Where: Energy Research Centre (ERC) Room 2056

Dr. Chris Stewart's Invited Talk at the Mindful AI Research Institute, and a seminar part of the ACSOS Seminar Series.

ABSTRACT:

Engineered intelligence (EI) systems use non-biological components to reason about their best course of action in complex environments while weighing competing short- and long-term objectives and operating under resource constraints. With massive investment driving proliferation, EI assistance will soon become pervasive in everyday life. However, EI deployed in novel environments and operating contexts struggle to understand the nuanced abstractions their deployment context demands, making them unreliable, inefficient, and too costly. In this talk, I argue for a new approach to computer systems research — one that prioritizes convergent, purpose-specific work aimed squarely at the emerging tasks not yet supported by EI systems. These "timely systems" reduce the cost of EI, making the technology more accessible and sustainable.

Timely systems help EI

(1) adapt general skills to domain-specific tasks

(2) navigate non-stationary, heterogeneous contexts for physical intelligence at the edge, and

(3) build sustainable, vibrant ecosystems for all forms of intelligence.

Rather than competing with EI for the same optimization problems, timely systems complement it: they deliver immediate, principled cost reductions and reliability gains while the EI core continues to improve its own models. This symbiotic approach accelerates the transition from expensive, experimental prototypes to affordable, ready-to-use services.

BIO:

Christopher Stewart is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Ohio State University, where his research spans edge and sustainable computing, performance modelling, and autonomic systems. His group pioneered autonomous UAVs that integrate computer-vision AI for digital agriculture and ecological monitoring. Earlier in his career, Dr. Stewart helped define sustainable computing, advocating the first integration of renewable energy sources and carbon-aware load balancing into cloud data centers. He has authored award-winning papers in top venues on computer networking, autonomic systems, sustainable computing, and ecological informatics. His honours include an NSF CAREER Award, election as an Eminent Engineer in Tau Beta Pi, and Senior Member status in IEEE.

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