(above photo used with permission)
IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at IUPUI lecturer and Artificial Intelligence (AI) degree program director Fawzi BenMessaoud is no stranger to France or the city of Cannes, having lived there before. Now he has been invited to share his expertise in educational AI with a global audience at the second annual World AI Cannes Festival in February. BenMessaoud will be accompanied by Carson Strohm, a student and research assistant in the AI program at the Luddy School in Indianapolis.
“The World AI Cannes Festival 2023 to be held at the Palais des Festivals and Congrès in Cannes, France is the largest AI world conference where decision-makers and AI innovators meet. This WAICF is where the most promising innovations and technologies get into the spotlight, and where those who are currently building the world’s most game-changing AI strategies and use cases will be on stage. Fortunately, we have been invited to this world stage to present our SEIRI AI project and be one of the speakers. The invited speakers list includes some of the most prominent AI experts and the world’s best and brightest scientists along with global industry and education leaders and innovators in AI,” BenMessaoud said.
More than 2000 of AI Industry organizations and higher education institutions of all types from around the world will be attending and participating along with more than 100 AI exhibitors including the top providers such as IBM, Google, AMD, Intel, Amadeus, expert.ai, Huawei, etcetera. BenMessaoud said, “This conference provides an inclusive, high-quality professional development opportunity for our AI program and an opportunity to showcase and present our SEIRI AI project. Also attending to present at this conference is one of our student research assistants, Carson Strohm, giving him the opportunity to participate in the four AI workshops offered during the conference that will strengthen his AI knowledge and contribution to continue working with us on this project.”
Ben Messaoud helped establish the AI curriculum at Luddy IUPUI. Recently, he received a SEIRI grant for his project “Improving student engagement, connectedness, and learning equity through AI-enhanced teaching & learning environments.” The AI assistant, or digital human, assists instructors in and out of the classroom by communicating with students 24/7. The bot has been trained by BenMessaoud on his lectures as well as a database of other information pertinent to his classes.
With the expanding industry interest in AI tools, there is a growing need for experts like BenMessaoud to teach and develop the next generation of AI workers. BenMessaoud believes it is only a matter of time before humanity becomes more engaged with AI as it is adapted to human needs. He says AI can help people be more productive if managed correctly, expanding their ability to problem solve more quickly and efficiently.
About the Bachelor of Arts degree in Artificial Intelligence
This Bachelor of Arts degree in AI at Luddy IUPUI is tailored for students focused on human and applied data science. An internship option lets students work on AI-related projects with industry partners as part of their degree. Students earning our Bachelor of Arts in Artificial Intelligence will focus on human-centered computing, computational process automation, societal impact of AI, and applied data science. This degree prepares students for careers in which AI technologies are integrated and evaluated for human interaction and compliance, such as user experience (UX) engineer; AI assistant developer; applied AI/NLP (natural language processing) developer; and bot developer.
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