Science Dean Sally C. Morton to moderate panel on artificial intelligence and data science at technology conference
Virginia Tech College of Science Dean Sally C. Morton will serve as moderator of the final panel at the March 21 inaugural Impact AI (artificial intelligence) summit hosted by the Northern Virginia Technology Council.
According to the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), Impact AI “will showcase companies in our region that are making inroads in the advancement of technology around artificial intelligence.”
In announcing the event, NVTC said, “Artificial intelligence is gaining momentum in broad applications from manufacturing to health care, energy to telecommunications. The application of machine learning, natural language processing, and robotics to challenges in virtually every industry provides significant motivation for companies to exploit the competitive and strategic advantages that exist.”
The summit will take place from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Inova Center for Personalized Health Conference Center in Fairfax, Virginia. The event is free for press, but advanced registration is required.
Morton will serve as moderator of the final panel of the day, prior to closing remarks. Titled “Back to the Future!,” panelists are expected to “comment on the use cases and applications discussed in the previous panels. It will compare and contrast the AI techniques that were used and offer commentary on alternative approaches from the fields of AI, statistical learning, and data science.” The panel will then offer “views on future developments in these fields,” according to NVTC.
“Corporations, government agencies, and universities are breaking new ground every day when it comes to artificial intelligence and data science,” said Morton. “We can increasingly fine-tune how we take on the country and world’s biggest issues and use ever-more precise data to lead us to better decisions.”
Serving on the panel will be Jennifer Hill, vice president of data science for enterprise model risk at Capital One; Dov Levy, chief technology officer and co-founder of Dovel Technologies Inc.; Carolyn Nguyen, director of technology policy at Microsoft; and Russell Vane III, a senior data scientist with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Morton has an extensive career background in data science and statistics. Prior to Virginia Tech, she chaired the Department of Biostatistics in the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, where she also directed the Comparative Effectiveness Research Center in the Health Policy Institute. She also has served as vice president for statistics and epidemiology at RTI International and head of the RAND Corporation’s Statistics Group.
As dean of the College of Science, Morton is dedicated to furthering Virginia Tech’s strengths in education and research in data science, statistics, machine learning, and AI, especially as the university moves forward with its planned 1 million-square-foot Innovation Campus in Alexandria — a key element in Northern Virginia’s winning bid for Amazon’s new headquarters.
According to its website, the nonprofit NVTC is the membership and trade association for the technology community in Northern Virginia, serving approximately 1,000 companies from the technology industry, as well as service providers, universities, foreign embassies, nonprofits, and governmental agencies.
