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IM Public Lecture: Adopting Responsible AI in Practice (A. Casovan)

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The Information Management Public Lectures give attention to exciting advances in research and professional practice. The topics are diverse reflecting the importance and global extent of Information Management in today’s society. The lectures are free of charge and open to all, unless otherwise stated.

All 2021-2022 lectures will be held virtually on Microsoft Teams. Click here for the full schedule. Lecture will be recorded and posted on our YouTube channel.

Ashley Casovan
Responsible AI Institute

Lecture details
Monday, November 29th, 2021
5:30 to 6:30pm
Microsoft Teams (click link at above date/time to join)

Abstract: AI & ML have become the frontier for digital transformation. However, many companies are struggling with getting real business value and many ML projects are getting stalled due to risk and compliance concerns around black-box AI and scaling bias. 96% of organizations run into problems with AI and machine learning projects due to lack of trust in data and models across siloed functions according to a Dimensional Research report and 90 percent of all machine learning models never make it into production, according to VentureBeat. This session will discuss the important role of Responsible AI Framework and tools to drive end to end data and model transparency and trust. Topics will include real-life examples and challenges from early adopters on driving Responsible AI implementation to improve AI governance and control and accelerate adoption of Enterprise AI.

Bio: Ashley is an engaged and innovative leader who has always had a deep interest in advancing the public good. Recently leaving her long-standing career in the public service where she was last Director of Data and Digital for the Government of Canada, she has now taken on the role of Executive Director of Responsible AI Institute, a non-profit dedicated to creating practical tools to ensure the responsible use of AI. Throughout her career she has worked at the intersection of innovative technology and data, and its impact on providing better information and services. As a recognized leader in the social tech community she has developed a strong reputation for developing workable governance for data, artificial intelligence, and open source tools. Her work and ability to bring experts together to solve important challenges has led to meaningful change in government and beyond. Her work helps to inform government, industry, and academic research.

She is currently a member of the following initiatives:

  • Chair, Responsible AI Certification Working Group, World Economic Forum
  • OECD’s Network of Experts, AI Policy Observatory
  • Canada’s AI Strategy Council Public Awareness Working Group
  • The Canadian Data Governance Collaboration Steering Committee
  • Responsible AI standards –  ISO JTC1/SC42, IEEE, CIO Strategy Council
  • The Open Community for Ethics in Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (OCEANIS)
  • Advisor to InnSoTech project for Alberta “HelpSeekers” Initiative
  • Member of Advisory Board for NSERC research project at University of Toronto, “CREATE Responsible AI”
  • Industry Advisor for independent study, “Current Health Regulations and their impact on AI,” University of Texas, Faculty of Law

Job Posting: Lecturer or Assistant Professor (probationary tenure-track)

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SIM invites applications for the following position (for full details and to apply, visit PeopleAdmin):

Applications close January 31st, 2022.

Position Title Lecturer or Assistant Professor in School of Information Management
Posting Number F263P
Type of position Tenure Stream
Department/Unit Information Management
Location Halifax
About the opportunity
The School of Information Management (SIM) invites applications for a probationary tenure-track position at the rank of Lecturer or Assistant Professor commencing July 1st 2022 (negotiable).
This position combines teaching, research, and administrative responsibilities. The School seeks candidates with a strong interest in, and capacity for, interdisciplinary research. Candidates will be expected to teach in at least two programs at the graduate or undergraduate levels. Professional information management experience will be an asset.
The successful candidate will have a PhD (completed or near completion) in information management or a related discipline, with a demonstrated record of success and interest in research and/or teaching in equity, diversity, inclusion, and/or accessibility as related to the information professions.  Potential areas of research and/or teaching interest include, but are not limited to:
●        Indigeneity, traditional knowledge, and the TRC Calls to Action
●        Indigenous research collaborations
●        Antiracism
●        Accessible design
●        Bias in information systems
●        Gender, sexual orientation, and/or gender expression
●        Other relevant areas including human rights, social justice, and social inclusion
The SIM (http://sim.management.dal.ca) offers two graduate programs: the American Library Association-accredited Master of Information (MI) program, and the mid-career blended learning Master of Information Management (MIM) program. At the undergraduate level, the School provides core and elective courses in the Bachelor of Management program, delivered collaboratively with the three other schools in the Faculty of Management. The School also participates in Dalhousie’s Interdisciplinary PhD program and is developing a PhD in Information.
The SIM is part of the interdisciplinary Faculty of Management (http://www.dal.ca/faculty/management.html), which also includes the School of Public Administration, the School for Resource and Environmental Studies, and the Rowe School of Business. The Faculty of Management’s mission is to offer people a world-class set of management skills and experiences that organizations value and prepare them to work with, inspire and lead others to tackle complex challenges and achieve responsible results. A commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, accessibility, and decolonization is among our core values. We seek an additional colleague who will contribute to, and thrive in, this environment.
Dalhousie University (http://www.dal.ca/) is one of Canada’s leading teaching and research universities, with four professional faculties; a Faculty of Graduate Studies; and a diverse complement of graduate programs. Inter-faculty collaborative and interactive research is encouraged, as is cooperation in teaching. Dalhousie University inspires students, faculty, staff and alumni to make significant contributions regionally, nationally, and to the world.
Dalhousie University is located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Halifax is a vibrant capital city and is the business, academic, and medical centre for Canada’s east coast.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority. Dalhousie University is committed to fostering a collegial culture grounded in diversity and inclusiveness. The university encourages applications from Indigenous persons, persons with a disability, racially visible persons, women, persons of a minority sexual orientation and/or gender identity, and all candidates who would contribute to the diversity of our community. For more information, please visit www.dal.ca/hiringfordiversity.

Applications should be submitted by January 31, 2022 through PeopleAdmin (https://dal.peopleadmin.ca/postings/7823).

Research News: November 2021

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We are happy to share the following recent research accomplishments by SIM faculty/students:

From Dr. Colin Conrad:

  • I was awarded a SSHRC Insight Development Grant titled “What is the role of mind wandering in work productivity when using remote workplace platforms?”. We are currently exploring this question using mixed methods (questionnaires, EEG, field studies) with a diverse team consisting of SIM students, Psychology & Neuroscience students, and colleagues in Germany.
  • I had a cool paper titled “Measuring mind wandering during online lectures assessed with EEG” which was published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

From Dr. Louise Spiteri:

  • Presenting a keynote paper Indigenizing Knowledge Organization Sytems and the Semantic Web at the IV Seminário do Grupo de Pesquisa MHTX – 2021. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) | Escola de Ciência da Informação (ECI), Brazil, November 25. This paper focuses on Indigenous Knowledge Organization (IKO, which is an emerging field of study focused on the protocols and methods of describing, naming, co-locating, and providing access to objects and materials that are of importance to Indigenous ways of knowing.

From Dr. Philippe Mongeon:

  • Mongeon, P., Brown, A., Dhaliwal, R., Hill, J., & Matthews, A. (2021). A bibliometric analysis of race-related research in LIS. Education for Information, 37(2), 231–246.
  • Aagaard, K., Mongeon, P., Ramos-Vielba, I., & Thomas, D. A. (2021). Getting to the bottom of research funding: Acknowledging the complexity of funding dynamics. PLOS ONE, 16(5), e0251488.
  • Ferreira, M. R., Mongeon, P., & Costas, R. (2021). Large-scale comparison of authorship, citations, and tweets of Web of Science authors. Journal of Altmetrics, 4(1), 1.
  • Mongeon, P., Siler, K., Archambault, A., Sugimoto, C., & Larivière, V. (2021). Collection Development in the Era of Big Deals. College & Research Libraries, 82(2), 219.Papers
  • Grant: Mongeon, P., & Sauvé, J.-S. (2021-2022). Breaking the research silos: improving interactions between LIS academics and practitioners. SSHRC Connection Grant.

From Dr. Mike Smit:

From Dr. Bertrum MacDonald:

  • New Publications
    • Moreland, H. R., De Santo, E. M., & MacDonald, B. H. (2021). Understanding the role of information in marine policy development: Establishing a coastal marine protected area in Nova Scotia, Canada. FACETS, 6, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2020-0109
    • Black, F. A., Grek Martin, J. M., & MacDonald, B. H. (2021). Geographic information systems and book history. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Literature ([32] p.). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.1151
  • Conference Session: Dr. Patricia Manuel, School of Planning, and I organized and presented a session at the international MARE, People and the Sea conference, entitled, “Out of the Blue”: Integrating Land and Marine Planning for Coastal Community Resilience.” The speakers included Daniel Martinez Calderon, Dalhousie Interdisciplinary PhD student, and Monica DeVidi, Dalhousie Master of Planning student, both of which are co-supervised by Dr. Manuel and me. Additional speakers were based in London, Ireland, and Norway. A report about the conference session is posted at https://coastalfutures.ca
  • Conference Papers
    • Melnick, K., Moharana, T., Toupin, R., Gone, P., MacDonald, B. H., & Mongeon, P. (2021). The intersection of shark research, policy, and the public: A bibliometric and altmetric view. Canadian Association for Information Science Annual Conference, Edmonton, 7-11 May 2021. https://www.cais2021.ca/talk/27.melnick/
    • Mongeon, P., Moharana, T., Melnick, K., Toupin, R., Gone, P., & MacDonald, B. H. (2021). Advancing marine conservation through understanding the distribution of media and scholarly attention across shark research communities. Coastal Zone Canada Conference, Iqualuit, Nunavut, Canada, 13-16 June 2021. https://www.coastalzonecanada.org/czc2021/
  • Conference Posters
    • Ryder-Burbidge, S., MacDonald, B. H., & Soomai, S. S. (2021). A coastal case study: Can cultural ecosystem services frameworks accurately interpret plain language survey responses. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Annual Science Conference, Virtual. 6-10 September 2021. https://www.ices.dk/events/asc/ASC2021/Pages/default.aspx
    • MacDonald, B. H., De Santo, E. M., Mongeon, P., Soomai, S. S., Stewart, I., & Wells, P. G. (2021). The critical need to understand barriers to the flow of information in science-policy interfaces. International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA) Conference, Montreal, 30 August – 2 September 2021. https://www.ingsa.org/ingsa2021/
    • Cadman, R., Martin, C., Moreland, H. R., & MacDonald, B. H. (2021). Engaging stakeholders: Exploring participation in environmental governance. Coastal Zone Canada Conference, Iqualuit, Nunavut, Canada, 13-16 June 2021. https://www.coastalzonecanada.org/czc2021/
    • MacDonald, B. H., De Santo, E. M., Soomai, S. S., & Wells, P. G. (2021). Advancing coastal and marine management and conservation through understanding enablers and barriers in the use and influence of research information. Coastal Zone Canada Conference, Iqualuit, Nunavut, Canada, 13-16 June 2021. https://www.coastalzonecanada.org/czc2021/
    • Martinez Calderon, D., Manuel, P., & MacDonald, B. H. (2021). Towards meaningful engagement of stakeholders in marine spatial planning: Five key elements of effective management. Coastal Zone Canada Conference, Iqualuit, Nunavut, Canada, 13-16 June 2021. https://www.coastalzonecanada.org/czc2021/
  • Current research projects: In collaboration with the California Ocean Science Trust, the Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI – www.eiui.ca) research team has launched a project to investigate the information seeking activities of staff of the California Legislature (who report to Assembly Members and Senators) that deal with coastal and marine subjects. Tamanna Moharana, MI 2021, is assisting with this project. The EIUI research team is also completing a synthesis analysis of numerous case studies EIUI has conducted over the past several years to draw out common themes about information pathways in science-policy interfaces. Lisa Long, MI 2021, is assisting with this project. The results of these initiatives will highlight the importance of understanding how reliable information is used for policy and management regarding marine environmental sustainability. The Ocean Frontier Institute research group on Marine Spatial Planning, co-led by Dr. Patricia Manuel, Dalhousie School of Planning, and me, is conducting research about information activities in community decision-making processes and the role of municipal governments in marine spatial planning.
From CAUL/CBUA, re. Lindsay McNiff (SIM liaison librarian & instructor):
  • Lindsay McNiff, Learning & Instruction Librarian, Killam Memorial Library Dalhousie University; and Nicole Carter, Reference & Research Librarian, Patrick Power Library, Saint Mary’s University, have been awarded $1,000 to help support their project, Investigating the experiences of academic librarians on temporary contracts in Canada before and during COVID-19. In their proposal, Lindsay and Nicole propose to investigate the demographics of those academic librarians engaged in precarious work in Canada (including age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, years since graduation), in what postsecondary environments they have been employed precariously (college, university, size of institution), the nature of these contracts (reason, duration), and some key questions about their experience in these positions, including those raised in prior literature around training, socialization, and supervision. This is the first Canada-wide survey to investigate these questions with a focus on academic librarians with temporary contracts. The study will also zero in on how COVID-19 has affected the working life of librarians holding temporary contracts in academic libraries. The CAUL-CBUA Collaborative Research Grant is intended to encourage collaborative research by librarians and staff working in academic libraries in the region through projects which involve structured, evidence-based research. We are pleased to continue offering support to researchers in the region and look forward to the results of Lindsay and Nicole’s study.

One-minute meeting with MIM alum, Steve Morley

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Re-posted from Dal News. Click here to read the full post:

Today’s meeting is with Steve Morley, an IT architect with Medical Information Technology (MedIT) in Dal’s Faculty of Medicine.

What’s your favourite thing about working at Dal?

The team of people that I get to work with each day are fantastic. When I started working in the Medical School I had no idea I would be a “lifer.” After I had been there a year, Sharon Forward, the Director of Medicine Admissions said “just wait you’ll be here in 10 years before you know it.” She took me to lunch when I had been there that long. Our department spends our time supporting the entire Faculty of Medicine community. One of the biggest projects our team was ever part of was the opening of the Saint John satellite medical school for New Brunswick students. It took our entire team to get that launched, and the quality of this program is a testament to the team. I am very proud to be part of that group.

What’s the most surprising thing we might see on your resume/cv?

That I was made an honorary classmate of the Medical School classes of 2006 and 2007. (See answer to the next question to learn how that happened).

What’s the strangest job experience you’ve ever had?

Prior to the pandemic, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and other collaboration platforms weren’t in widespread use. One of the strangest things I had to do happened when a local student got the mumps. We had to set up a computer in Theatre A of the Tupper Link with a special laptop with a microphone and speakers, and then I delivered a computer to the student’s home so she could participate in class.

I suspect that act may have to contributed to me being named as an honorary member of her graduating class. I got to go to the Medical School Gala to accept the award. Ironically, my wife wasn’t able to go because she had been teaching a session to the College of Pharmacy and was exposed to someone who had mumps. She had never had the mumps so was quarantined at home for 2 weeks. I like to think my grandfather was pleased. He graduated from the Dalhousie Medical School in 1944.

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