Ming Hou
IEEE Circuits and Systems Society joint Chapter of the Vancouver/Victoria Sections
IEEE joint Control, Robotics, and Cybernetics Chapter of the Vancouver Section

Dr. Ming Hou
Defence Research & Development Canada
Department of National Defence
Canada

Interaction-Centred Design for Optimizing Human-Autonomy Symbiosis Technology

(Presentation is available in pdf format.)

Firday, July 30, 2021, 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm
Virtual
The event is open to public.
We would greatly appreciate if you would please register.


Abstract

With more and more enabling AI technologies applied to enhance machine capabilities, the machine will become increasingly autonomous. Autonomy has been singled out as a key component of the third offset strategy for military applications, which intends to deliver leap-ahead battlefield technologies that team up soldiers with autonomous systems to enhance military capabilities. However, humans are still vulnerable when AI enabled autonomy does not understand human intent or follow human instructions. Recent accidents to the Boeing 737 Max passengers ring the alarm again about the imperative needs of appropriate design concepts and scientific methodologies for developing safety critical AI functions and eventually collaborative partnership of human and autonomous systems. With AI and its related technologies reach their bottleneck, it is even more vital to follow scientific and systematic methodology to understand well about capacity and limitation of both human intelligence and machine intelligence so that their strengths can be optimized for a collaborative partnership when dealing with safety critical situations. Thus, this talk discusses about the needs for the researchers and practitioners who are interested in building and using 21st century human-autonomy symbiosis technologies (Why). It touches the topics of proper analytical methodologies for functional requirements of the intelligent systems, design methodologies, implementation strategies, evaluation approaches, and trusted relationships (How). These aspects will be explained with real-world examples when considering contextual constraints of technology, human capability and limitations, and functionalities that AI and autonomous systems should achieve (When). The focus will be on the context-based and interaction-centered design (ICD) approach for developing a safe, trusted, and collaborative partnership between human and autonomy by optimizing the interaction between human intelligence and AI. The challenges and potential issues will also be discussed for guiding future research and development activities when augmenting human capabilities with AI and autonomous systems.

Biography

Dr. Hou is a Senior Defence Scientist and the Principal Authority of Human-Technology Interactions within the Department of National Defence, Canada. He is responsible for providing science-based advice at national and international levels to the Canadian Armed Forces and their partners about the investment in and application of advanced technologies for human-machine systems requirements. Dr. Hou is an Integrator for the Canadian government $1.6 billion IDEaS program and one of the three Scientific Advisors to the Canadian National Centre of Expertise in Human Systems Performance with responsibilities for guiding national research and development activities in Automation, Robotics, AI, and Telepresence.

As a Canadian National Leader and Scientific Authority on Human Systems Performance – Air, Dr. Hou leads Canadian military science and technology activities in the related area and manages large international collaborative projects (e.g., a $250M Human-Autonomy Teaming Joint Service Exercise). Dr. Hou is the Co-Chair of NATO Human Factors Specialist Committee for the standardization of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). His book: "Intelligent Adaptive Systems: An Interaction-Centered Design Perspective" guided the development of NATO Standard Recommendations on “Human Systems Integration Guidance for UAS”, “UAS Sense and Avoid Guidance”, and “UAS Human Factors Experimentation Guidebook”. As one of the four invited Lecturers, Dr. Hou delivered Lecture Series on "UAVs: Technological Challenges, Concepts of Operations, and Regulatory Issues" to a variety of international audience. Dr. Hou also serves for multiple international associations/conferences as a chair and a board member.


Last updated 
Sun  1 Aug 2021 17:13:49 PDT