Friday May 17, 2024

11th Annual NJBDA Symposium

Theme: Artificial Intelligence Impacts on Society & Higher Education

Host: Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University

The NJBDA’s annual symposium is New Jersey’s premier conference for big data & advanced computing, consistently attracting 200+attendees from industry, government, and academia.

This year’s symposium will be held in person at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

The venue is the Douglass Student Center, located at 100 George Street, New Brunswick, New Jersey. (Google Maps)

Research Presentations

Thank you to everyone who submitted research presentation abstracts for the symposium.

Student Poster Submissions

Please submit abstracts for the student poster sessions by April 21, 2024 May 1, 2024. Digital poster submissions are due by Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Learn more at the Student Poster Submission page. 

Sponsorships

For sponsorship information, please contact Margaret Brennan-Tonetta or Jim Samuel.

Sherry Marcus

Director of Amazon Bedrock Science, Amazon Web Services

Shiren Vijiasingam

Chief Product Officer, Instructure

The (r)evolution of AI in education

AI has been a leading topic of discussion for several years now.  With the evolution of so many startups and AI usage across multiple industry sectors, there is a growing demand for AI expansion into the higher education market. This presentation will focus on the growing role of AI in the learning experience. Where is AI going, how is it defined, and how can institutions harness the value of change that AI brings for students, faculty, and industry.

Download PDF: 2024 NJBDA Symposium Agenda

8:30 – 9:00

Registration

9:00 – 9:45

Welcome

• Matthew Hale, President, NJBDA; Professor, Seton Hall University
• Stuart Shapiro, Dean, Rutgers Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
• Francine Conway, Chancellor, Rutgers University – New Brunswick
• Brian Bridges, Secretary of Higher Education, State of New Jersey

9:45 – 10:30

Keynote Address: AI Impacts on Society

Sherry Marcus, Director of Amazon Bedrock Science, Amazon Web Services

10:30 – 10:45

Break & Networking

10:45 – 12:00

Breakout Sessions

Research Track Program Sessions, Generative AI (NLP & LLM) Workshop, Design Justice AI Presentation, Poster Research Session  

Research Session 1: AI in Education

Location: Meeting Room B

Moderator: Abhishek Tripathi, Department of Accounting and Information Systems, The College of New Jersey

Empowering Our Academic Community: Elevating AI Literacy and Integrating GAI Policies into the Syllabi

• Shiang-Kwei Wang, Ph.D., Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost, Hostos Community College, City University of New York

Leveraging Datacommons.org and Google Cloud: A Multi-Faceted Approach to AI in Education 

• Lukman Ramsey, Google Cloud

Large Language Model powered chatbot for educational institutions

• Satish M. Srinivasan, Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University Great Valley

Navigating Artificial Intelligence in Personalize Learning and Student Success

• Sonal Pandey, Ph.D., Department of Agricultural, Food & Resource Economics, School of Environmental & Biological Sciences, Rutgers University

Research Session 2: AI in Healthcare

Location: Meeting Room E

Moderator: Bala Desinghu, Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC), Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey

Achieving Fairness Certification with Differential Privacy

• Hai Phan, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Data Sciece Ph.D. Program Director, Ying Wu College of Computing, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Enhancing the Performance of Large Language Models (LLMs) in Academic Knowledge Mining through Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)

• Nishitha Chidipothu, Rutgers University

Innovative Application of Convolutional Neural Networks in Diagnosing Type II Diabetes Mellitus Through Voice Analysis

• Mohammad Ali Saghiri, Ph.D., Department of Restorative Dentistry, Rutgers School of Dental Medicine

AI-Powered Diagnosis of Malocclusions

• Mohammad Ali Saghiri, Ph.D., Department of Restorative Dentistry, Rutgers School of Dental Medicine

Research Session 3: Deep Learning and Large Language Models

Location: Meeting Room C

Moderator: Hieu Duc Nguyen, Ph.D., Rowan University

Estimating Blueberry Crop Yield using Deep Learning & Smart Drones

• Brandon McHenry, Rowan University 

How did we get here? Tracing the Evolution of Generative AI

• Tina Nosrati, Ramapo College of New Jersey

Using Machine Learning and AI to Predict Eligibility, for Rental Assistance, in FEMA Programs

• Rohith Sanku, The Data Science Institute, Saint Peter’s University 

A Novel RAG-Enhanced LLM Framework for Geoscientific Exploration: Optimizing Question-Answering for Mineral Deposit Classification with Generative AI

• Tanya Khanna, Rutgers University 

Generative AI – NLP & LLM Workshop

Location: Douglass Collaborative Center

Details: Generative AI with NLP and Large Language Models – Interactive Python Workshop

Facilitators: 

• Meng Ye, SRI International
• Jim Samuel, Rutgers University

Design Justice AI Presentation

Location: Douglass Lounge 

Presenters:

• Lauren Goodlad, Rutgers University
• Matthew Stone, Rutgers University

Poster Research Session

Location: Trayes Hall

Analyzing Global Food Prices

• Naga Vara Praveena Makineni, Saint Peter’s University

A Study on the Dark Sides of AI on the Future of Education: A Novel Classification of Challenges Impacting Use Cases

• Ali Mohammad Saghiri, Ph.D., William Paterson University

Leveraging Machine Learning for the Prediction of Dentin Quality Through Trace Element Analysis

• Devyani Nath, Rutgers School of Dental Medicine

Leveraging Hugging Face APIs For Sentimental Analysis and Insights from Customer Reviews

• Konyala Anusha, Saint Peter’s University