The following are the AI/ML-related mailing lists for those who
are interested in these areas:
Machine Learning News
: a forum for notices and announcements of interest to the machine learning community.
This includes events, calls for papers, employment-related announcements, etc.
ImageWorld
: a forum used to announce worldwide events and academic vacancies within the field of
Computer Vision, Image Analysis, and Medical Image Analysis.
Computational Learning Theory
: a forum created to serve the Computational Learning Theory research community. Typical
postings might include announcements relevant to COLT, general queries, discussions, short
abstracts of recent work, etc.
Connectionists
: a forum for discussion of neural networks and cognitive or computational neuroscience. This
includes technical issues relating to neural computation, and dissemination of professional
announcements such as calls for papers, book announcements, and electronic preprints.
Public Engagement in Science
Science not only shapes the codes, values, and norms of our society, but also anticipates its future.
It may seem at first that science and society are evolving in harmony with one another. However, the
rapid scientific and technological developments have driven them apart, creating a so-called “science-
society gap”. To bridge this gap, scientists need to do much more than merely communicate science to
the public. Better public understanding of science will not substantially strengthen public engagement
in science.
To effectively bridge the gap, meaningful opportunities need to be created for voices for the public to
influence the decision-making process. Through this engagement, the compromises to many scientific and
technological controversies, such as genetically-modified crops, nuclear waste, the MMR vaccine, and
climate change, may come from knowledge and opinions contributed by multiple stakeholders that might
otherwise be overlooked by scientists. This engagement also creates mutual benefits between researchers
and members of society. For example, working with the elderly population when developing technologies
to improve their quality of life. Lastly, public engagement also plays an important role in preventing
misuse of technologies. When considering changing values, hopes, and aspirations of society, scientists
can foresee how technology may be used by the society. Emotion-recognisable machines, for instance, can
be ethically problematic if used inappropriately.
In conclusion, science and society are inseparable and complementary to each other. Science benefits from
public engagement in the same way as long-sighted people get from glasses, providing a clearer vision and
ensuring they do not look so far away that eventually losing focus on things up close.