Marjan of McMaster University

This talk highlights the importance of understanding and addressing ethical considerations in AI deployment. It begins by highlighting the widespread integration of AI into various aspects of society and emphasizes the need for responsible AI development aligned with ethical principles. The talk explores key ethical considerations such as bias and fairness, transparency, accountability, privacy, explainability, safety and security. It addresses issues such as biases in facial recognition technology, adversarial attacks, and hiring bias in AI-based systems through discussions and examples. The talk concludes by summarizing the key points and explaining a framework to facilitate the implementation of ethical AI in engineering projects.

Biography:

Marjan Alavi is the Chair of the Manufacturing Engineering Master of Engineering (MEME) Program at W. Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology (SEPT) at McMaster University, Canada. She is an Assistant Professor at SEPT teaching in two Bachelor of Technology (Btech) programs: Automation Engineering Technology Program and Software Technology - Degree Completion Program (DCP). She is also Associate Member of the Mechanical Engineering and Computer and Electrical Engineering Departments at McMaster University.

Marjan received her B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering (Control and Instrumentations) from K.N. Toosi University of Technology and her M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering (Micro- and Nano- Electronic Devices) from Sharif University of Technology. She earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. She was a recipient of the Singapore International Graduate Award (SINGA) 2010. In 2015, she joined the Energy Systems Group, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Her research interests include model-based and data-driven approaches for the diagnosis and prognosis of hybrid systems.

Marjan is a professional Engineer in the province of Ontario, Canada. She has several years of industrial experience as an Electrical Engineer. Marjan has taught several Electrical Engineering courses at the College and University levels, including Digital Electronics, Embedded Systems, the Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber-physical Systems, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Smart Cities.  

Dr.  Alavi is a senior IEEE member. She has served on the IEEE Toronto Executive Committee as the Treasurer for four years (2016-2020). She has also served as the Vice Chair of the IEEE Industrial Applications Society 2015 and the Vice Chair of Women in Engineering (WIE) 2018-2022.  She served as a technical reviewer of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics and is currently the Guest Editor of Frontiers on the Internet of Things. Dr. Alavi is currently the Chair of the Women in Engineering Affinity Group in Hamilton Section, Canada, and the Vice Chair of the Membership Services Committee, IEEE Canada / Region 7.