News & Events

Scholarly Values, AI, and Teaching

UC Irvine’s campuswide theme for this academic year is The Scholarly Values. As an institution we have highlighted four of our scholarly values as being the Anteater Virtues. At this event, our panelists and the audience will engage in a conversation of how the latest advances in AI impact the teaching and learning of students in the context of the Anteater Virtues of curiosity, tenacity, humility, and integrity. We will look at the intersection of curiosity and creativity and how AI can both enhance human creativity and the pitfalls this creates. Considering humility (openness to new ideas) and tenacity (strength of convictions), we will discuss the role of AI in impacting how we process information, especially things we either strongly agree or disagree with. Finally, a constant point of discussion in the teaching and learning space is the impact of AI on academic integrity. How are we experiencing that here at UC Irvine?

The formal part of the event will be divided into three sections (curiosity and creativity; tenacity and humility; and integrity) in which the panel discusses the issues and then the audience will discuss with each other and then engage the panel. This will be followed by a reception full of food, drink, and fun conversation.

Presenters
• Duncan Pritchard, Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy
• Melissa Mazmanian, Professor Informatics, Department of Informatics
• Jonathan Alexander, Chancellor’s Professor of English and Informatics, School of Humanities
• Angela C Jenks, Associate Professor of Teaching, Department of Anthropology

Moderated by Michael Dennin
Co-sponsored by UC Irvine Year of Scholarly Values, OVPTL, and OIT

Rebuilding Trust in Science: What Can Researchers Do?

The aim for this symposium is to start a conversation among faculty and other senior-level researchers about what can be done to increase confidence in the scientific enterprise, both within society at large, but also — and especially — among the scientists themselves. The symposium will feature short talks addressing this aim from multiple perspectives, ranging from psychological and social factors to regulations and public initiatives. This is followed by discussions in break-out groups and over lunch. Hopefully the symposium will help identify and motivate a community of researchers who want to help promote open and rigorous research. A secondary aim is to produce a public document that summarizes the experiences, concerns, and ambitions voiced by the symposium’s participants.

Program

8:00 a.m. — Refreshments (Fruit and Pastries)

8:45 a.m. — Georg Striedter (Research Integrity Officer; Professor of Neurobiology & Behavior, UC Irvine): Opening Remarks: Context and Aims

9:00 a.m. — Cailin O’Connor & James Weatherall (Chancellor’s Professors in Logic and Philosophy of Science, UC Irvine): The Spread of Scientific Misinformation

9:30 a.m. — Peter Ditto (Professor of Psychological Science, UC Irvine): The Scientist-as-Person Metaphor

10:00 a.m. — Dena Plemmons (Director, Research Ethics and Education Program, UC Riverside): Mentoring within the Research Group Setting

10:30 a.m. — Coffee Break (20 min)

10:50 a.m. — Oswald Steward (Distinguished Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology; Director of the Reeve-Irvine Research Center, UC Irvine): Working with Journals and Scholarly Societies to Boost Rigor and Transparency

11:20 a.m. — Ruben Aslan (Researcher, University of Leipzig, Germany): Open Science and Other Initiatives to Strengthen Science

11:50 a.m. — Pramod Khargonekar (Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Vice Chancellor for Research, UC Irvine): Closing Remarks: Where do we go from here?

12:00 p.m. — Breakout Groups

12:30 p.m. — Hot Lunch

Sponsored by the UC Irvine Office of Research