We are pleased to share that the department of Computer Science will be hosting a guest lecture titled “A brief history, basic concepts, applications of Artificial Intelligence” by Prof. Franco Raimondi on Friday 13th February at 16:00, held in H116 (Hatchcroft Building).
The lecture is open to all, and no prior knowledge is required. We hope this session will be of interest to many and provide valuable perspectives on the subject.
When: Friday, 13 February, 16:00
Where: H116 (Hatchcroft Building)
Speaker: Prof. Franco Raimondi (Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila, Italy)
Title: A brief history, basic concepts, and applications of Artificial Intelligence.
Abstract: The term Artificial Intelligence (AI) was first used by John McCarthy between 1955 and 1956 to refer to a discipline aimed at building systems that could simulate intelligence, however the attempts to create intelligent machines had been underway for decades. The mathematical and technical foundations for the development of autopilots were defined around 1920, and cybernetics (from Kubernetes, meaning helmsman) emerged in the 1940s. In 1943, Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts proposed the first mathematical formalisation of a network of artificial neurons. This was implemented on a computer in 1957 by Frank Rosenblatt under the name Perceptron. Meanwhile, fears associated with the loss of control over automatons also developed: the term ‘robot’ was introduced in 1920 in the dystopian play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), which ends with the extermination of humanity. Seventy years after the birth of the term Artificial Intelligence and one hundred years after the publication of R.U.R., are we really at a turning point? This talk will provide a brief historical introduction and an overview of the AI techniques behind the applications developed in recent years.
Bio: Franco is Professor of Computer Science at the Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila, Italy. Previously, he was a Professor at Middlesex University and Head of Department. From 2018 to 2023 he collaborated with the Prime Video Automated Reasoning Group as an Amazon Scholar. In his research, Franco applies symbolic AI and logic-based methods to the formal verification of complex and critical systems, often in collaboration with industrial partners and research centres. He was at Middlesex University from 2009 to 2023 and he helped develop the material for the First Year of Computer Science, in addition to teaching the third year module “Testing and Verification”. Before joining Middlesex University, Franco obtained his PhD from UCL and he held research positions at Imperial, King’s College London, UCL. In the past century, he obtained a BSc + MSc in Physics from the University of Milan. He has recently published a book on the topic of AI: “Perceptrons at the helm”.