By Stella Henretta
The University of Maryland Alumni Association hosted “Maryland Minds: Shaping the Future of AI” at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on Feb. 17, encouraging the exploration of AI at UMD.
The event exhibited UMD’s leadership in artificial intelligence and transformative technologies, fostering connections and spotlighting real-world impacts, said Tricia Clarke, associate director of alumni events and programs at UMD.
Clarke also mentioned that in line with the launch of UMD’s Forward Campaign initiative, the event was held to highlight one of the campaign’s priorities, showcasing UMD’s role as a leader in artificial intelligence.
With a total of four presentations, the event featured seven individuals, including John Fisher, Ryan Felix, Sylvette La Touche-Howard, Tracy Zeeger, Amira Abujuma, Arden Lawson and Mumu Xu. Their research and developments in AI extended across various disciplines such as science, engineering, humanities, health and public policy.
“The event was important because it showcased and celebrated the pioneering work of our faculty, staff and students and highlighted how UMD is making real progress for real people,” Clarke said. “The purpose was to inform, educate and entertain our alums and guests and get them excited about the work being done at the university, as well as to raise awareness about the [Forward] campaign.”
La Touche-Howard and Zeeger, assistant deans of the Office of Public Health Practice & Community Engagement and faculty affiliates of the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland, presented a segment called “AI for Public Good: Revolutionizing Public Health Training.”
La Touche-Howard shared her thoughts on interacting with new people at the event.
“We thought the event was amazing as it gave us the opportunity to meet so many different people from in and outside of our discipline, especially students,” La Touche-Howard said.
Clarke reflected on the event’s arrangement.
“I think the event was innovative and entertaining. The quality of the presentations was excellent, and the TED-talk-style format allowed for important topics to be relayed in bite-size, fast-paced and thought-provoking ways. We received a lot of positive feedback afterward about the quality of the presentations and the event format in general,” Clarke said.
Abujuma, a junior computer engineering and public policy double major, presented a section called “AI for Food Security: Breaking Down Barriers to Food Access” alongside Lawson, a junior marketing and French double major.
Abujuma spoke about the responses she received from the attendees.
“Some people would give me ideas on things that they could do to make [the system] even better,” Abujuma said. “There were also audience members who came up to me and gave me contacts at different nonprofit organizations who might be interested in implementing something similar to our work, so it was just a really good opportunity to get people’s feedback on a project that we’re actively working on and hear how we can make it even better.”
Lawson spoke about his motivation to present at the event.
“Our project is a strong example of AI being used for good, and I was confident the audience would connect with what we had to share,” Lawson said. “I was also deeply impressed by my fellow presenters. Their projects highlighted some truly fascinating applications of AI that I found very thought-provoking.”
Abujuma explained how she initially wanted to speak at the event with Lawson because they were the only undergraduate students planned to present. Abujuma said this allowed them to provide a “very interesting perspective when it came to the use of AI.”
“This isn’t something that we’ve had extremely formal education on; it’s more like we taught ourselves a lot about AI and how it can be used. Now we’re doing something extremely practical that can help other people,” Abujuma said. “I felt like [the event] was just a really good chance for me to be able to share my perspective as an undergraduate doing work in AI.”
Simran Mulchandani, junior public health science major, spoke about her takeaways from Abujuma and Lawson’s project.
“Being able to learn how they created a real-life application to solve a public health issue – seeing how AI translates into the real world – was very interesting,” Mulchandani said. “I think the way that [AI] has been used, especially in the presentations, seems very promising. There are definitely a lot of myths out there, but being able to learn about how AI is actually being used to benefit populations and certain communities is definitely worth sharing.”
Students and faculty had different perspectives on AI’s future. La Touche-Howard said she thinks AI can be used for positive outcomes.
“We believe that AI must be used to complement communities and humanity as a whole, as it’s the only ethical and just way that we can achieve optimal benefits,” La Touche-Howard said.
Clarke said she believes that AI is a powerful tool, but it can never replace human connections, intentions and heart-focused decision-making. She then shared a similar perspective to La Touche-Howard that AI must be used correctly.
“I think if [AI is] used and guided well, it could dramatically improve quality of life and help fuel creativity. But if it’s misused, it could magnify existing problems and cause conflict,” Clarke said.
Many people, including Abujuma, are uncertain of the trajectory of AI, but Abujuma is confident the technology will surpass people.
“That’s what the future of AI is; it’s essentially being able to do things that humans can’t,” she said.
As for innovation and ingenuity, Lawson thinks of AI as an amplifier that can take general thoughts to the next level.
“AI takes someone’s idea and expands its reach, its scale and its impact,” Lawson said. “I expect we’ll continue to see that with increasing use cases in the way we operate in daily life.”
Featured Image: Question and answer segment of the “Maryland Minds: Shaping the Future of AI” event, hosted at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on Feb. 17. Photo by Stella Henretta.