Date Presented: 3/11/2024
Speaker: Dr. Shrikanth (Shri) Narayanan

Abstract: Converging advances across the machine intelligence ecosystem, from human-centered multimodal sensing and signal processing to machine learning, are enabling new possibilities for advancing science and for creating technologies supporting medical sciences and health research and its dissemination. This includes understanding human communicative, affective and social behavior with wide ranging applications in screening, diagnostics and treatment across varied domains of clinical and quality of life significance. The talk will also discuss the challenges and opportunities for creating trustworthy machine intelligence approaches that are inclusive, equitable, robust, safe, and secure e.g., with respect to protected variables such as gender/race/age/ability.

Speaker's Bio: Shrikanth (Shri) Narayanan is University Professor, Niki & C. L. Max Nikias Chair in Engineering and VP for Presidential Initiatives at the University of Southern California (USC), where he is Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Linguistics, Psychology, Neuroscience, Pediatrics, and Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery, Director of the Ming Hsieh Institute and Research Director of the Information Sciences Institute. Prior to USC, he was with AT&T Bell Labs and AT&T Research. He is a Visiting Faculty Researcher with Google Research. His interdisciplinary research focuses on human-centered sensing/imaging, signal processing, and machine intelligence centered on human communication, interaction, emotions, and behavior. He is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, IEEE, ACM, International Speech Communication Association (ISCA), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Psychological Science, the Association for the Advancement of Affective Computing, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the National Academy of Inventors. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and a recipient of many awards for research and education, including the 2024 Edward J. McCluskey Technical Achievement Award from the IEEE Computer Society, the 2023 Claude Shannon-Harry Nyquist Technical Achievement Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society, 2023 ISCA Medal for Scientific Achievement, and the 2023 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History. He has published widely, and his inventions have led to technology commercialization including through startups he co-founded: Behavioral Signals Technologies focused on AI based conversational assistance and Lyssn focused on mental health care and quality assurance.