Conference on artificial intelligence, machine learning begins at Punjabi University

Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 2

The department of computer science engineering, Punjabi University, started a two-day international conference on applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning here. Prof S Anantha Ramakrishna, Director, CSIR-CSIO, (Central Scientific Instruments Organisation) was the chief guest during the inaugural ceremony on Thursday.

He said in coming times artificial intelligence and machine learning would have multifarious and pervasive applications in different fields that would directly impact the common man. He emphasised on the need of building a machine learning model to train unmanned vehicles. “The artificial intelligence and machine learning can play a key role in the area for defence applications”, he said and mentioned various initiatives taken by the Central Government in the regard.

He said the increase in availability of inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provided an opportunity for wildlife experts to use aerial sensor platforms to monitor wildlife and tackle challenges to accurately estimate species abundance. He added, “The use of UAVs, that can perform flight paths autonomously and acquire geo-referenced sensor data, has increased sharply for agricultural, environmental and wildlife monitoring applications.”

Department head Raman Maini said, “Data science is heading towards a new technological paradigm shift where one can teach machines to learn from existing data and derive a variety of useful insights. Machine learning has become one of the most prominent areas of research in computer science, information technology and all other disciplines.”

Punjabi University Vice-Chancellor Arvind said the artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies would better the healthcare facilities and help in combating such types of situations in future.

Prof Vincenzo Piuri, University of Milan, Italy, and Prof Radu Prodan, Institute for Information Technology, University of Klagenfurt, Austria, who joined the conference through online mode, were also part of the event.

More than 300 research scholars and teachers are participating in the conference.