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- Sep 17, 2020
- 3 min
That's a wrap: Thanking my community and planning next steps
I'm thrilled to say - I am DONE! I handed in my final research paper this week and now I await graduation. I have been fortunate to have the support of an amazing community on my academic journey. I am tremendously grateful to the following people: First and foremost, my husband Ken, who has always been my biggest champion. Thank you for supporting me in every way. The MACT 2018 cohort – you guys are the best! Thanks for the solidarity in learning. The MACT team – Professors
- Sep 15, 2020
- 2 min
Conferences and pumpkin-spice lattes
It's definitely fall. The air is cooler, the leaves are turning shades of red, pumpkin-spice lattes are back and it's conference season. I've been working a number of upcoming presentations to share my work, or as they call it in academia, knowledge mobilization. First up is a presentation I did back in July for Dr. Marilene Oliver's Know Thyself as a Virtual Reality sessions. This was the first time I presented my research results, a month before handing in my final research
- Jul 3, 2020
- 2 min
Colour Coding (aka hanging out in my basement coding data)
Regular blog readers will know I’ve been procrastinating just a bit on really digging into my data coding process. Why? Coding qualitative data can be tedious….and it’s summer, it's really nice outside right now! So…I’ve locked myself in a windowless room in my basement today to get down to business. Everyone seems to have their own spin on coding qualitative data but there are some general guidelines. It starts with a careful reading of the text and highlighting key words or
- May 23, 2020
- 4 min
Research update: collecting data, prepping for a presentation and "COVID-izing" my work
Generally when things are quiet on the blog, it means I'm really busy with my research. That's certainly been the case this past month. I've been deep in data collection mode and having some really interesting conversations about ethics with AI researchers working in the healthcare space. I also have to transcribe those conversations in order to code and analyze the data. That's not so interesting and incredibly time consuming even with the assistance of transcription softwar
- Apr 17, 2020
- 5 min
“Glassholes” and toilet paper: Consumer attitudes about AI
Back in 2013, Google launched Google Glass. It was hailed at that time as a technology set to revolutionize how we interact with the world and usher in a state of ubiquitous computing. Google co-founder Sergey Brin describes the vision for Google Glass in this TED talk. Google Glass failed to find consumer acceptance. It actually created a backlash. The term “glasshole” came to define those who used the product and the Urban Dictionary equates the term to stalker or creeper.
- Feb 7, 2020
- 4 min
Mend it or end it, who decides? Day One of the AI, Ethics and Society Conference
It's been a super full day exploring the landscape surrounding the many societal questions relating to artificial intelligence and ethics. Law Professor Frank Pasquale kicked off the morning keynote with some reflections on the ground we've covered so far in our approach to this topic. He talked about two waves of ethical assessment in AI - the first one focused on issues of bias, fairness, transparency and explainability. This approach is one of "mend it" - fix the technolog
- Feb 2, 2020
- 4 min
Setting the stage for AI in healthcare: CIFAR's AI for Health Townhall
Recently, I participated in CIFAR's AI for Health townhall. The purpose of the meeting was to gather feedback on a draft framework that will enable CIFAR to move forward with AI initiatives in healthcare. The results of the townhall meetings, which took place in Montreal, Toronto and Edmonton, will be shared by CIFAR. I won't comment on the specifics of the framework, but I can share some of the themes and big questions coming out of this discussion that require further publi
- Jan 17, 2020
- 5 min
Scenes from a Literature Review: Healthcare and AI
I'm having that moment of guilt when you realize that your last blog was close to two months ago! Time to dust off the cobwebs with an update. Late 2019 was spent writing my literature review. The rest of the year was spent recovering from writing my literature review! This major element marks the completion of the coursework for my degree and I can now focus exclusively on my research project. My literature review will undergo revisions and additions but it forms the foundat
