and biodiversity

As part of our AI in Your Community series, I spoke with Pierre Bonnet, a tropical botanist, and Alexis Joly, a computer scientists who have been working on a project called Pl@ntNet for the past ten years. Pierre and Alexis work together to develop tools that teach people about biodiversity and plant identification while also […]

An Interview with Erin Bradner: Using AI to make construction easier

As part of our AI in Your Community series, I sat down to interview Erin Bradner, the Director of Robotics at Autodesk, which aims to solve complex design problems from ecological challenges to smart design practices. Erin has researched topics ranging from from the future of computer-aided design to how to use robots in novel ways […]

An Interview with Gabriel Torres: AI, Agriculture and Drones

As part of our AI in Your Community series, I sat down with Gabriel Torres, an unmanned systems expert and CEO and co-founder of MicaSense, which brings unmanned systems and sensors to the agricultural industry. We discussed his work with MicaSense and how they’re working to help the agricultural industry take better advantage of tools and […]

Kasia Muldner: Artificial Intelligence and Student Learning

As part of our AI in your Community Series, I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Kasia Muldner, an assistant professor in the Institute of Cognitive Science at Carleton University. She works with intelligent tutoring systems to better understand student learning, problem solving, and creativity and the factors that affect them. Tara Chklovski: […]

An Interview with Manuela Veloso: AI and Autonomous Agents

As part of our AI in Your Community series, I sat down with Manuela Veloso, a renowned expert in artificial intelligence and robotics. Manuela Veloso is the Herbert A. Simon University Professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and a former President of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence […]

An Interview with Chelsea Finn: AI for Robotics

As part of our AI in Your Community series, I had the chance to speak to Chelsea Finn, a PhD student at UC Berkeley currently doing work with machine learning and robotics. Through her work she teaches robots how to perform tasks in multiple environments, with the goal of having these robots perform tasks for […]

An Interview with Julita Vassileva: Artificial Intelligence and Online Communities

As part of our AI in Your Community series, I recently spoke with Julita Vassileva, a professor in Computer Science at the University of Saskatchewan who is currently focused on building successful online communities and social computing applications. Julita Vassileva is particularly interested in user participation and user modeling, as well as user motivation and […]

Iridescent Bay Area Engineering & Technology Family Club

[av_section min_height=” min_height_px=’500px’ padding=’default’ shadow=’no-shadow’ bottom_border=’no-border-styling’ id=” color=’main_color’ custom_bg=’#ffffff’ src=” attachment=” attachment_size=” attach=’scroll’ position=’top left’ repeat=’no-repeat’ video=” video_ratio=’16:9′ overlay_opacity=’0.5′ overlay_color=” overlay_pattern=” overlay_custom_pattern=”] [av_one_full first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] Join us! Are you interested in learning how to solve problems using engineering and technology? Do you want to learn new things with your children? Then sign […]

Elizabeth Clark: Creative Writing with AI

As part of our AI in Your Community series, I spoke to Elizabeth Clark, who won the Amazon Alexa Prize for her work with Sounding Board, a social bot. Elizabeth is studying natural language processing and working on tools for collaborative storytelling. Tara Chklovski: Tell me a little bit about what you’re working on. Elizabeth […]

Natural Language Processing and Bias: An Interview with Maarten Sap

[av_one_third first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] [/av_textblock] [/av_one_third] [av_two_third] [av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#2d2d2d’] As part of the AI in your Community series, I recently spoke with Maarten Sap, a PhD student at the University of Washington. Maarten is interested in natural language processing, and social science applications of AI. Maarten is also the 2017 winner […]

Virtual humans and decision-making: A conversation with Stacy Marsella

[av_one_third first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] [/av_textblock] [/av_one_third] [av_two_third] [av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#2d2d2d’] As part of our ongoing AI In your Community series, I talked to Stacy Marsella, professor in the College of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University and the Psychology Department. Professor Marsella’s research is grounded in computational modeling of human cognition, […]

Machine Learning and combining common sense with data: An Interview with Fabio Cozman

[av_one_third first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] [/av_textblock] [/av_one_third] [av_two_third] [av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#2d2d2d’] As part of our AI in Your Community project, I spoke to Fabio Gagliardi Cozman, who is a Full Professor at the Engineering School  at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He  works in the Department of Mechatronics and Mechanical Systems, in […]

Game Theory and Machine Learning: An Interview with Fei Fang

[av_one_third first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] [/av_textblock] [/av_one_third][av_two_third] [av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#2d2d2d’] As part of our AI in Your Community series, I sat down with Fei Fang, an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Software Research in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. She works on game theory and machine learning, researching the […]

Going beyond just clicks and views: An interview with Dr. Elisabeth Lex

As part of our ongoing AI In your Community series, I sat down with Dr. Elisabeth Lex, Assistant Professor at Graz University of Technology and head of Social Computing at Know-Center. Tara Chklovski:What problem or area of research are you working on? Elisabeth Lex: I’m working on a number of different projects at the moment! […]

The General AI Challenge: An Interview with Marek Rosa

[av_one_full first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#2d2d2d’] As part of our ongoing AI In your Community series, I talked to Marek Rosa, CEO and CTO of GoodAI, an organization on a mission to develop general AI as quickly as possible to help humanity and understand the universe. They recently launched “Solving the Race” as part of […]

A new way of doing AI research — A conversation with François Chollet

[av_one_full first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#2d2d2d’] As part of our ongoing AI In your Community series, I talked to François Chollet – author of the open source neural network framework Keras, co-founder of AI-ON (Artificial Intelligence Open Network), creator of a learning platform for Artists – Wysp, working on Deep Learning, Google. [/av_textblock] [/av_one_full][av_hr class=’invisible’ […]

From social media to medicine: applications of machine learning with Katherine Heller

[av_one_full first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#2d2d2d’] As part of our AI in your community series, I had the opportunity to talk to Katherine Heller, an Assistant Professor at Duke University, who studies machine learning and Bayesian statistics and applies that work to problems in the brain, cognitive sciences, and social interactions. We discussed her many […]

Creative Imaginative Robots – A conversation with Ryota Kanai

[av_one_full first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#333333′] As part of our ongoing AI In your Community series, I talked to Ryota Kanai, Founder and CEO of Araya about how they are using neuroscience to create new types of AI, but also improve our understanding of human consciousness. [/av_textblock] [av_hr class=’invisible’ height=’-50′ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-thin’ custom_width=’50px’ custom_border_color=” […]

Computational Drug Discovery: An Interview with Dr. Anne Carpenter

[av_one_full first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] As part of our ongoing AI In your Community series, I sat down with Dr Anne Carpenter who leads the Carpenter Lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. [/av_textblock] [/av_one_full][av_hr class=’invisible’ height=’-80′ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-thin’ custom_width=’50px’ custom_border_color=” custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’yes’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’] [av_one_third first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” […]

Intelligent Music: Emilia Gómez on Big Data and Making Music More Accessible

[av_one_third first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] [/av_textblock] [/av_one_third] [av_two_third] [av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#2d2d2d’] In our ongoing AI in Your Community series, I spoke with Emilia Gómez, a researcher on music information retrieval—an interdisciplinary area dealing with music and artificial intelligence. She works at the Music Technology Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. Tara Chklovski: […]

Matching Real Solutions to Real Needs — Dr. Carolyn Rosé on Conversation-Improving AI and Collaborative Learning

[av_one_full first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] As part of our ongoing AI In your Community series, I sat down with Dr. Carolyn Rosé, Professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Language Technologies Institute and Human-Computer Interaction Institute, to learn about her artificial intelligence research and advice for children and families starting to learn AI. [/av_textblock] [/av_one_full][av_hr class=’invisible’ […]

Learning how Natural Language Processing is helping us understand ourselves better: An Interview with Rada Mihalcea

[av_one_full first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] As part of our ongoing AI In your Community series, I sat down with Dr Rada Mihalcea, a computer scientist and Director of the AI lab at the University of Michigan, known for her work in Natural Language Processing and  Computational Social Sciences (including computational humor!). [/av_textblock] [/av_one_full] [av_hr […]

The essence of happiness — Dr. Qiang Yang on teaching computers and humans

[av_one_full first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] As part of our ongoing AI In your Community series, I sat down with Dr. Qiang Yang, Astrophysicist and Computer Scientist, Chair Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, to learn about his work in machine learning and to get […]

Working Together on Technology for Good: AI Learning Advice from Dr. Marie desJardins

[av_one_full first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] As part of our ongoing AI In your Community series, I sat down with Dr. Marie desJardins, Associate Dean and Professor of Computer Science at University of Maryland Baltimore County, to learn about her artificial intelligence research and curriculum development. Marie was chosen to be one of the eight […]

“A combination of curiosity and confidence”: A conversation with John Maloney

[av_one_full first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] As part of our AI in Your Community series, I sat down with John Maloney, the  lead software developer on the Scratch project in the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. We discussed John’s work with Alan Kay, early inspiration from his father and at-home science projects, and identifying interesting problems. […]

Assistive Technologies and finding the right problems to solve: a conversation on AI with Maja Matarić

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] As part of our ongoing AI In your Community series, I sat down with Dr. Maja Matarić, a computer scientist and roboticist known for her work with human-robot interactions, and specifically for her pioneering work with socially assistive robots. During our conversation we discussed how to identify real-world problems that people actually need to […]

Persevering Through the Unknown: My Conversation on Emotion AI and Problem Solving with Emily Mower Provost

[av_one_full first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] This interview is part of our AI in Your Community series. [/av_textblock] [/av_one_full][av_hr class=’invisible’ height=’-60′ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-thin’ custom_width=’50px’ custom_border_color=” custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’yes’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’] [av_one_third first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] [/av_textblock] [/av_one_third][av_two_third] [av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#211d1a’] Human emotion affects government policies, shapes culture, and even biases technology. […]

The Creative Workforce of Tomorrow: A Conversation on AI with Katherine Barr

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] This interview is part of our AI in Your Community series.  [/av_textblock] [av_one_third first] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] [/av_textblock] [/av_one_third] [av_two_third] [av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#6b6b6b’]  A few weeks ago, I spoke with Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners, Katherine Barr, about ideas that disrupt markets. Katherine is a board member for WorkFusion, […]

Children and Families Solving Problems Using AI: A Conversation with Paul Yarin

By Tara Chklovski In light of Iridescent’s breakthrough initiative to make Artificial Intelligence learning accessible to underserved communities, I sat down with Paul Yarin to get his thoughts on how communities can innovate with AI. Paul is Director and Head of Technology at global aerospace company Thales xPlor, in addition to being an entrepreneur, designer, […]