25 IIT-M students to get rare insight into AI

This year’s workshop consists of a broad spectrum of international lecturers, who are world renowned experts in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and neurosciences. The winter course is a two-credit elective course for the students of IIT-M and offers rare insights into the fields of neurosciences and Artificial Intelligence. But now, the institution is offering it to 25 students selected on the basis of their exceptional academic performance and interests, from a pool of 92 applications. 

Partha Mitra, Crick-Clay Professor of Biomathematics, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA and H N Mahabala Chair at CCBR, IIT Madras, gave a lecture on ‘Brain Circuits and Machine Intelligence.’ “Artificial Intelligence, in a broad sense, involves multiple disciplines and not just computer science. The brain is nature’s algorithm and Biology already has its AutoML (Machine Learning for Automated Algorithm Design). It’s called evolution,” said Mitra, adding, “Fast progress in Machine Learning will help us better understand the human brain, which in turn will improve Machine Learning. It will lead to Machines that will have some intelligent capabilities.” 

Others eminent speakers include Paul Martin, University of Sydney, Australia; Jonathan Victor, Cornell University, US; Trichur Vidyasagar, University of Melbourne, Australia; Jonathan Fritz, University of Maryland, US; Atsushi Iruki, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan; Saikat Chatterjee, KTH EE school, Sweden.