Former Ireland’s first professor of data analytics, DCU’s Professor Tomás Ward explains why he thinks fear of AI is often ‘misplaced’ and why Ireland has a real opportunity to conduct world-class research in this domain.
As the leader of a research group called AI for Better Living, it’s no surprise that Professor Tomás Ward is excited about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to improve our lives. With more than 300 scientific publications to his credit, he is well placed to provide insight.
His research group studies how new AI-based methods for detecting and interpreting physiology and behavior can improve our understanding of human health, performance, and decision-making.
Alongside his research, Ward has licensed a range of technologies to industry, including sensor streaming technology for e-health, voice transcription and emotion labeling for mental health applications based on cloud and cutting-edge AI.
“Failure is an intrinsic element of the process of scientific discovery”
Tell us about your current research.
I am one of the directors of the Insight SFI Research Center for Data Analytics, one of the largest European data science research centers. Therefore, I am involved in supervising numerous research projects that cover a wide range, from fundamental techniques of artificial intelligence to specific challenges in areas such as sports performance, health, psychology and sensors.
Within Insight, my personal research group is the AI for Better Living (AIBL) Research Group. At AIBL, we are focused on developing AI to improve human health, performance, and decision-making in real-world settings. I find this impact-driven research very motivating and it helps attract enthusiastic researchers from a variety of disciplines. These researchers bring new ideas, which in turn enrich the group.
I began my tenure at Dublin City University as Ireland’s first Professor of Data Analytics, a position sponsored by Allied Irish Banks (AIB).
AIB has supported me throughout our five-year relationship, allowing me to invest that support into the development of my team. Having started with a single PhD student, my team has grown to include – at the time of writing – 20 willing and committed AIBL researchers.
Why do you think your research is important?
Research into the positive application of AI to improve our personal lives, professional lives, relationships, workplaces and society is critically important and relevant to everyone.
While there is a lot of worry about AI, I think much of that fear is misplaced. I am an optimist by nature and tend to view AI as a tool that allows us to do more with less effort, allows us to focus on the aspects of our daily lives that we enjoy and could help us to live longer, healthier. happier lives.
Achieving this type of result requires direction, thought and effort. It is important that we invest in research to get the results we want from these new technologies.
I believe that the research I am carrying out, as well as the wider body of related research carried out by Insight, can help the people of Ireland achieve these results. We benefit from a critical mass of researchers capable of carrying out world-class work in this area, located in a country where universities are small enough to foster interdisciplinary research. It is conversations between different disciplines, focused on big societal challenges and impacts, that will produce the best results. We are well placed to achieve this in Ireland, and I think it is important that we make the most of these opportunities.
What inspired you to become a researcher?
I’ve always been interested in how things work. I have always loved mysteries, puzzles and journeys of discovery for a long time.
Growing up in the 1980s, it was BBC television shows such as Tomorrow’s World, The Sky at Night and the Horizon series that really sparked my curiosity about science and technology.
Growing up in County Donegal, we were fortunate to be able to access these TV channels (how this was done is an interesting story for another day!) and learn what we could about a world that was being transformed by breakthroughs in computing, physics and biology. I wanted to be a part of it – in particular, I was curious about how technology could help us live better lives. This led to an interest in engineering and biomedical engineering in particular which, over time, evolved into my current fascination with AI and human-AI interaction.
What are the biggest challenges or misconceptions you face as a researcher in your field?
One of the biggest challenges we face as researchers is the public perception that science cannot fail. I understand the public perception that if taxpayer dollars are used to build infrastructure, for example a bridge over a river, the project should not fail. We all expect a well-built bridge to remain intact and continue to do its job for decades. Science, however, carries a high risk: it is always on the verge of failure.
Failure is an intrinsic element of the process of scientific discovery. We should expect that a well-designed scientific project will fail as often as it succeeds. An ambitious scientific research strategy will fund as many “failures” as successes.
When I talk about failure here, I’m talking about constructive failure, where we learn from science and develop new hypotheses; I am not talking about negligence or incompetence when best practices and scientific rigor are not applied. I’m talking about taking risks in terms of ideas, exploring them and developing them. It is the failure of membership, it is the force that advances science and technological innovation. There is nothing to fear, rather something to be expected. I often feel that this is not understood outside of scientific fields.
How do you encourage engagement in your work?
I’m a big fan of audience engagement. I am one of the founders and organizers of Creator of Dublin. It is a showcase of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, with an emphasis on action.
It focuses on sharing our stories about how we create and do things. It’s very eclectic, diverse and difficult to categorize. It’s a hodgepodge of creativity, art and engineering.
We have held this event every year in Dublin since 2012, when Dublin was the European City of Science.
During Covid the event was virtual and to be honest it wasn’t the same experience at all. It’s an event that myself and my co-organizers really enjoy and one that seems to attract lots of people from all over Ireland.
We held the 2023 event on September 2 at Richmond Barracks in Inchicore and attracted over 10,000 attendees in one day.
I like to use this event to showcase what Irish researchers are doing – although the real focus is on what the Irish public are doing in terms of STEAM activities, mainly at home, in their spare time. That said, my AIBL group members always find opportunities to showcase what they are doing there and it’s a great way to really engage the audience in a hands-on way.
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