The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Delaware will hold the first lecture in its 2016-17 Distinguished Lecture Series on Wednesday, Oct. 5, from 3:30-4:30 pm in the Mitchell Hall Auditorium.

Bernard Meyerson, fellow and chief innovation officer at IBM, will deliver a talk, “The Cognitive Era: AI (Accessible Intelligence) Comes of Age,” focused on a new phase of information technology that he calls the “Cognitive Era.”

The remaining lectures in the series are as follows, with more information to follow on UDaily as the dates get closer:

• Wednesday, Nov. 16 – Mark Z. Jacobson, Stanford University.

• Wednesday, April 19, 2017 – Robert Heath, University of Texas, Austin.

For more information, contact Karen DiStefano by email at kdistef@udel.edu or by phone at 302-831-6699.

Abstract of Meyerson’s talk

The world is entering a new phase of information technology, the “Cognitive Era.” As a result, expectations for the function of information technology, previously couched in terms of computing horsepower, memory capacity, and storage capabilities, will need to be re-imagined. This stems from tremendous recent strides in rendering systems “intelligent,” perhaps more accurately described as “accessible.” With the maturation of natural language front ends, vast and dense data stores, machine learning and scoring capabilities, the first cognitive systems have emerged.

Systems now interpret unstructured queries, curate and self-correct data, and provide answers along with a confidence level and traceable logic underlying the outcome. Thus emerges “accessible intelligence.” The natural interaction possible with such systems opens a new era of man-machine collaboration, or the Cognitive Era.

In this talk, Meyerson will explore both the technical impetus that drives us to explore this emergent space, as well as examples of man-machine collaboration and how such systems, according to many, represent the beginning of a fourth industrial revolution.

About the speaker

Bernard S. Meyerson joined IBM Research in 1980, where he is an IBM fellow and chief innovation officer, leading technical strategy and corporate initiatives. He also serves as chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Meta-Council on Emerging Technology. Meyerson is a fellow of APS and IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

His numerous awards include the Materials Research Society Medal, the IEEE Ernst Weber Award, the Electron Devices Society J. J. Ebers Award, the 2007 SEMI Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2011 APS Pake Prize.

Meyerson was selected in 2014 to present the Turing Lectures in the United Kingdom, and, most recently, was awarded Singapore’s National Medal for Public Service.

He was cited as “Inventor of the Year” by the New York State Legislature in 1998; as United States Distinguished Inventor of the Year by the US IP Law Association and the Patent and Trademark office in 1999; and as Inventor of the Year by the New York State Intellectual Property Lawyers Association in 2008.