Al lecture Series II
Intelligent transportation, smart cities and autonomous driving
By Yifei Wang
Oct 29, 2017
The “intelligent transportation, smart cities and autonomous driving” lecture was successfully held at the University of Alberta at NRE 2-001 on Oct 21, 2017.
About 80 participants attended this event. Zhijun Qiu (University of Alberta tenure professor), Lihang Ying (AlbertaAI President), Lixin Liu (TusStar Alberta COO) and Yuxi Li (reinforcement learning experts) gave the fabulous talks and answer the questions from the audiences. AlbertaAI VP-External Yifei Wang hosted this event. University of Alberta Chinese Graduate Students’ Club (UA – CGSC), Edmonton IT Club (EITC) and Tsinghua Alumni Association of Edmonton (TAAE) are the co-organizer of this event.
Prof. Zhijun Qiu shared his insight of the status quo and progress of artificial intelligence, intelligent car and transportation. He also touched on the commercialization and Alibaba’s “City brain” project during the speech.
Prof. Qiu pointed out that artificial intelligence (computer technology) and the Internet of things (sensor technology, communication technology and microelectronic technology), are similar to the relationship between the brain and body. Currently, the vast majority of commercialized applications are “Pseudo artificial intelligence”, because the quantity and quality of data is not enough, the ratio of IT giants and startups focusing on AI is too low. The biggest advantage of artificial intelligence is “iteration”, the core value is derived from the data iteration, the algorithmic iteration, the iteration of application.
Then Dr. Ying gave the talk on “autonomous driving, implementation and open sources resources”, including Level 0 to 5 automatic grading system and the basic software and hardware of realizing autonomous driving. Dr Ying illustrated the Tesla Autopilot, which is based on radar, ultrasonic, camera sensor hardware, and the method and code implementation of using all kinds of data from sensor trained with deep learning model. He particularly demonstrated open source project OpenPilot, which has been implemented in cars from Acura, Civic. In the end, he touched on the StreetDrone (a self-driving car that develop the algorithm automatically) and the online self-driving certificate(can be obtained through the course in Udacity).
Mr. Liu, the Chief Operating Officer of TusStar Alberta, introduced the profile of TusStar. Liu described the business layout and achievement in expanding incubation network in China and the globe of the Tusholdings Co. Ltd. (a large integrated enterprise established in reliance on Tsinghua University) and its subsidiary corporation TusStar (an advanced Incubation Service Institution). The vision of TusStar Alberta which was established recently in May, 2017 is becoming a professional incubator focus on Alberta’s startup and investment.
Finally, Dr. Yuxi Li joined the panel discussion with the other three guest speakers. All the questions asked by enthusiastic audiences were answered. Noticeably, two of the audiences came all the way from Calgary after about 400 kilometers of driving only for this event!
AI Lecture Series I
Post-alphaGo Era of Artificial Intellegence：
Brief Introduction and Application of Deep Reinforcement Learning
Date: July 22, 2017
In this lecture, AI expert Dr. Yuxi Li introduced and demonstrated the technology behind AlphaGo — deep reinforcement learning from three aspects:
1) Background of Artificial intelligence, machine learning, Deep learning
2) Key concepts and algorithms of reinforcement learning
3) The application of deep reinforcement learning, including game, robot, natural language processing, computer vision, neural network, structural design, business management, finance, healthcare, Industry 4.0, smart power grid, intelligent transportation, computer system etc.
Bio of Guest speaker
Dr. Yuxi Li systematically summarized six core element, six key technologies and twelve fields of application of deep reinforcement learning in his publication “Deep Reinforcement Learning: An Overview” in Arxiv.
Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem Roundtable
By Wenfei Zhang, Li Dong
June 11, 2018
A grand opening of TusStar 89th international incubation space at Edmonton and the launch of TusStar – TEC Edmonton Accelerator Exchange Program were celebrated on Jun 11th Edmonton local time. Thomas Dang, NDP MLA, Don Iveson, Mayor of Edmonton, Dr. Matthias Ruth, Vice-President (Research) of the University of Alberta, Chris Lumb, CEO of TEC-Edmonton, Meng Mei, Honorary Chairman of Tus-holdings, Jinsheng Zhang, Vice-President of Tus-holdings and Chairman of TusStar, Wei Han, director of Institute Collaboration of Tusholdings and Deputy General Manager of TusStar, and Bo Liu, General Manager of Venture Capital attended the ceremony.
The opening ceremony of TusStar Edmonton
AlbertaAI Team at the opening ceremony of TusStar Edmonton Branch
Dr. Zhijun(Tony) Qiu, Professor from the University of Alberta held a roundtable meeting with AlbertaAI, TusStar and TEC Edmonton to discuss artificial intelligence and tech incubators. The representatives from TusStar, TEC Edmonton, Alberta Innovates, Government of Alberta, Canadian Federal Government, A-Partners, Edmonton AI, venture capital firms and startups attended the meeting. The discussions covered the topics to strengthen International technical cooperation, speed up 2-way project landing, promote the development of AlbertaAI industry.
AI eco-system roundtable meeting
The attendees actively participated in the discussions. Dr. Lihang Ying, President of AlbertaAI provided a brief introduction of AlbertaAI. He said that AlbertaAI had been growing rapidly relying on the world-class AI research at the University of Alberta and the profound resources from various industries. AlbertaAI has held AI lecture series, AI training camps and a lot of industry-academic cooperation projects.
Dr. Lihang Ying, President of AlbertaAI is giving a speech
Ms. Wei Han, Director of Institute Collaboration of Tusholdings and Deputy General Manager of TusStar is giving a speech
Chris Lumb, CEO of TEC Edmonton said that It’s no secret that in order to grow and scale, Alberta companies must go global. He emphasized that China is playing an increasingly prominent role in the world. TusStar Edmonton will make it easier for Canadian companies entering into China by breaking down cultural barriers which can hinder companies’ success.
Chris Lumb, CEO of TEC Edmonton is giving a speech
The most influential media in Canada, News from Global News, also reported this event.
About AlbertaAI
The Alberta Artificial Intelligence Association (AlbertaAI) is a non-profit, non-political organization founded by a group of passionate volunteers. Established in September 2017, in the City of Edmonton in the Province of Alberta, Canada, the Association strives to serve as a high-profile organization.
Relying on the world-class AI research at the University of Alberta and the profound resources from various industries, AlbertaAI has been growing rapidly. AlbertaAI has held AI lecture series, AI training camps and a lot of industry-academic cooperation projects. Professor Zhijun Qiu, Expert of Iintelligent Transportation from the University of Alberta, Dr. Anup Basu, Professor of Computing Science and Dr. Yuxi Li, Expert of deep learning serve as consultants of AlbertAI. Dr Lihang Ying, President of AlbertaAI is Tsinghua University alumni, University of Alberta alumni, PHD of computer vision. Members of AlbertaAI includes world-wide AI experts, world-wide business executives and excellent PhD students. The purpose of Albert AI is to provide a platform for nurturing talents, expanding contacts, exchanging cooperation, and developing talents.
Organizational Structure
- executive committees
- advisory committees
- advisory groups
- individual members
- corporate members
- special interest groups
- and regional clubs
We focus on:
- Lecture Series
- Training
- Special interest groups
- Cooperation and exchange
- Innovation support
- International conferences
- Innovation incubation.
SAS Canada Becomes AlbertaAI Annual “Visionaries” Sponsor
On March 15, SAS Canada becomes Alberta Artificial Intelligence Association (AlbertaAI) annual “Visionaries” sponsor, which is from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019. SAS, a leader in advanced analytics, AI and data management, has customers in 148 countries. In 1988, SAS open its physical operation in Toronto, Canada. SAS Canada now employs more than 300 people across the country at its Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto offices.
AlbertaAI is a non-profit, non-political organization founded in September 2017, in the City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Since inception, it has successfully hosted a series of AI lectures, talk from leading startup incubators, and beginner AI workshop. Within half a year, AlbertaAI has attracted more than 500 members and 150 volunteers. The mission of AlbertaAI is to contribute to the Alberta AI ecosystem and connect Alberta AI community to the world.
AlbertaAI collaborated with SAS Canada on the talk of “AI and how SAS is delivering an AI platform” in January 2018, which was great success. In the talk, SAS’s market-leading analytics platform with AI capabilities was introduced. Data scientists, analysts, developers, IT domain experts and executives can all generate data-driven insights – from the same, consistent data, fostering greater collaboration and driving innovations into production faster with this platform. An unprecedented number of audiences attend this event.
We are excited to work with the leading company in the AI frontier. And we are confident that this sponsorship and collaboration will greatly help the development of AlbertaAI and the AI community. It will also potentially promote diversity in the economy and help create high skilled jobs. We thank SAS Canada for their generous sponsorship and We look forward to deepen our collaboration in the future.