An Eye On The Future Of AI
Posted by The Pinoy Scientists Team on October 13, 2023
A mainstay of science fiction, the promise of artificial intelligence (or AI) has excited the imaginations of researchers and general audiences alike for decades. Who wouldn’t want a high-tech butler like Tony Stark’s JARVIS or a personal droid companion like BB8 or R2D2? A distant dream of speculative fiction no more, AI in the modern day is the science of building intelligent machines, spanning multiple disciplines from computer science to engineering leverage massive datasets for problem-solving.
Nowadays, AI appears to be entrenched across various aspects of our daily lives. From drafting reports and studying with the help of generative AI technologies (hello, ChatGPT!) to accelerating disease diagnosis, the applications of AI are seemingly endless. With the theme “AI on the Brink: Shaping the Future of Humanity,” World AI Week held from 9 to 13th October aims to highlight the latest developments advancing the role of AI in our future.
In this feature, we highlight three Pinoy Scientists—namely Miguel Feria, Alexa Abangan, and Christina Maher, PhD—who are shaping the future of humanity through their work in AI. Read below to learn more about what they do.
Miguel Feria: Wielding data to support young people impacted by cancer
In 2006, British mathematician Clive Humby famously proclaimed, “Data is the new oil.” Nearly 20 years later, data-driven decision making has impacted numerous facets of our lives—such as the algorithms that govern everything from our social media feeds to the ridesharing and delivery services we regularly use.
But data science can be wielded for less obvious applications too. Just ask Miguel Feria, who is currently a data scientist at the Sydney-based nonprofit organization Canteen Australia. At Canteen, Miguel uses insights gleaned from data science to better help young people and their families cope with cancer.
We first met Miguel in his capacity as an AI Researcher at Indigo Research, a startup in Quezon City, Philippines that focuses on AI-powered software. At Indigo Research, he developed core components for bilingual natural language processing models, trained student interns in data science, among other tasks.
Alexa Abangan: Investigating fishy behavior with the help of AI
Marrying a love for the sea with the “dry” data channels of AI appears to be a challenging task. Not so for Alexa Abangan, who is diving deep into the possible applications of AI within marine science.
Having first taken over in August 2021, Alexa is currently a PhD Candidate at the Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER) where she utilizes AI to study fish behavior and improve fishing equipment.
Her work with AI took off during her final master’s internship studying the effect of ocean acidification on corals. She and her team developed AI algorithms that calculated the dissolution rates of corals as caused by microorganisms living in the coral skeletons. Under her doctorate program, she is now employing AI techniques to both study fish behavior and improve fishing gear, a topic she explored thoroughly in her recent review article publication in Frontiers Marine Science.
Christina Maher, PhD: Leveraging machine learning to model motor neuron disease
Using her passion for helping others and multidisciplinary background, Christina Maher, PhD is paving the way for personalized medicine through machine learning for motor neuron diseases.
During her takeover last April of 2023, Christina was a PhD candidate in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney. There, she wielded AI to map the brain’s information highways and explore brain activity.
As a postdoctoral research fellow at the same institution, Christina continues to apply biomedical engineering tools—including computational modelling and AI—to brain data to improve human health. In her research, she looks specifically at the brain’s structure and function to understand and treat conditions like epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. Together with collaborators, Christina is also validating a model with the potential to enhance the resolution of standard MRI scans.
Find out more about other Pinoy Scientists leading the way across diverse fields.