We're rounding off this season of Living with AI with a bonus episode! We'll meet three Early Career Researchers (ECRs) who have benefitted from a TAShub grant. We'll find out what they did with the grants, how the money benefitted them and what legacy TAS leaves.

ECRs:
Andriana Boudouraki specialised in telepresence: https://andrianaboudouraki.com/

Balint Gyevnar specialised in explainable AI in applications such as Autonomous Vehicles:
Bálint Gyevnár (gbalint.me) https://gbalint.me/

Eike Schneiders focussed on the role of responsible AI in interpersonal relationships
Eike Schneiders, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor | HCI/HRI Research https://eikeschneiders.github.io/

Podcast Host: Sean Riley

As the Internet expands through paradigms like the Internet of Things (IoT), massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, videotelephony and the Metaverse, Autonomous Systems (AS) are increasingly used to mediate society’s dataflows. These systems are often promoted as resource-efficient and used to mitigate the impact of the Internet’s expanding data-driven ecosystem.

Because of their ubiquity and scale, the environmental impacts of hyper-scale autonomous systems are intensifying and their sustainable trustworthiness is frequently undermined.

Using methods from Design, Human Computing Interaction and Science & Technology Studies research, this project collaborated with people such as technologists, policy-makers and citizen end-users. The idea was to rethink current AS infrastructures and anticipate resilient and efficient digital energy transition pathways for Resource Responsible Trustworthy Autonomous Systems design.

Project website: https://imagination.lancaster.ac.uk/project/internet-zero/

Joining the podcast are:

· Dr Michael Stead – Lecturer in Sustainable Design Futures – Imagination Design Research Lab – Lancaster University

· Professor Paul Coulton – Chair in Speculative and Game Design – Imagination Design Research Lab – Lancaster University

· Dr Neelima Sailaja – Assistant Professor – Horizon Digital Economy Research Centre – University of Nottingham

· Dr Ola Michalec – Research Fellow – School of Computer Science – University of Bristol

Also involved in the project:
· Dr Nuri Kwon – Senior Research Associate – Imagination Design Research Lab – Lancaster University

Podcast Host: Sean Riley

Forest protection is essential to mitigating climate change, and a major objective of the Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership established at COP27.

The ASPEN project aims to develop an integrated framework for the autonomous detection, diagnosis and treatment of tree pests and diseases while trialling key components.

Co-delivered by a multidisciplinary team, with UK Forestry Commission and industry partners, ASPEN wants to advance the sociotechnical feasibility of managing tree health through improving the application of machine learning to remote sensing forest data, trialling autonomous sampling for diagnosis and treatment deployment, and crystallising the governance context of these systems.

Project website: Autonomous Systems for Forest ProtEctioN – UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub (tas.ac.uk)

Podcast Guests:
Dr Seumas Bates, Research Officer in Environmental Social Science
Dr Calum Imrie, Research Associate - University of York

Acknowledgement: Norman Dandy

Podcast Host: Sean Riley