Tutorials
2023 SACAIR Tutorials
On Tuesday, 5 December | Tutorial Day | SACAIR2023 is presenting three tutorials.
(The NITheCS Workshop and the IJCAI – AI for Good Symposium in Southern Africa are taking place in parallel)
Please scroll down for more information on the 2023 SACAIR Tutorials:
Time: 08:30
Venue: Lapa Side
Tutorial I
NVIDIA Fundamentals of Deep Learning | Dustin van der Haar | Associate Professor | University of Johannesburg
Bio: Dustin van der Haar
Dustin van der Haar is an Associate Professor in the Academy of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Johannesburg. His primary field of interest is human-centred artificial intelligence, where he uses pattern recognition for good. In other words, Dustin focuses on developing algorithms that solve text, signal and vision-based human problems that matter. Dustin is the recipient of multiple awards and publications nationally and internationally in pattern recognition, which encompasses the fields of biometrics, computer vision, and medical image analysis. From keeping the wrong people out or perfecting your Gwara Gwara, all the way to creating software that makes sure your koeksusters are not too brown and your recycling is in the right place.
Tutorial Content:
Discover how deep learning works through hands-on exercises in computer vision and natural language processing. You’ll train deep learning models from scratch, learning tools and tricks to achieve highly accurate results. You’ll also learn to leverage freely available, state-of-the-art pre-trained models to save time and get your deep learning application up and running quickly.
By participating in this workshop, you’ll:
- Learn the fundamental techniques and tools required to train a deep learning model
- Gain experience with common deep learning data types and model architectures
- Enhance datasets through data augmentation to improve model accuracy
- Leverage transfer learning between models to achieve efficient results with less data and computation
- Build confidence to take on your project with a modern deep learning framework
Prerequisites:
An understanding of fundamental programming concepts in Python, such as functions, loops, dictionaries, and arrays.
Duration:
Estimated: Full Day
Time: 10:30
Venue: Warthog
Tutorial II
CNN and Remote Sensing | Turgay Celik | Professor | University of the Witwatersrand
Bio: Turgay Celik
Dr Turgay Celik received his second PhD degree from the University of Warwick, Coventry, U.K., in 2011. He is currently a Professor of Digital Transformation and the Director of the Wits Institute of Data Science at the School of Electrical and Information Engineering. He also leads the Digital Fabrication Lab at Wits, sponsored by a Turkish State Agency. He was the founding director of the DSI’s National E-science Postgraduate Teaching and Training Platform. He developed several Honours and Masters’s programmes in big data, data science, artificial intelligence, and computer science in the Faculty of Science at Wits. He is the national coordinator of BRICS NU ITG on Computer Science and Information Security. He is involved in the Autonomous Vehicle Project of the Department of Transport. His research interests include theoretical and applied signal and image processing, computer vision, (explainable) artificial intelligence, data-driven optimal control, robotics, (health) data science, cybersecurity and remote sensing. He is involved with several national and international projects, from health to mining to climate change. His publications have received more than 7000 citations on Google Scholar Index with an h-index of 40 and an i-10 index of 76. He has been listed in the “Top 2% Scientists Worldwide Identified by Stanford University.” He is ranked 6th among the top 8 computer scientists in South Africa by Research.com. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Access, IET Electronics Letters, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, Springer Signal, Image and Video Processing, and BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making. He was recently appointed as the Subject Editor-in-Chief of the “Information and Communication” stream of IET Electronics Letters.
Duration:
Estimated: 3 Hrs
Time: 08:00 (Please note the early start) Venue: Warthog
Tutorial III
AI Safety | Benjamin Sturgeon | University of Cape Town | Leo Hyams | Fruitpunch AI
Bio: Benjamin Sturgeon and Leo Hyams
Benjamin Sturgeon is a masters student at the University of Cape Town studying AI safety with a focus on agent foundations. Currently, he is focused on exploring conceptions of agency through the lens of multi-agent reinforcement learning and Active Inference.
Leo Hyams is the South Africa Growth & Partnerships Lead of Fruitpunch AI, and is growing the responsible AI community through the Deep Learning IndabaX SA.
Tutorial Content:
AI safety is a growing field in the broader AI community that aims to deal with the question of how we ensure that the deployment of AI systems does not lead to bad outcomes for the human species and earth as a whole. It is a complex and interdisciplinary subject that spans policymaking, technical research, philosophy, sociology and the effective communication of these ideas to the public.
In our tutorial we aim to convey a picture of the key concerns and discussions occurring in this space, what the key cruxes are, and avenues of research that are worth pursuing. We will begin with a talk that outlines the above, and then break the session down into a more interactive setting with questions being raised from audience and generating key areas of discussion. We’ll use these areas of concern, which we’ll call cruxes, as the subjects of discussion groups which we will then split people into. The goal will be to inspire independent thinking on this subject while sharing knowledge specific to the needs of the participants.
We’ll finally wrap up with a sharing of findings from the discussion groups.
Prerequisites:
No prerequisites are required, and all levels of domain expertise are welcome. We encourage you to join, especially if you feel a sense of disagreement with the broader project.
Duration:
Estimated: 2 Hrs
