Cutting Edge Panel at the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Conference
August 1, 2024
Dr. Helena Wisniewski, FNAI, Marion Porter Endowed Chair, Professor, and Chair of the MMLBA Department, was a speaker and panel moderator of the Cutting Edge AI Panel at the NAI Annual Conference in Raleigh, NC, June 16 to the 18th 2024. She was also a member of the conference program committee and a judge for the Genspiration Competition for students, which this year had two categories, collegiate and K-12, and monetary prizes were awarded to the winners.
The distinguished members of the Cutting Edge AI Panel were Dr. Yiran Chen, FNAI the John Cocke Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University, and Director of the NSF AI Institute for Edge Computing – Athena; Dr Jun Raymond Fu, FNAI, Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University, with affiliations in both the College of Engineering and the Khoury College of Computer Sciences; Dr. Nicky Lu, FNAI, who had a profound impact on the global semiconductor industry is a National Taiwan University Distinguished Research Chair Professor; and Dr. Dinesh Manocha, FNAI, the Paul Chrisman-Iribe Professor in Computer Science, Electrical, and Computer Engineering and a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland.
In her opening remarks, Dr. Wisniewski stated that the rise of AI has ushered in an era of unparalleled technological progress, revolutionizing our lives and reshaping numerous industries. From movies to personalized medicine, logistics to sports, and even on Wall Street, AI is making its mark.
The panel provided insights into several critical questions:- How can universities adapt their innovation strategies to thrive in an AI-driven economy and maintain impactful collaborations with industry?
- How can we maintain the United States' lead in innovation and AI.
- As AI continues to evolve, what will the future role of universities look like in terms of developing cutting-edge AI technologies?
- Looking ahead, should we prepare for Artificial General Intelligence (cognitive ability) to take over jobs? Or is this hype?
Feedback from conference attendees about the panel was extremely complimentary, stating that is was a great panel and they really enjoyed hearing the panel’s perspectives. The panel will contribute a paper to the Conference Proceedings.