Bryan Cantrill - Episode 17

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, our special guest host Scott Hanselman (of The Hanselminutes Podcast) welcomes ACM Fellow Rosalind Picard, a scientist, inventor, engineer, and faculty member of MIT’s Media Lab, where she is also Founder and Director of the Affective Computing Research Group. She is the author of the book Affective Computing, and has founded several companies in the space of affective computing, including the startups Affectiva and Empatica, Inc. A named inventor on more than 100 patents, Rosalind is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Her contributions include wearable and non-contact sensors, algorithms, and systems for sensing, recognizing, and responding respectfully to human affective information. Her inventions have applications in autism, epilepsy, depression, PTSD, sleep, stress, dementia, autonomic nervous system disorders, human and machine learning, health behavior change, market research, customer service, and human-computer interaction, and are in use by thousands of research teams worldwide as well as in many products and services. In the episode, Rosalind talks about her work with the Affective Computing Research Group, and clarifies the meaning of “affective” in the context of her research. Scott and Rosalind discuss how her training as an electrical with a background in computer architecture and signal processing drew her to studying emotions and health indicators. They also talk about the importance of data accuracy, the implications of machine learning and language models to her field, and privacy and consent when it comes to reading into people’s emotional states.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Rashmi Mohan hosts 2021 ACM Fellow Edward Y. Chang, an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University. Prior to this role, he was a Director of Google Research and President of HTC Healthcare, among other roles. He is the Founder and CTO of Ally.ai, an organization making groundbreaking moves in the field using Generative AI technologies in various applications, most notably healthcare, sales planning, and corporate finance. He’s an accomplished author of multiple books and highly cited papers whose many awards and recognitions include the Google Innovation Award, IEEE Fellow, Tricorder XPRIZE, and the Presidential Award of Taiwan. Edward also also credited as the inventor of the digital video recorder (DVR), which replaced the traditional tape-based VCR in 1999 and introduced interactive features for streaming videos. Edward, who was born in Taipei, discusses his career, from studying Operations Research at UC Berkeley to graduate work at Stanford University, where his classmates included the co-founders of Google and where his PhD dissertation focused on on a video streaming network that became DVR. Later, at Google, he worked on developing the data-centric approach to machine learning, and led development of parallel versions of commonly used ML algorithms that could handle large datasets, with the goal of improving the ML infrastructure accuracy to power Google’s multiple functions. He also shares his work at HTC in Taipei, which focused on healthcare projects, such as using VR technology to scan a patient’s brain; as well as his current interest, studying AI and consciousness. He talks about the challenges he’s currently facing in developing bleeding edge technologies at Ally.ai and addresses a fundamental question about the role of human in a future AI landscape.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Bruke Kifle hosts Jacki O'Neill, Director of the Microsoft Africa Research Institute (MARI) in Nairobi, Kenya, where she is building a multi-disciplinary team combining research, engineering, and design to solve local problems globally. Her research interests span AI, HCI, social science, and technology for emerging markets. An ethnographer by trade, Jacki has focused on technologies for work—with the aim of making work better; and technologies for societal impact, with the aim of supporting underserved communities. She has led major research projects in the future of work from new labor platforms to workplace AI and chat; digital currencies and financial inclusion; and Global Healthcare. She has received two innovation awards and 16 patents (from new interaction mechanisms to crowdsourcing), and has served on the program and organizing committees of major conferences such as CHI, CSCW, ICTD, and ECSCW for many years. In the interview, Jacki traces her path from her early days growing up in Plymouth, UK to discovering an interest in computing at the University of Manchester after initially studying psychology. She describes how her background has influenced her approach in the design of technology and some primary methodologies she has used. Jacki reflects on the establishment and mission of MARI, and the benefits and challenges of collaborating across different multidisciplinary teams. She also shares what she sees as the biggest opportunities for technology in Africa and what local problems can be solved, touching on her approach to cross-cultural differences such as AI and equitable language systems. Finally, Jacki offers some exciting future directions and visions for computing in Africa and advice for making a social impact in the field.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Rashmi Mohan hosts 2022 ACM Fellow Ranveer Chandra, Managing Director for Research for Industry and CTO of Agri-Food at Microsoft. He also leads Microsoft’s Networking Research Group and has shipped multiple products over the years. He has authored more than 100 papers and patents and won numerous awards, including the Microsoft Gold Star award. He has been recognized by MIT Technoloy Review’s Top Innovators Under 35 and was most recently included in Newsweek magazine’s list of America’s 50 most Disruptive Innovators. Ranveer shares his journey, from growing up in India, where he began to appreciate the agricultural industry during the summers he spent with his grandparents, to his PhD thesis on VirtualWifi, which uses TV white spaces to bring internet connectivity to homes without WiFi. He explains how his experience interviewing farmers inspired him to work on technology that takes some of the guesswork out of their work using data and AI, and to come up with solutions that help the agriculture industry become more productive, profitable, and climate friendly. Ranveer talks about the phases of product development for his team at Microsoft. He also offers some insights on how recent breakthroughs in AI, such as generative models, can help farmers in countries like India, and shares what he’s most excited about in the application of AI to agriculture and the food ecosystem.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Bruke Kifle hosts 2022 ACM Prize in Computing recipient Yael Tauman Kalai, Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and an Adjunct Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her main research interests are cryptography, the Theory of Computation, and security and privacy. She is especially known for her work in verifiable delegation of computation, where she has developed succinct proofs that certify the correctness of any computation. In addition to making breakthroughs in the mathematical foundations of cryptography, her proofs have been practically useful in areas such as blockchain and cryptocurrency. Yael shares her career journey in computer science, which is rooted in a love of mathematics, and how the field of cryptography provided philosophically interesting questions with applicable research outcomes. She describes her work on ring signatures, a key component of numerous blockchain-based systems that added privacy to the chain, which she co-invented with Ron Rivest and Adi Shamir. Yael also touches on AI and large language models (LLMs), different methods of verification, how she values her own work, and how she balances her roles between academia and industry. She also reveals some concerns around quantum computing and what she sees as the most exciting emerging areas of cryptography.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, our special guest host Scott Hanselman (of The Hanselminutes Podcast) welcomes Noriko Arai, a professor in the Information and Society Research Division of the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo, Japan. She is a researcher in mathematical logic and artificial intelligence and is known for her work on a project to develop robots that can pass the entrance examinations for the University of Tokyo. She is also the founder of Researchmap, the largest social network for researchers in Japan. Her research interests span various disciplines, including mathematical logic, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, math education, computer-supported collaborative learning, and the science of science policy (SoSP). She earned a law degree from Hitotsubashi University, a mathematics degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her doctorate from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In the interview, Noriko and Scott discuss the challenge of being a creative in the modern academic environment, where publishing is paramount, and how her multidisciplinary background, which spans law, economics, and mathematics, has been an asset in her scientific research. She also mentions her 2010 book, How Computers Can Take Over Our Jobs, and how that led to her work on the Todai Robot Project. Noriko offers her thoughts on the pros and cons of ChatGPT and similar technologies for society. She also mentions her mentors and heroes who have inspired her and shares some of the challenges faced by female researchers in Japan.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Rashmi Mohan hosts Eugenio Zuccarelli, Data Science Manager at CVS Health, where he leads innovation efforts for complex chronic care. He’s a business-focused data science leader who has worked for other Fortune 500 companies across several industries, including healthcare analytics, automotive, financial, and fintech. He has also worked in the COVID-19 Policy Alliance task force using analytics to fight COVID-19 and develop policy recommendations for The White House and finding solutions to fight the pandemic. In addition to scientific journals, his work has been featured in Forbes, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, and Financial Times and his recognitions include Forbes 30 Under 30, Fortune 40 Under 40, and being a TEDx Speaker. Eugenio discusses how early passions in engineering, technology, and robotics led him to work in AI and data science, and a lack of the human component in these fields has driven his work. He describes his work on MIT Media Lab’s Project US, which uses AI and advanced biosignal processing to help people become more effective and empathetic leaders and organizations make tangible progress towards their HR goals, and how that research shifted when COVID hit and people worked from home. Eugenio and Rashmi also touch on the common challenges and concerns across different industries, such as data sharing and privacy, and his views on synthetic data. He also shares some of the most important lessons learned in his career and offers advice for students looking to build solutions with machine learning.

In this episode, part of a special collaboration between ACM ByteCast and the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)’s For Your Informatics podcast, hosts Sabrina Hsueh and Adela Grando welcome Regina Barzilay, a School of Engineering Distinguished Professor of AI & Health in the Department of Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the AI Faculty Lead at MIT Jameel Clinic. She develops machine learning methods for drug discovery and clinical AI. In the past, she worked on natural language processing. Her research has been recognized with the MacArthur Fellowship, an NSF Career Award, and the AAAI Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity. Regina is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Regina describes her career journey, and how a personal experience with the healthcare system led her to work on an AI-based system for the early detection—and prediction of—breast cancer. She explains why entering the interdisciplinary field of clinical AI is so challenging and offers valuable advice on how to overcome some of these challenges. Regina also opines on new models for using AI, including the promise of ChatGPT in healthcare. Finally, she talks about inequity in medicine, and offers actionable insights on how to mitigate these shortfalls while moving the field of clinical AI forward.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Bruke Kifle hosts Kush Varshney, a distinguished research scientist and manager at IBM Research in New York. He leads the machine learning group in the Foundations of Trustworthy AI Department, where he applies data science and predictive analytics to the fields of healthcare, public affairs, algorithmic fairness, and international development. He is also the founding co-director of the IBM Science for Social Good initiative. He has contributed to the development of several open-source toolkits such as AI Fairness 360 and AI Explainability 360. In 2022, he independently published the book Trustworthy Machine Learning. Kush has been recognized with the Extraordinary IBM Research Technical Accomplishment Award for contributions to workforce innovation and enterprise transformation, and IBM Corporate Technical Awards for Trustworthy AI and for AI-Powered Employee Journey. Kush shares a few key moments which have helped to shape the course of his career thus far, including his graduate days at MIT and joining IBM Research. He defines responsible AI and talks about operationalizing RAI principles, as well as the importance of finding a balance between the technical and social aspects of AI. He also discusses some of the risks—both short- and long-term—inherent in emerging technologies such as generative AI, and how various stakeholders can play a role in coordinating AI safety. Kush also mentions his book, his work with IBM’s Science for Social Good, and some of the things that excite him about the future of AI.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Rashmi Mohan hosts Anima Anandkumar, a Bren Professor of Computing at California Institute of Technology (the youngest named chair professor at Caltech) and the Senior Director of AI Research at NVIDIA, where she leads a group developing the next generation of AI algorithms. Her work has spanned healthcare, robotics, and climate change modeling. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an NSF Career Award, and was most recently named an ACM Fellow, among many other prestigious honors and recognitions. Her work has been extensively covered on PBS, in Wired magazine, MIT Tech Review, YourStory, and Forbes, with a focus on using AI for good. Anima talks about her journey, growing up in a house where computer science was a way of life and family members who served as strong role models. She shares her path in education and research at the highly selective IIT-Madras, the importance of a strong background in math in her computing work, and some of the breakthrough moments in her career, including work on using tensor algorithms to process large datasets. Anima spends some time discussing topic modeling and reinforcement learning, what drives her interests, the possibilities of interdisciplinary collaboration, and the promise and challenges brought about by the age of generative AI.