Community leaders and industry experts wrap up inaugural AI Symposium at the USSRC

A brand new program, held at U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s (USSRC) Space Camp Institute, has come to a close this afternoon. 

The inaugural AI Symposium, entitled “How to Make AI Work for You,” was hosted over the past four days at the USSRC from February 20-23. 

Mayor Tommy Battle opened the conference on the morning of Tuesday, February 20, by tracing Huntsville’s leadership in technology over the past 15 years. Mayor Battle described how Huntsville has been on a path of continuous innovation, from cyber technology to biotech. 

“That has been the strength of the city of Huntsville for years and years: we look to the future,” said Mayor Battle. “Change is coming. So to each of you who are here today, you are agents of change.”

Dr. Kimberly Robinson, CEO and Executive Director of the USSRC, explained the critical nature of the conversations that took place at the AI Symposium. 

“I think that we all agree that AI must remain helpful, honest, and harmless. But how do we make sure that happens? We are having these conversations because we know that AI will impact each and everyone of us,” said Dr. Robinson.

Dr. Robinson then introduced the event’s unique keynote speaker. 

“As we were planning this event and considering all the speakers, we were looking for the right keynote to set the tone for the week. We wanted someone that could answer the question, ‘Will AI work for us, or will we work for AI?’ Who better to answer this than technology itself? And so, without further ado, I would like to introduce our speaker to kick off this symposium: Artificial Intelligence,” said Dr. Robinson. 

The keynote address was a video presentation that was fully produced by AI. Open AI wrote the text, Eleven Labs provided the sound design, Midjourney designed the visual effects, and Capcut edited the presentation. 

Throughout the four-day event, attendees had the opportunity to attend lectures on two tracks, AI Across Industry and Applied AI IRL (“in real life”). Symposium guests were not confined to one lane, but could move seamlessly from Track 1 to Track 2 based on their individual interests during each lecture block.

Over 40 high-level speakers from private industry, academia, and the military presented over the course of the conference. 

Dr. Mark Derriso, Chief Engineer and Chief Data Officer for the 711th Human Performance Wing, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Paterson Air Force Base, spoke on Tuesday afternoon about ways that AI can help to modernize the Department of Defense (DoD).

Dr. Derriso explained that the Air Force uses automatic systems to monitor the reliability and performance of aircraft. He asserted that the military should employ complimentary systems to monitor its most valuable asset: human performance.

“One thing we’re working on right now is figuring out how we get that same type of concern, or technology, embedded into the human career cycle. The military can help monitor [service members’] health, fitness, and performance throughout their career, and do the right interventions at the right time so they can maintain performance,” said Dr. Derriso. 

Keith Crowe, CEO of AIBusinessSolutions.AI, delivered a presentation on Thursday morning entitled “Practical Applications of AI Across Business Sectors.”

Crowe is interested in understanding how AI can be democratized for use in small and medium-sized businesses.

“Large corporations have had access to these AI tools for quite some time, small businesses have not. Now that we have things like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and DALL-E, really hundreds of AI tools, small businesses have access to them but they don’t really know how to use them. They don’t know how they can be integrated into their workflows,” said Crowe. 

Crowe followed his remarks with live demonstrations of how business owners across various fields, from landscaping to human resources, might integrate AI into their work to increase productivity. 

Crowe, who also serves on Mayor Battle’s AI task force, spoke on the local implications of this new technology. 

“Huntsville wants to be a hub for AI. With our background, with our resources in the realm of engineering and programming, we are well positioned for that. Still, we have a long way to go,” Crowe told the Business Journal. 

The symposium provided a number of opportunities for attendees to engage in interactive learning. An immersive aviation challenge, an indoor ropes activity, and hands-on practicums all rounded out the conference agenda. 

The organizers of the AI Symposium are already looking ahead to next year. 

“We ask you to Save The Date for the week of January 27 – Feb 1, 2025 for our next symposium. AI will continue to evolve. The amazing things we’re seeing now will only get better,” Nancy Noever told the Business Journal.