Autonomous Agents for Social Good 2024 - Keynotes

Keynote Speakers

	Amulya Yadav – Director, The RAISE Lab @ Penn State University Amulya Yadav is the PNC Technologies Career Development Assistant Professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University, where he directs the RAISE Lab @ Penn State (Responsible AI for Social Emancipation). He also serves as Associate Director (Programs) at the Center for Socially Responsible AI @ Penn State, and as affiliate faculty at the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society at USC. Prior to Penn State, he received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from USC advised by Milind Tambe (now at Harvard). Broadly speaking, he conducts use-inspired research in AI, ML and Game Theory to tackle pressing problems faced by marginalized communities around the world. Currently, his research group is focused on tackling problems faced by two marginalized communities around the world: (i) homeless youth in North America; and (ii) poor smallholder farmers in East Africa & South Asia. Among other things, they have developed HEALER and CHANGE, two AI decision support systems which can reduce incidence of HIV (and other STIs) among homeless youth in America. They have also recently developed CORTA, an AI decision support system which can help non-profit organizations in mitigating illicit substance abuse among homeless youth. For low-resource farmers, they have developed AI-driven profit prediction systems for Indian farmers which can help in the economic empowerment of these farmers. They have also developed decision support systems which can aid in the social empowerment of poor farmers in Chattisgarh, India. Their research is in real world use in the form of decision aids to assist Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations. For example, HEALER and CHANGE have been deployed at three non-profits in Los Angeles: Safe Place for Youth, My Friend's Place and Los Angeles LGBT center.
	Kai Wang – Assistant professor @ Georgia Tech Kai Wang is a tenure-track assistant professor at Georgia Tech CSE. He recently attained his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Harvard University. His research interests include multi-agent systems, computational game theory, machine learning and optimization, and their applications in public health and conservation. One of Kai's key technical contributions includes decision-focused learning, which integrates machine learning and optimization to strengthen learning performance. His algorithm is currently deployed to an Indian maternal and child health mobile program and has been used by more than 280,000 people with a 31% improvement in user engagement. Kai is recognized with the Siebel Scholars award and the best paper runner-up award at AAAI 2021.
	Madeline Newman – Executive Director, AI Forum New Zealand / Te Kahui Atamai Iahiko o Aotearoa Madeline joined the AI Forum as Executive Director in the first half of 2022. She has extensive experience in strategy, transformational change and helping people to see the potential that innovative technologies bring. "I am very excited be leading the AI Forum of New Zealand as Executive Director at such a pivotal time. We have a really engaged Executive Council and the work our members are producing is essential for a prosperous, equitable and inclusive future Aotearoa". Originally from New Zealand, Madeline spent 20 years working with technologies including AI in the mental health, financial services and regulatory sectors in the UK. Her more recent work included helping to shape and deliver the Financial Conduct Authority’s internationally renowned RegTech innovation programme; and Head of Innovation and Product for a science based digital mental health service. She brings new thinking and experience to our AI community.