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Research Topic

  • World AI: Women in AI

    World AI: Women in AI

    We organized with Women in AI for this 2024 World AI group photo on the main stage. Thank you to everyone who participated!

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  • Outsiders: Pathways and Perspectives from Engineering Education PhDs Outside Academia

    Outsiders: Pathways and Perspectives from Engineering Education PhDs Outside Academia

    This article presents a critical exploration and recommendation based on the lived experiences of PhD graduates in Engineering Education who have ventured into non-academic career paths. The work is rooted in an auto-ethnographic research approach, and the report aims to mimic a live virtual panel. It seeks to elucidate the experiences and challenges faced by PhD graduates who diverged from traditional academic roles to pursue careers in industry, entrepreneurship, consulting, and pre-college leadership. These narratives reveal a complex landscape of motivations, perceived hierarchical barriers, and under-recognition within academic and non-academic sectors, highlighting a divide between industry and academia. The paper delves into the unique challenges faced by non-academic engineering educators, such as confronting a culture that often questions their value outside traditional faculty roles and the overarching perception that non-research roles are less significant. Despite these challenges, the authors argue for the vital role these professionals play in bridging the gap between research, instruction, and practical application in engineering education. They emphasize the importance of ASEE or similar professional societies in recognizing and leveraging the diverse contributions of non-academic engineering educators to foster a more inclusive and supportive community. Key takeaways and recommendations include the necessity for ASEE and similar bodies to shift normative expectations, create inclusive and equitable environments, and actively value diverse career trajectories. The paper calls for actionable strategies to build more inclusive professional communities, create safe spaces for discussing career diversity, and establish stronger connections between current students and diverse alums. The overarching goal is to cultivate an environment where all forms of contribution to engineering education are valued, encouraging a broader spectrum of career considerations among graduates and professionals. The authors seek not only to share insights but also to galvanize a nascent community of like-minded engineering educators aspiring or working outside the traditional academic sphere.

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  • Teaching Future-Makers: Outcomes of an International Design Workshop for Critical Action Educators

    Teaching Future-Makers: Outcomes of an International Design Workshop for Critical Action Educators

    This paper reports on recent developments of the Critical Action Learning Exchange (Carvalho et al., 2021), an international community of educators who seek to respond to social and environmental issues that affect their students. We report on an international design workshop that engaged a cohort of teachers in designing Critical Action Learning activities for their students in the Summer of 2023. Participants (n=39) completed 16 curriculum designs for grade levels from kindergarten to university, addressing a broad range of socio-environmental issues and adopting diverse approaches, such as Arts-Based Critical Action, Community Engagement, Critical Making, Games for Critical Action, and Storytelling. This paper examines our Professional Development model, together with an analysis of teacher participants’ ideas and their design products. We investigate what forms of scaffolding can facilitate the changes of practice needed for teachers to become critical action educators and support their Critical Action Learning designs.

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  • AI Governance for the Global Majority: Understanding Opportunities and Challenges

    AI Governance for the Global Majority: Understanding Opportunities and Challenges

    Artificial intelligence (AI) will impact individuals, communities, and institutions worldwide in both unique and universal ways. While public and private sector actors have begun to build the foundations for achieving more secure and trustworthy AI, the voices shaping the AI governance agenda are primarily from the Global North. To govern AI in a way that reflects a global range of contexts, it is imperative to adopt a more inclusive lens in defining its harms and opportunities. Broadly accepted AI governance principles may struggle to translate into practice without a more explicit focus on how priorities and challenges prevalent in the Global Majority intersect with AI.

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  • Autonomous weapons: Palantir, Airbus engineers seek to calm ‘killer robot’ fears

    Autonomous weapons: Palantir, Airbus engineers seek to calm ‘killer robot’ fears

    Our Fellow Tammy Mackenzie was recently interviewed by FRANCE 24’s Tech24 segment to share her thoughts on AI in Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS).

    The segment looks into the ethical implications of deploying AI in military operations and discusses the critical need for regulatory frameworks that ensure these technologies are used responsibly. As the conversation around AI evolves, we must engage with these topics. Properly balancing military pragmatism and AI ethics is among the most significant global challenges today.

    How do you think we can achieve a balance between innovation and responsibility?

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  • Leveraging AI in education

    Leveraging AI in education

    To stay ahead, it is essential to adapt to the rise of AI by intelligently incorporating it into all levels of the education process

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  • The Rainbow Economy Model Leads to Holistic Circular Model

    The Rainbow Economy Model Leads to Holistic Circular Model

    The Rainbow Economy Model is a theoretical framework that proposes a holistic and inclusive approach to economic development. This model emphasizes the importance of diversity, equality, and sustainability in driving economic growth and prosperity. It recognizes that a vibrant and resilient economy is built upon a diverse range of industries, businesses, and individuals, each contributing their unique strengths and perspectives. The Rainbow Economy Model promotes the integration of social, environmental, and economic factors in decision-making processes, aiming to create a balanced and equitable society. This research aims to explore the principles and potential implications of the Rainbow Economy Model, assess its feasibility in different contexts, and identify strategies for its implementation. The research adopts mixed methodology to ascertain the holistic sustainability circular model namely the “The Rainbow Economy Model”. The practical, the social implications are quite evident, and the contribution is the data collected for future research and the Rainbow model of Sustainability.

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  • A Global South Perspective on Explainable AI

    A Global South Perspective on Explainable AI

    A context-driven approach is necessary to translate principles like explainability into practice globally. These vignettes illustrate how AI can be made more trustworthy for users in the Global South through more creative, context-rooted approaches to legibility.

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  • De la gestión de crisis a la crisis de gestión: Responsabilidad y democracias liberales en el estallido de la pandemia de la COVID-19

    De la gestión de crisis a la crisis de gestión: Responsabilidad y democracias liberales en el estallido de la pandemia de la COVID-19

    El estallido de la pandemia de la COVID-19 conmocionó a las sociedades de todo el mundo. En su esfuerzo por adaptar sus respuestas a la crisis a sus propias condiciones de supervivencia, los gobiernos tendieron desde el principio a recurrir a argumentos que limitaban la rendición de cuentas frente a la población. Las democracias liberales no fueron ajenas a esta forma de abordar el problema. En ese contexto, sus dirigentes esgrimieron la metáfora de la guerra para describir su posición como garantes de la supervivencia de la población frente a la nueva amenaza. Atenazados entre la incertidumbre y la necesidad de predecir la naturaleza y la evolución del enemigo invisible, sus respuestas pusieron en entredicho la responsabilidad política, profesional y personal de los dirigentes. En este artículo se ofrece una reflexión sobre el nivel de responsabilidad de los gobiernos de las democracias liberales en la gestión de la pandemia. Durante la crisis, los decisores tendieron a dejarse llevar por las narrativas que les resultaban más beneficiosas para escabullirse de sus responsabilidades, apuntalando así sus necesidades políticas a corto plazo a través del uso de metáforas belicistas, el juego de culpas, la competición con otros países y la dispersión de las fuentes en el proceso de toma de decisiones. Esta realidad supone hoy un llamado a la reflexión a los actores sociales, incluidos los expertos, intelectuales y medios de comunicación, para trascender la retórica predominante en la gestión de la pandemia y la “nueva normalidad” que le siguió, de manera que la dinámica de alteraciones constantes de las reglas del juego y las responsabilidades pueda dar paso, en el futuro, a un escenario con menos arbitrariedad y más rendición de cuentas.

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  • You are either with us, or against us: the small state of Serbia between domestic ambition and external pressures

    You are either with us, or against us: the small state of Serbia between domestic ambition and external pressures

    This article examines the position of Serbia as a small state in the context of external pressures, largely reflecting an ambition to balance the East and the West. While clearly interested in offers and benefits from collaboration with both geostrategic realms, Serbia’s authorities have always left space for possible alternatives—a trend that is expected to serve power preservation or to inform external players to what extent Serbia is keen on balancing and juxtaposing great powers in the region. While analyzing the limited case of the Covid-19 pandemic and the never-ending case of Kosovo, additionally actualized by the Russo-Ukrainian war, the present study suggests that Serbia is at the crossroads between growing ambitions and the real limitations of what its smallness can achieve. The paper concludes that Serbian foreign policy contains all the prerogatives of movement without a goal, a search for strategic partnerships, but without a coherent political vision—an approach that generates suspicion of being labelled as distracted and unreliable.

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  • How Issav Asimov Predicted/Influenced the Present AI Scenario

    How Issav Asimov Predicted/Influenced the Present AI Scenario

    This paper investigates Isaac Asimov’s impact on modern artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, focusing on how his visionary narratives and Three Laws of Robotics resonate with current technological practices and ethical debates. Analyzing specific predictions from Asimov’s works that have materialized in today’s AI applications, we draw parallels between his fictional insights and real-world technologies from leading tech firms. The study further considers the social implications of AI, including issues of human displacement and trust. We also discuss the progress and challenges in formulating global ethical standards for AI, reflecting on national and international efforts. The analysis highlights Asimov’s lasting influence and the ongoing importance of ethical deliberation in the AI field.

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  • Parameter efficient fine tuning: A comprehensive analysis across applications

    Parameter efficient fine tuning: A comprehensive analysis across applications

    The rise of deep learning has marked significant progress in fields such as computer vision, natural language processing, and medical imaging, primarily through the adaptation of pre-trained models for specific tasks. Traditional fine-tuning methods, involving adjustments to all parameters, face challenges due to high computational and memory demands. This has led to the development of Parameter Efficient Fine-Tuning (PEFT) techniques, which selectively update parameters to balance computational efficiency with performance. This review examines PEFT approaches, offering a detailed comparison of various strategies highlighting applications across different domains, including text generation, medical imaging, protein modeling, and speech synthesis. By assessing the effectiveness of PEFT methods in reducing computational load, speeding up training, and lowering memory usage, this paper contributes to making deep learning more accessible and adaptable, facilitating its wider application and encouraging innovation in model optimization. Ultimately, the paper aims to contribute towards insights into PEFT’s evolving landscape, guiding researchers and practitioners in overcoming the limitations of conventional fine-tuning approaches.

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