Part of the Monash Tech Talks Series

 How AI is changing our world – for the better

How many sci-fi movies paint post-apocalyptic dystopias where killer robots rule? But what if those robots could actually be ‘kindness robots’ – who fight for the good of humanity?

A powerful tool for social justice, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already being used to improve lives around the world. It’s helping to reduce homelessness, criminal activity, substance abuse, military suicides, infectious diseases, poaching and so much more.

This is a unique opportunity to hear from world-renowned AI experts as they discuss how AI is improving our society. Moderated by Professor Jon Whittle, this eye-opening panel discussion will explore how AI is helping to:

• Fight terrorism and criminal activity
• Prevent HIV among homeless youth
• Reduce child exploitation on the dark web
• Turn poachers into prey

This event will also give you the chance to network with industry partners, Monash alumni and leading researchers in the field.

About your presenters

Professor Milind Tambe

Milind Tambe is a Professor in Computer Science and Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). He is also the Founding Co-Director of CAIS – the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society. Milind’s research focuses on advancing AI and multiagent systems research for social good. He is an author and co-author of books on game theory and intelligent agents and is the recipient of numerous international awards and recognition, including:

• International Joint Conference on AI (IJCAI) John McCarthy Award
• ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award from Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems Conference (AAMAS)
• Association for Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Robert S Engelmore Memorial Lecture award
• INFORMS Wagner prize
• The Rist Prize of the Military Operations Research Society
• The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation Homeland security award
• The International Foundation for Agents and Multiagent Systems influential paper award

Milind is also a fellow of AAAI and ACM. He has received meritorious commendation from the United States Coast Guard, Los Angeles Airport Police, and from United States Federal Air Marshals Service for pioneering real-world deployments of security games. Milind received his PhD from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.

Professor Ann Nicholson

Ann Nicholson is a Professor and Deputy Dean Research in the Faculty of IT at Monash University. After completing her BSc(Hons) and MSc in Computer Science at the University of Melbourne, she was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford in 1988, where she completed her doctorate in the Robotics Research Group. After completing a post-doctoral at Brown University, she returned to Australia to commence a lecturing position at Monash in 1994. Ann specialises in the broad area of Artificial Intelligence, a sub-discipline of computer science. She is a leading international researcher in the specialised area of Bayesian networks, now the dominant technology for probabilistic causal modelling in intelligent systems. She has applied Bayesian Network technology to problem-solving in many domains including meteorology, epidemiology, medicine, education and environmental science. Ann is also co-author of the well-received book "Bayesian Artificial Intelligence". In 2014, Ann was appointed General Chair for the major conference in her field – the 30th International Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence.

Professor Jon Whittle

Jon Whittle is the Dean of the Faculty of IT at Monash University. He is a world-renowned expert in software engineering and human-computer interaction, with a particular interest in embedding human values in software development. He commenced as Dean in 2017 having arrived from the UK, where he was Head of the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University. Prior to this, Jon was a Senior Researcher and Technical Area Lead at NASA. Jon is an experienced research leader, having led around ten large multi-institution, multi-disciplinary research projects on the topics of digital health, innovative software development methods, the impact of digital technologies on work-life balance, social computing, and women in IT. Jon is also an award-winning educator, having received the Pilkington Teaching Award for his software design studio approach to teaching software engineering. Amongst other awards, Jon received a prestigious Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award, was nominated for a national Times Higher Education Innovation award, and won an EPSRC award for public engagement.

About Monash Tech Talks

Deepen your knowledge. Join the conversation. High-profile speakers. Cutting-edge topics. And important insights into how tech is impacting our world. That’s what Monash Tech Talks are all about. These unmissable events will open your eyes to the disruption that’s shaping our future and challenge everything you thought about emerging tech. Sometimes controversial, yet always stimulating, Monash Tech Talks are the perfect way to deepen your knowledge – and join the most significant conversations of the tech industry today.

Find out more at monash.edu/it/tech-talks