We’re just over two weeks away from the TAIAO workshop. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to register for your free spot – see below for full details. The draft programme for the event is now available here: TAIAO Workshop Programme, so take a look and reach out if you have any questions. In this update we introduce you to a few more of the faces you can expect to see at the workshop, either as speakers on stage or leading the TAIAO research from behind-the-scenes.

Welcome!

We’re pleased to welcome you all to attend the third annual workshop for the TAIAO project. The workshop will be an opportunity to connect with others from our growing community, to show you our latest developments and to discuss future initiatives in environmental data science. Our TAIAO platform is up and running, and our team of researchers is in full swing with our initial collaborators. We are now hoping to include a wider range of challenges and collaborators, and to hear your feedback on our first two years. We hope you can make it along to get involved in what are sure to lead to some exciting new directions for us all.

Karin Bryan & Albert Bifet | TAIAO Research Leads

About our Plenary Speaker

Madeline Newman | AIForum NZ Executive Director

Madeline joined the AI Forum New Zealand as Executive Director earlier this year. She has extensive experience in strategy, transformational change and helping people to see the potential that innovative technologies bring. Originally from New Zealand, Madeline has been working with AI and new technologies in the mental health, financial services and regulation spaces in the UK, where she helped to shape and deliver the Financial Conduct Authority’s internationally renowned RegTech innovation programme. Most recently she was Head of Innovation and Product for a science-based digital mental health service. She brings new thinking and international connections to our AI community. Madeline will talk about the AI Forum’s recent paper on AI for the environment, and the activities that are bringing the report’s recommendations to life (with some time for questions at the end).

More speakers announced…

Paul Schlumbom, Research Programmer, University of Waikato

Paul will discuss his work creating user-friendly interfaces for the AI Institute’s ongoing projects. One of the apps he’s been developing aims to help smartphone-users identify up to 11,000 different NZ species.

Dean Meason, Scientist, Scion

Tree ecophysiologist Dr Dean Meason will be speaking about how machine learning can help to unravel some of the mysteries of forest hydrology and real-time big data.

Nick Lim, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Waikato

Nick is currently working on using explainability methods for object detection, and using deep networks for predicting flood events. Nick will be sharing the latest developments in this exciting space.

Olivier Graffeuille, PhD Student, University of Auckland

Olivier will talk about his research modelling environmental problems with limited data using semi-supervised learning and transfer learning approaches.

Meet some of the faces behind the TAIAO project…

Eibe Frank | University of Waikato Professor

The TAIAO project aims to address key research challenges to advance the state-of-the-art in environmental data science – one of which is deep learning. Professor Eibe Frank is responsible for the deep learning work package of the TAIAO project, and leads a team of talented researchers (including Matthew Skiffington - who will be speaking at the workshop about his research using deep learning). Eibe is a computer scientist whose primary area of interest is machine learning and its applications. He enjoys leading the charge into the sphere of deep learning, which is being increasingly used in environmental data science.

Bernhard Pfahringer | University of Waikato Professor

Another of TAIAO's research challenges includes 'Machine Learning for Data Streams and Time Series', which is a learning work package led by Professor Bernhard. He heads a team of researchers committed to finding different techniques for learning from data streams. Along with Eibe and others, Bernhard also co-directs the university's new Artificial Intelligence Institute. We'll hear from several members of the AI team at the workshop as part of a group talk on a real-time flood prediction tool they've been working on. Bernhard is a computer scientist with interests spanning a range of data mining and machine learning sub-fields, with a focus on streaming, randomization and complex data.

Come and join the conversation!

RSVP

Please feel free to forward this invitation on to your team and partners.

Venue: The University of Auckland, Engineering Building, 20 Symonds St

Date: Thursday 1 September 2022

Time: 9am - 5pm

Registration is free but numbers are restricted, so please register to secure your spot. Registrations close Sunday 28 August 2022. For those who can’t make it in-person, the event will be livestreamed. We will post the details on our website closer to the date. You don’t need to register to watch the livestream.