Montana INBRE’s Data Science Core and Montana Technological University are excited to host a Symposium on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Research and Higher Education. The symposium will take place on October 14th, 2024, from 9:00am-4:00pm on the Montana Tech campus in Butte and may be attended in-person or virtually. The event is free and open to the public, and a limited number of travel awards of up to $500.00 are available until the funding pool is exhausted.

Please register for this event by clicking the button below, where you also can indicate your interest in a travel award.

We've assembled an agenda that includes speakers and facilitator-led discussions on the evolution of AI in higher education and incorporation of these tools in research programs. A draft agenda can be found below, but please note that some details may change slightly prior to it being finalized.

General Information

Parking on Campus

In-person attendees may obtain a parking pass and park in any of the lots on Montana Tech’s campus including the visitor spaces. If the main lots are full, please refer to the map linked below to find directions to access the tiered parking lot. Registrants will receive follow-up details via email on obtaining a parking pass after registering for the event. Parking permits are only valid on the day of the event (October 14, 2024). You are responsible for printing your own parking permit and placing it on the dashboard of your vehicle so that it's visible to campus security.

Tiered parking map.

Conference Agenda

For remote attendees, please join us at the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85660178706?pwd=qIgbM4oXMNPKBlZqwIa9wfN9LEQczT.1 

AI Symposium Agenda
Time Event
8:30 - 9:00 am Welcome Reception
9:00 - 9:45 am AI in higher education and broad societal impacts
Keynote: Lee Rainie, Director of Imagining the Digital Future Center (Elon University)
9:45 - 11:00 am Discussion Panel on Ethics/Bias/Responsibility
Facilitators: Sara Mannheimer (Montana State University), Jason Clark (Montana State University), Dave Kuntz (University of Montana), Lee Rainie (Elon University)
11:10 am - 12:00 pm AI for Precision Agriculture
Giorgio Morales, Computer Science (Montana State University)
12:00 - 12:45 pm Networking lunch
12:45 - 1:45 pm Integrating AI to bridge biology and computer science education
Lucy Williams (University of Montana), Mark Grimes (University of Montana)
Rewriting Scholarship for Citizen Audiences: Improving Readability through Reinforcement Learning and Small Language Models

Jason Clark (Montana State University), Haining Wang (Montana State University)
1:45 - 2:30 pm Visualizing and gaining geometric insights into high dimensional data
Lucy Owen, Assistant Professor, Computer Science (University of Montana)
2:30 - 3:45 pm Discussion panel: What is Academic Writing in a World of AI?
Facilitators: Michelle Miley, Doug Downs and Will Fassbender (Montana State University)
4:00 pm Closing statements
Connect with us.

We can answer any questions you have.

Michele Hardy
Dean, College of Letters, Sciences & Professional Studies
406-496-4835
mhardy@mtech.edu