Québec City, May 1, 2024 - Obvia is proud to announce two new recipients of postdoctoral fellowships as part of its Emerging Talent Fellowship Program. Starting in 2019, this program highlights early-career researchers in the field of the societal impacts of AI and digital.
Joy Hutchinson and Aude Marie Marcoux each receive $50,000 in Obvia funding to support their innovative, interdisciplinary research, and will begin their work on Obvia research teams at the start of the 2024 academic year. Their postdoctoral projects, focusing on citizen deliberation and sustainable food, will make a significant contribution to Obvia's scientific objectives.
Obvia and IVADO are pleased to join forces to enhance this funding. IVADO is offering an additional grant of $25,000 for their contributions to IAR3 programming aimed at developing robust, reasoning and responsible artificial intelligence (AI). This contribution reflects the shared aspirations of both organizations to support researchers who stand out for their exceptional career paths, and who contribute to the development of responsible AI with beneficial societal impacts. A new competition is currently open under the Fellowships for Emerging Scientists program. Obvia invites the next generation of scientists in its community to apply by May 13, 2024.
Winners and their projects
Aude Marie Marcoux, a doctoral candidate at UQAM, will conduct a research project entitled "Collecting and sharing personal data via smartphones: results of a citizen deliberation". Ms. Marcoux will carry out her work at Université Laval under the supervision of Lyse Langlois, Professor in the Department of Industrial Relations and General Manager of Obvia.
Her project asks what is acceptable (or not) when it comes to the collection and sharing of personal data collected on individuals' smartphones by AIS? To answer this under-investigated question, the method of citizen deliberation will be mobilized as an epistemological and methodological choice within the framework of this qualitative and inductive research conducted with a diverse group of citizens. The citizen recommendations resulting from this project will aim to legitimize, in the Quebec societal context, political and legal provisions, as well as guidelines for the private sector, linked to the principle of protecting citizens' privacy in the face of AIS intrusion.
Joy Hutchinson, a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo, will lead a research project entitled "Harnessing the potential of machine learning to help promote sustainable dietary patterns". Ms. Hutchinson will conduct her work under the supervision of Benoît Lamarche, Professor at the School of Nutrition, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Université Laval, and member of Obvia.
Improving the sustainability of people's eating habits can contribute simultaneously to human health and the health of the planet. However, many known and unknown factors can influence a person's adherence to a sustainable diet.
This project will apply machine learning models to identify the key factors that help people adhere to sustainable dietary patterns. The project will draw on an existing cohort of Quebec adults participating in the NutriQuébec project. This research will provide essential information to alleviate barriers to sustainable eating in order to improve human and planetary health.
