Adam Czajka, associate professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame, has been appointed the director of the AI Trust and Reliability (AITAR) Lab within the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society.
In harmony with the initiatives of the University’s strategic framework and the goals of the Institute, the new lab expands the artificial intelligence (AI) research footprint at Notre Dame to include safe and secure ways of developing AI applications that directly interact with and serve people. Specifically, AITAR consists of an interdisciplinary research focus to advance society’s trust in using biometric and AI-assisted systems that promote human flourishing at the intersection of AI, social science, and humanities.
The broad use of AI to implement human-engaged services has rapidly expanded over the last decade with the increased use of AI innovations for practically everything from voice-commanded AI assistants and self-driving vehicles to computer vision for analyzing images and faces. Biometrics – measurable human characteristics, have emerged to address the public’s increased need to access AI systems safely and reliably.
“As AI-assisted applications continue to transform society, adversarial threats continue to advance their capability to attack and spoof personal information, posing significant risks in fostering credibility,” said Czajka. “In fact, perhaps one of the oldest references to biometric spoofing occurs in Genesis 27 when Jacob disguises himself as his brother Esau,” he added. “The goal of the AITAR Lab is to offer an interdisciplinary space to design and build reliable AI algorithms with disciplines across campus that offer trusted AI-assisted and biometric services to dissolve these fears while meeting wide-ranging community needs.”
Czajka has over 25 years of experience in biometrics and machine learning research and has worked on projects to leverage modern AI systems for iris recognition, presentation attack detection and human-machine pairing. A current collaboration with Michael Villano, assistant research professor in the Department of Psychology is exploring the use of artificial neural networks to understand the mechanisms that evoke specific emotional responses to visual and audio stimuli. The project will provide a blueprint to develop non-invasive and widely accessible tools to treat mental health conditions.
“Developing safe AI systems requires an interdisciplinary approach,” said Nitesh Chawla, the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and director of the Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society. “We are excited to launch the AI Trust and Reliability Lab to address the critical challenges of creating AI systems that are both reliable and trustworthy. We look forward to Adam’s leadership in driving this important work and fostering collaborations on- and off-campus to advance responsible development and deployment of AI technologies.”
The AITAR Lab will offer a collaborative space for campus and community researchers to share highly interdisciplinary research ideas in the area or trusted and reliable AI systems. For questions on how to become involved, please contact Adam Czajka at aczajka@nd.edu.
Originally posted at lucyinstitute.nd.edu by Christine Grashorn on November 20, 2024.