Machine Learning and Data Analytics Symposium held in Qatar

Machine Learning and Data Analytics Symposium held in Qatar

Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), a national research institute under Hamad bin Khalifa University, and Boeing [NYSE:BA] completed the third annual Machine Learning and Data Analytics Symposium (MLDAS) in Qatar. Open to students, researchers and industry experts, the event took place on March 14 and 15 in Doha, Qatar, and featured top global experts discussing applications, recent advances and new solutions in the fields of machine learning and data analytics.

“Our goal has been to share knowledge about machine learning and data analytics and provide university students with first-hand experiences that equip them to be part of the next wave of innovators in this field,” said Bernard Dunn, President of Boeing Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. “We have helped contribute to building an innovative future generation in the country.”

The first day of the symposium was focused on applied data analytics and machine learning. There were several talks on intelligent data analytics led by Chris Jermaine from Rice University and Cheng Soon Ong from Data 61/National ICT Australia (NICTA). The second day of the symposium was focused on healthcare and how machine learning can be applied to aircraft maintenance and airspace procedures. Hugh Durrant-Whyte from the University of Sydney, a pioneer of autonomous flight and former director of NICTA, gave a talk on “Data, Knowledge and Discovery: Machine Learning meets Natural Science”, while Byron Wallace from the University of Texas at Austin spoke about machine learning for automating clinical evidence.

Discussing future trends at the symposium that will shape all walks of global and Qatari life, Hugh Durrant-Whyte, University of Sydney said: “In order to optimise infrastructure we are going to need more computers and less concrete. Ultimately, this will mean that industry leaders will own infrastructure platforms. For example, in the transport industry, an automobile company that develops and owns the platform in its sector will ultimately rise above and shape the competition. A current example is Google owning the Android platform in the communication industry. Someday, Apple may own the automotive industry platform.”

“The remarkable improvement in the quality of research submissions and the international reputation of the invited speakers clearly indicates that MLDAS has established itself as a premier symposium on Data Science. This is a huge success for Qatar and the region,” said symposium co-chair Dr. Sanjay Chawla from Qatar Computing Research Institute .

 This symposium continued with the focus on healthcare and saw discussions on applied machine learning for systems health management, trying to address some of today’s research questions, and to discuss the open questions posed by real-world applications. Topics such as human-system interactive learning, machine learning for streaming data, and integrating learning with other artificial intelligence techniques such as knowledge representation and reasoning dominated the talks and technical discussions.

Dr. Dragos Margineantu from Boeing Research & Technology and co-chair of the symposium added: “When we organised the first MLDAS three years ago, we wanted to drive conversations and innovations in the machine learning and data analytics field. Since that time, we have seen unprecedented growth and, though we’re just one piece of a huge field I’m proud that we’ve been involved and helped connect respected researchers with practitioners and students to further advance research in the fields of machine learning and data analytics.”

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