Background

We hear the term AI everywhere, but do you really know exactly what AI encompasses? Some of the artificial intelligence (i.e., AI) technologies are ones that we have encountered for a while and do not feel as futuristic or novel as others that have exploded onto the scene more recently and are quite remarkable. The present webinar will dive into some of the different AI technologies (e.g., machine learning, natural language processing, robotics) and provide a foundation for understanding AI, which is a precursor to evaluating the possibilities, limitations, and considerations for AI applications. This AI overview will be followed by a presentation that will share a real-life example of how AI is being used for signal detection and surveillance of food safety risks at the US FDA. Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the future of our society, including numerous possible applications within the food sector. This webinar will provide some AI basics along with a case example that will get you thinking about AI applications in the food and nutrition space.

Speakers

Hal Daumé III

Hal Daumé III is the Director of AIM, the AI Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland. He is a Volpi-Cupal endowed Professor of Computer Science and Language Science at the University of Maryland, where he also leads TRAILS, an NSF & NIST-funded institute on Trustworthy AI. His research focuses on developing natural language processing systems that interact naturally with people, promote their self-efficacy, while mitigating societal harms. Together with his students and colleagues, he has received five best paper awards, a best demo award, and a test of time award. He has been program chair for the International Conference on Machine Learning in 2020 (together with Aarti Singh) and for the North American Association for Computational Linguistics in 2013 (together with Katrin Kirchhoff), and he was an inaugural diversity and inclusion co-chair at the Neural Information Processing Systems Conference in 2018 (with Katherine Heller).

Ernest K. Kwegyir-Afful, PhD. RAC

Dr. Kwegyir-Afful received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Maryland, Baltimore and a Certificate in Data Science from Georgetown University. His graduate work and subsequent post-doctoral work at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine focused on signal transformation in neuronal networks involved in somatosensory perception and memory consolidation. Ernest is currently the Acting Branch Chief for the Hazard Assessment and Analytics Branch at the Office of Post Market Assessment. Dr. Kwegyir-Afful is currently leading an effort to build an Artificial Intelligence engine that is helping streamline some of the Human Foods Program’s signal detection and horizon scanning activities related to post-market surveillance and premarket submissions