SCS Faculty and Staff Participate in "Summer Davos"

Byron SpiceMonday, June 26, 2017

SCS will have strong representation at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions, convening this week in Dalian, China.

SCS faculty members Illah Nourbakhsh, Tom Mitchell and James McCann and research programmer Gabriel O'Donnell will be part of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions, convening this week in Dalian, China, with the theme "Achieving Inclusive Growth in the Fourth Industrial Revolution."

Almost 2,000 people from 90 countries are expected at the meeting June 27–29, often called "Summer Davos," in reference to the WEF's famous annual winter meeting in Switzerland. This summer meeting will feature the next generation of fast-growing enterprises shaping the future of business and society, and leaders from major multinationals, government, media, academia and civil society.

Laura Dabbish, associate professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, and Louis-Philippe Morency, assistant professor in the Language Technologies Institute, along with the Psychology Department's Timothy Verstynen, will attend the meeting as part of the WEF's Young Scientists program, which brings together what it describes as the most forward-thinking and advanced young scientific minds in the world.

Nourbakhsh, professor of robotics, and O'Donnell, principal research programmer and analyst in the Robotics Institute, will make multiple presentations during the three days at the Global Situation Space exhibit, combining NASA time-lapse satellite imagery, geospatial and econometric data with predictive modelling to explore such issues as emerging megacities, man-made changes to the oceans and trade with China.

Nourbakhsh's CREATE Lab and its spinoff BirdBrain Technologies will be part of a workshop on building interactive sculptural robots. He is also contributing to sessions on the fourth industrial revolution, the digital economy, the creative economy and platforms for artificial intelligence.

Mitchell, professor of machine learning, will participate on a panel addressing how the social safety net can respond to the fourth industrial revolution. He recently co-chaired a study of the future of work for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. He also will make a presentation on how Big Data can impact policymaking.

McCann, assistant professor of robotics, will be part of a CMU panel on the Future of Production that includes Erica Fuchs from the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, and Madeline Gannon of the Frank-Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry.

For More Information

Byron Spice | 412-268-9068 | bspice@cs.cmu.edu