UMBC Professor John Schumacher will lead this session. Dr. Schumacher is the Director of the Public Health Research Center (PHRC) of CAHSS and a Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health (SAPH). He is also currently serving as a University System of Maryland Generative AI Pedagogy Fellow 2025-2026.
Sponsored by UMBC's Office of Graduate Student and Postdoc Professional Development
UMBC professor Houbing Song and PhD student Safayat Bin Hakim will give a free online webinar on Neuro-symbolic AI: The Third Wave of AI, at 8:00am EDT on Thursday, 26 September 2025. The webinar is part of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES) Young Professionals Society "Inspire the Next Generation with IEEE IES SYP Forum and Webinar Series".
There are three waves of Artificial Intelligence. The first Wave of AI is Crafted Knowledge, which includes rule-based AI systems. The second wave of AI is Statistical Learning, which includes machines becoming intelligent by using statistical methods. The third wave of AI is contextual adaptation. In the third wave, instead of learning from data, intelligent machines will understand and perceive the world on its own, and learn by understanding the world and reason with it. Neuro-symbolic AI, which combines neural networks with symbolic representations, has emerged as a promising solution of the third wave of AI. In this talk, first Houbing Herbert Song will share his journey from counter-unmanned aircraft systems to explainable AI to neuro-symbolic AI. Then he will present the past, present, and future of neuro-symbolic AI. Prof. Song will also share his perspective on the emerging area of neuro-symbolic AI.
Register for the free webinar here. A recording will be available online sometime after the presentation.
AAAI hosts a second online AI webinar from 12-1pm EDT on Thursday, June 19, featuring a distinguished panel of experts who will address one of the most controversial AI topics today: AI Perception vs. Reality. The prominent participants are Rodney Brooks, Thomas Dietterich, Gary Marcus, Peter Stone, and moderator Francesca Rossi.
Topics include:
Historical Foundation: How AI hype cycles over the past 70 years mirror other technology trends, following predictable patterns described by the Gartner Hype Cycle.
Current Impact: Why today's Generative AI boom represents many people's first real encounter with AI technology—and why this makes a balanced perspective crucial.
Critical Evaluation Tools: Practical frameworks for assessing AI capability claims and distinguishing between genuine innovation and inflated promises.
AAAI will host a free online webinar from 12:00-1:00 pm EDT on Monday, June 16, featuring a distinguished panel of AI experts who will explore the evolution and future implications of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) research.
This panel brings together leading voices in AI research to provide balanced perspectives on both the tremendous potential and serious considerations surrounding AGI development. Panelists include Holger Hoos, Eric Horvitz, and Stuart Russell, with Francesca Rossi serving as moderator.
Register here for this free webinar.