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Almost 30 University of North Georgia (¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ) students took part in research that was presented at the inaugural Research in Artificial Intelligence Testing & Evaluation (RAITE) Symposium, which was held Sept. 22 at ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ's Dahlonega Campus.

While not all were part of the presentations that day, many of them gained conference experience alongside students from fellow senior military colleges (SMC) The Citadel, Norwich University, Virginia Military Institute, and Virginia Tech. Multiple faculty members from ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ and the other SMCs also presented at the RAITE Symposium.

¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ faculty members Dr. Denise McWilliams and Dr. Tamirat Abegaz co-chaired the symposium.

Ciin Cing, a junior from Lawrenceville, Georgia, pursuing a degree in health informatics and administration, is back at ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ for the second time after serving in the Air Force.

"The RAITE Symposium caught my attention due to its focus on AI," Cing said. "As a cath lab technician at Emory St. Joseph, this symposium provided me with an opportunity to explore how I could advance my knowledge in AI and potentially help implement AI solutions in our cath lab."

Cing partnered with faculty member Dr. Rima Gibbings on the project "Is AI accurate and consistent across different patient populations?" The chance to work with Gibbings on the research and present was simply the latest evidence of why Cing appreciates ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ.

"The professors really care about us as students," Cing said. "It's helped me connect with ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ."

John McCausland, a senior from Cleveland, Georgia, pursuing a degree in computer science with minors in machine learning, data science and statistics, used the symposium as a reason to dive deeper in his machine learning research. His project was "Hearing the message: Using graph signal processing to help improve model accuracy for malware prediction."

"It was incredible to get some hands-on experience and see what a conference would feel like," McCausland said. "It was also really interesting to see what students from other colleges and universities are doing."

Ada Arcinas and Cadet Wesley Stoudenmier presented their research on "Improving military medical decision-making through AI-enhanced UAV visualization interfaces." Arcinas, a senior from Dahlonega, Georgia, pursuing a degree in cybersecurity, said she was nervous but also glad she and Stoudenmier were the first group to share their work and answer questions.

"We basically set the tone for the rest of the presentations after us. It was really awesome because most of my friends were there," Arcinas said. "Everyone was supporting each other."

Caroline Branch, a senior from Bogart, Georgia, pursuing a degree in management, was in a group with Edwin Bowman IV, Chanley Box and Rylie Moody. Their topic was "Should organizations ban or encourage generative AI use in performance evaluations, hiring, or employee development?" Branch said she enjoyed gaining more in-depth information about artificial intelligence at the symposium.

She was grateful for the encouragement of Dr. Inchul Cho, an associate professor of management, who mentored her group. Branch played multiple seasons on the ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ softball team before closing out her time here more focused on her studies and other on-campus activities.

"The professors and staff are great mentors at ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ," Branch said. "I've realized how much ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ has to offer because I'm looking for more things to do."

Other ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ students whose research was part of the symposium were:

• Aliou Aboubakar: "AI agents for computer navigation: instruction-based computer."
• Daniel Collis with faculty members Dr. Hyungbae Park and Dr. Phillip Williams: "AI-driven extraction and standardization of medical entities from hospital discharge summaries."
• Alondra Hart: "AI music visualizer: audio-inspired image generation using machine learning."
• Arosh Jamal: "Wildlife poaching detection systems using AI, satellite imagery and sound data."
• Jennifer Maaskant, Emily Northcutt, Erika Flores, Destani Fountain, and Riley Freeman: "Using machine learning to predict the severity of general aviation accidents."
• Caedmon McCart: " Tone over talent: exploring linguistic bias in automated hiring."
• Audree Moua: "Personalized music recommendation through emotion recognition: Auralyn."
• Cellia Moua: "Vysoul: an AI-driven mood-to-art interface for accurate emotion detection and expression."
• Thomas Murillo-Bivins: "The 'real' adversary: the impact of artificial intelligence on the availability of cyber attacks."
• Jose Reyes-Molina: "Click, ask, fix: your AI-powered IT assistant."
• Rodney Santana and Anthony Orza: " Decentralized AI systems: the efficiency of stigmergy-based collaborative transport."
• Camryn Wright, Alex Moelter and Parker Roush: "Does reliance on AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, automation) improve decision-making or erode critical thinking in employees?"

¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ faculty who presented at the RAITE Symposium were Abegaz, Dr. Renee Pratt, Dr. Murthy Rallapalli, and Dr. Yong Wei.

Dr. Helene Sisti, associate professor of psychology at Norwich University, served as the keynote speaker for the symposium, focusing on "How AI is transforming neuroscience." Dr. Flavio Villanustre, senior vice president of technology and chief information security officer at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, was the industry speaker and spoke about "The future of AI — the road toward autonomy."