Dublin, 22 October 2020: ADAPT’s Deputy Director and Trinity College Dublin Associate Professor of Computer Science, Dave Lewis has been awarded the prestigious SFI Public Service Fellowship award. This award will place him at the Oireachtas Library and Research Services for a period of three months to provide topical research briefings on emerging policy issues across a number of thematic areas.
Announcing the award, Minister Harris, said, “I am delighted to support the SFI Public Service Fellowship initiative which will contribute to the Government’s objective of promoting a culture of innovation through collaboration, knowledge exchange and the development of data-driven and evidence-based solutions. The successful researchers will play a pivotal role in enhancing collaboration between the research community and Government for the benefit of society.”
The purpose of Prof Lewis’s research project is to identify and analyse key issues relevant to policy and legislative agenda items under the theme: the economic, social and ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data.
Professor Dave Lewis says. “As our lives become increasingly digitised, more power is concentrated in the hands of those able to collect and process our data using AI. We therefore must find how the voices of all affected stakeholders can be clearly heard when building AI systems, so as to ensure there is no datafication without representation.”
The SFI Public Service Fellowship Programme is a pilot initiative which allows researchers the unique opportunity to be temporarily seconded to Government Departments, Agencies and the Library and Research Service of the Oireachtas, to work on specific projects where they can add value resulting in mutually beneficial outcomes. Successful researchers will take the title of “SFI Researcher in Residence” for the duration of the secondment.
Professor Lewis was awarded officially at the Public Service Fellowship meeting today.
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