Public Outreach and Education

1. Presenters: Michael Bowling and Brant Coghlan Public Outreach and Education

2.                                         University HQP Pre-University Public Vision Impact the local and global knowledge economy through the training of highly qualified personnel (HQP) for now and into the future.

3. Pre-University Outreach • Generate excitement about science and technology among: • Soon-to-be university students • Elementary and middle school students • Their teachers • Address the problem of declining enrollments and growing demand

4. Summer camps School presentations School for the Deaf Young Scientists Conference … many others Women in science and technology WISEST WIT Department open house Fragapalooza High school teachers Current Activities

5. Spotlight: Summer Camps • Recommended by our Scientific Advisory Board • Support and leverage the department’s efforts • Week long (1 day devoted to ML) • The experience: • Hands-on AIBO gait control • Hands-on Mindstorm programming • RMP demo and presentation • Brain tumour project

6.                                         University HQP Pre-University Public Vision Impact the local and global knowledge economy through the training of highly qualified personnel (HQP) for now and into the future.

7. University Expose undergraduates to research • 23 undergraduate summer researchers (NSERC/STEP) • 8 IIP students (16 month internships) Impact on course curriculum • Undergraduate machine learning course • Development of 8 new courses, redesign of 5 courses

8. Spotlight: Robotics Challenge • New graduate course • 12 students together build a robotic system for a difficult task • Teaches the gamut of robotics technology • Unique training with a large team • Fall 2005: Robot Geocaching • Featured on Daily Planet • Basis for ML project on sensor bootstrapping • Fall 2007: Robot Minigolf

9.                                         University HQP Pre-University Public Vision Impact the local and global knowledge economy through the training of highly qualified personnel (HQP) for now and into the future.

10. Attract the best students in Canada and abroad Increase in number of strong applicants from the US Prestigious summer internships at Google, Max Planck Institute, and NICTA Ph.D. student won the inaugural Alberta Ingenuity Bill Bridger Award of Excellence Best student paper prizes (UM2003, ADPRL07) Attracted 18 PDFs from top universities Hebrew University, CMU, Waterloo, UBC Excellence

11. Impacting the Economy • Impacting Alberta (46 placed, mostly staff): • Invidi • Bioware • Biotools • YottaYotta • IBM (Edmonton) • ChenomX • Smart Technologies • EDS • Sirrus Solutions • Xymbiant (Startup) • EzSeer (Spinoff) • Teaching at UofA’s Augustana campus in Camrose

12. Impacting the Economy Beyond Alberta (35; mostly grads and PDFs): Yahoo! Google Microsoft PARC NICTA University of Waterloo Electronic Arts IBM (Toronto) 12

13. Spotlight: Invidi “The knowledge and experience I gained [at the AICML] has been a great benefit in my career as a software developer.” Alden Flatt, Invidi Alberta company Intelligent targeted advertising • Application of machine learning 3 HQP directly from AICML • Andrew Hiew, Mark Trommelen, Alden Flatt Future collaboration is planned

14. Spotlight: Finnegan Southey “[My stay at AICML] led very naturally to my current work at Google… Best career move I ever made… ” Finnegan Southey, Google Post-Doctoral Fellow • 2.5 years at AICML • 11 quality publications • 16 different AICML co-authors Now at Google • Highly sought position 14

15.                                         University HQP Pre-University Public Vision Impact the local and global knowledge economy through the training of highly qualified personnel (HQP) for now and into the future.

16. Public Outreach • Making the public aware of ML and its potential as a transforming discipline • Extensive media coverage • 158 total media reports • This month: Scientific American • This week: Page 2 of Edmonton Journal • Public presentations • Telus World of Science • iCore Lecture, iCore Debates • Celebrating Ingenuity • Super Research Saturday • MLA Visit • Alberta at the Smithsonian

17. Spotlight: Smithsonian Smithsonian Folklife Festival Alberta at the Smithsonian AICML alone selected to represent Alberta research Outdoor public demonstration • Dan Lizotte (Ph.D. student) • 11 days • Over 900k visitors

18. The Future • Increase our K-12 outreach to students • Replicate local successes across the province • Increase our K-12 outreach to teachers • Develop learning objects for teachers to use in the classroom • Alberta Ingenuity Summer Scientist Program • Partnering with the department on new initiatives

19. The Future • Seek to expand our graduate applicant pool • Entrepreneurial training • Planned seminars for students and staff • Developed with TEC Edmonton and the Faculty of Business • Seeking further opportunities for outreach • Telus World of Science exhibit • Turkey Trot event

20.                                         University HQP Pre-University Public Questions? Impact the local and global knowledge economy through the training of highly qualified personnel (HQP) for now and into the future.