Tuesday, September 26 marked the kick-off event for the Amazon-Illinois Center on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Interactive Conversational Experiences (AICE) Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Written by Caitlin Renwald
Tuesday, September 26 marked the kick-off event for the Amazon-Illinois Center on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Interactive Conversational Experiences (AICE) Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Back row, L-R: Ruhi Sarikaya, Rajiv Dhawan, Vincent Ponzo, Derek Hoiem, Lav Varshney Front row, L-R: Laurel Passantino, Nancy Amato, Heng Ji, Julia Hockenmaier, Andrea Whitesell
The AICE Center aims to advance conversational AI by funding projects proposed by teams of UIUC faculty. Additionally, the center will support Ph.D. fellowships in computer science.
The inaugural event featured a series of presentations and panel discussions including both UIUC professors and Amazon scientists examining the industry-academia partnership and current trends in AI research.
After initial welcoming remarks, guests attended a series of keynote lectures and panels featuring presentations by top UIUC scholars, Amazon scientists, and Illinois CS, ECE, and CSL professors, including Heng Ji, Derek Hoiem, Julia Hockenmaier, ChengXiang Zhai, and Lav Varshney.
For more information about the center, click here.
Of the inaugural event, AICE Center Director Heng Ji said “This center is a great starting point for the great partnership between UIUC and Amazon, and we look forward to advancing state-of-the-art in AI together.”