Session: Role of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence to fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic
The pandemic caused by COVID-19 is the first global crisis of the 21st century. This is the greatest challenge that we faced since the second world war. This pandemic forces people to maintain social distance for slowing down the spread of COVID-19. But medical and emergency service workers are obliged to be the closest to the infected people. If robotics technology and artificial intelligence can be deployed as effective resources to fight against this pandemic, it will have a direct impact on flattening the curve. Intelligent robotics system can be used to deliver foods and medicines to the patients, disinfect the hospitals using UV light, collect samples of the patients, diagnose people with COVID-19, identify and track the spread of the virus, predict the likeliness to develop severe symptoms requiring treatment. Drones can be used to patrol the streets and to warn people who failed to wear masks to disperse. Artificial Intelligence technologies such as intelligent chatbots can be used as a virtual assistant to provide information about the novel coronavirus. Predictive computer models can be developed to provide real-time information about health services using data mining technology.
In this talk, I will focus on various robotics and artificial technologies that can be used as effective resources in combating this pandemic. I will also focus on the privacy and ethical issues to deploy such frontier technologies.
Bio
Dr. Lafifa Jamal is currently working as the Professor of the Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Dhaka. She is the former Chairperson of the same department. Previously, she was the faculty member of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Dhaka. At present, she is the President of Bangladesh Women in Technology (BWIT), Treasurer of Bangladesh Computer Society (BCS) and Vice President of Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN). Dr. Jamal is a Senior Member of IEEE. She is a member of the Central Committee of International Robot Olympiad. Currently, she is the Membership Development Coordinator of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Bangladesh Chapter, Advisor of IEEE RAS University of Dhaka Student Branch Chapter and Moderator of Dhaka University Science Society. She is the founder advisor of IEEE University of Dhaka Women in Engineering Student Branch Affinity Group. Actively involved with research, Dr. Jamal has around fifty research publications in reputed international journals and conferences. She attended various seminars, conferences and workshops internationally. She delivered invited talk in South Korea, USA, China, Sri Lanka and other countries. She was the Technical Program Committee Chair of 2nd International Conference on Innovation in Engineering and Technology (ICIET 2019), Regional Program Chair of The 6th International Conference on Robotics, Informatics, and Intelligence control Technology (RIIT 2018, Thailand); General Co-Chair of 1st International Conference on Innovation in Engineering and Technology (ICIET 2018); General Chair of 3rd Student Conference on Science and Engineering (SCSE 2017) and actively involved organizing different International Conferences.
In 2019, she participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) which was arranged by the U.S. Government. 50 Women STEM leaders from 50 different countries participated in this multi-regional project titled “#HiddenNoMore: Empowering International Women Leaders in STEM”. This project is designed to promote women’s contributions to STEM through research and development, education and teaching, leadership, and public policy formation.
Under her dynamic leadership Bangladesh got the very first Gold Medal in International Robot Olympiad 2018 which was held in Manila, Philippines. She was the convenor of the National Girls Programming Contest 2015 which played a significant role to raise the awareness of computer programming in female students of Bangladesh.