Keeping up with the Frontier: The Implications of AI Tools for Continuing Education

Join us for a panel discussion with leading industry experts Peter Chen (Google Research) and Ryan Cooper (Inverted AI) on the effects of AI tools on the future of computer science education. We look forward to their insights on how large language models and other AI tools have changed how current industry programmers see and market their expertise in computer science and in collaboration with other industries. We will also explore how future programmers still working toward their degree can keep up with the evolving frontier of their field, and how generative models may expand access to different educational tools for previously marginalized groups.

Peter Chen is a software engineer focused on machine-learning and systems. Previous to Google Research, he worked stints at Google Cloud and Arista Networks. Before that he was a graduate student at UBC and completed his undergraduate degree at University of Toronto Engineering Science. Currently his work involves infusing multimodality, memory and reasoning into large language models. He mostly knows a little of everything and not a lot of anything.

Ryan Cooper is a business operations generalist that has spent the past six years working with startups to develop and commercialize novel technology. He currently serves as Head of Finance for Vancouver-based startup Inverted AI, where he leads strategic funding and partnership initiatives to support the development of predictive human behavioural models for autonomous vehicle simulation. After a stint in Canada’s energy industry as the co-founder of an AI-powered analytics firm, Ryan joined the ML & Quantum-Inspired Optimization division at 1QBit, where he co-ordinated applied research projects for enterprise clients. In 2020, Ryan joined the 1QBit Healthcare team to aid in the development of AI medical devices, where he helped launch a multi-year, $13.5M federally funded consortium project shortly after a successful spin-off from 1QBit. At the newly formed Synthesis Health, Ryan oversaw a broad portfolio of product, legal, and compliance operations as Technology Operations Manager and Chief of Staff to the General Counsel. In his spare time, Ryan is a project manager for the National AI Council for Healthcare (NAICH), a volunteer organization of Canadian healthcare, policy and technology experts dedicated to fostering the safe and effective adoption of AI-based medical devices. Ryan holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Victoria, where he specialized in Entrepreneurship and somehow tricked UVic into letting him spend a semester in Greece studying bronze-age archaeology.

This Leading Scholars series brings together leading experts from diverse fields to explore the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the context of education at UBC. Through a multidisciplinary lens, this series aims to delve into the promises and challenges that AI presents, beginning with an introduction to generative models for text and images. Then, through a series of panels, organizers will probe into the incorporation of AI in future workflow, on how recent generative models have changed the concept of lifelong learning, the impact of AI on our interactions with images across disciplines, and AI’s potential for language learning, revitalization and reclamation from an Indigenous perspective.

Series Conveners: Anwar Ahmed, Language and Literacy Education; Tamara Etmannski, Civil Engineering; Christopher Hammerly, Linguistics; Giulia Toti, Computer Science; Lily Wenya Zhou, Neurology; Ignacio Barbeito, Forest Resources Management; Katherine Wagner, Economics; Shoufu Yin, History; Thomas Pasquier, Computer Science