York Circle Lecture Series
Dive into a variety of interesting topics with York’s leading faculty members. Join us at Keele Campus on May 11 for an in-person discussion about personalized health care, artificial intelligence and more.
The York Circle Lecture Series is presented in collaboration with our York Circle Academic Chair, Jennifer Steeves (BA ’94, MA ’96, PhD ’01), Associate Vice-President Research (AVPR). Held four times a year, this event is open to our alumni community and friends.
Tickets are $5 and include coffee, light snacks and lunch.
Date: Saturday, May 11, 2024
Time: 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Location: Life Sciences Building, Keele Campus, York University
Agenda:
- Registration, coffee and light snacks: 9 – 9:45 a.m.
- Opening remarks: 9:45 – 10 a.m.
- First session (concurrent – choose one): 10 – 11 a.m.
- Break: 11 – 11:20 a.m.
- Second session (concurrent – choose one): 11:20 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
- Lunch: 12:30 – 1 p.m.
- Event ends: 1 p.m.
The following speakers will be featured. Attendees will have the opportunity to choose one lecture from each session during the registration process.
First Sessions:
Ian Stedman (MA ’09, PHD ’20), Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy and Administration, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Personalized healthcare: a pipe dream or a real possibility?
Hospitals are overwhelmed, doctors and nurses are in short supply, and private sector tools and services are slowly taking over as our first point of contact when we have healthcare needs. How can things improve? This presentation will discuss how law and policy must be considered if we are to transform our healthcare systems into ones that strive for personalization by utilizing technologies like genomics, artificial intelligence and wearable devices.
Stephanie Gora, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering
Assessing the potential impacts of climate change on boil water advisories and other indicators of water safety in Canada
A boil water advisory (BWA) informs the public that there is an increased level of risk associated with their water and that they should boil it before consuming. Studies show that small communities in Canada are particularly likely to experience repeat and long-term BWAs. In order to determine the most common causes of BWAs, a study was conducted to analyze anonymized data from public drinking water systems across Canada. This presentation will discuss the results of a recent study conducted, using more detailed and targeted data from Newfoundland and Labrador to determine the most common causes of BWAs.
Second Sessions:
Uyen T. Nguyen, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Lassonde School of Engineering
Machine vs. machine: fighting bots, spam and clickbait with artificial intelligence
Smartphones, internet connectivity, social media and other technological advances have brought people closer together, enabling instant and efficient communication and supporting e-commerce globally. However, these technological tools also allow spammers and scammers to easily target large populations of social media and internet users. This presentation will discuss recent research in using artificial intelligence, specifically machine learning and natural language processing, to detect Twitter bots, SMS spam and clickbait. The proposed solutions assist social networks and service providers in protecting users against these security threats.
