Concordia University in Montreal launches the Applied AI Institute

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Climate change, smart cities, health care, transportation, aerospace, cybersecurity, privacy and trust — Concordia researchers have been applying artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to these problems for years.

Now, they’re joining forces under the university’s newly launched Applied AI Institute.

Today, the institute announced the appointment of Tristan Glatard and Fenwick McKelvey as co-directors, to further its interdisciplinary activities, partnerships and interests.

“It’s my privilege to continue the extraordinary contributions made by my colleagues,” says Glatard, professor in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science. “The institute has grown exponentially in a very short time since its inception last year. Moving forward, my work will strive to be representative of the excellence they brought to the table, and will amplify the innovation that research at Concordia brings to the global AI ecosystem.”

Glatard holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) on Big Data Infrastructures for Neuroinformatics.

McKelvey, professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia’s Faculty of Arts and Science, joins Glatard as the institute’s co-director. He studies the internet’s infrastructure, looking at the AIs, daemons — computer programs that run in the background — and bots lurking in our networks. These artificial intelligences pose new governance questions.

“Artificial intelligences raise governance questions, challenge our traditions of technology regulation. Solutions have to be interdisciplinary,” says McKelvey. “The Applied AI Institute builds capacity and creates spaces to not only solve today’s problems but work toward imagining better futures.”

With over 95 professors and 200 graduate students, the institute collaborates with eight research centres across Concordia’s four faculties.

Learn more:
https://www.concordia.ca/news/stories/2022/03/18/concordia-launches-the-applied-ai-institute.html