New student-led AI and public health club launches

No doubt about it, artificial intelligence is an amazing tool. Imran Hossain Mithu, MPH, didn’t quite realize how amazing until the third-year PhD student took part in the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health’s inaugural Public Health & AI Summer School in June.

“It was really fascinating,” said Mithu, who’s studying environmental health sciences at the Zuckerman College of Public Health. “I learned a lot and many of my colleagues couldn’t attend because it was during the summer, but they’re still interested in it. I felt like we needed a community to talk about AI.”

That’s how the AI & Public Health Student Club was born. Mithu, who is the club president, said the club held its first meeting to a maxed-out crowd of students and faculty Nov. 14. Its next event is scheduled for Feb. 6. 

Image

Already a graduate ambassador for the Zuckerman College of Public Health, Mithu sees himself as an ambassador for responsible AI use.

“It’s not like an enemy for us, but how can we move forward and utilize it for our own purposes and make us more efficient?” he said.

A new frontier

AI has important implications in many aspects of life: learning, teaching, research, governance. Like many universities, the U of A is figuring out how to work responsibly with AI and how it can best benefit the future. AI figures prominently in the university’s strategic imperatives, which include a $20 million investment in areas of critical importance for the state and nation, such as enhancing biomedical discoveries and health care outcomes with artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

The Zuckerman College of Public Health launched its own AI for Public Health Initiative, which, in addition to the inaugural Public Health and AI Summer School, includes new courses and research projects.

The student club dovetails perfectly with the college’s efforts, said Onicio Leal Neto, PhD, MS, an assistant research professor of digital epidemiology at the Zuckerman College of Public Health.

“It gives us a real community space where students can push beyond the basics and get into the emerging opportunities that AI is creating across the public health area,” said Leal Neto, the club’s faculty advisor.

Shaping the future

Image

Mithu’s research focuses on how extreme weather conditions, particularly heat, and the environment affect the risk and progression of neurodegenerative disorders among older adults in Arizona. He’s developing a model to look at how extreme heat impacts the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of commonly used medications to show how heat exposure might influence drug effectiveness and safety in older populations.

Through these projects, Mithu’s work combines big data analytics, environmental toxicology and spatial data modeling to better understand how exposure to pollutants and heat-related stressors affect vulnerable, aging communities. Mithu classifies himself as a rookie AI user, but he’s excited about the potential that artificial intelligence and machine learning have to make him and other researchers more efficient. 

The club’s goal is not just to make students literate when it comes to AI, but make them fluent in it. As AI changes the landscape of the job market, club leaders plan to teach the best ways to utilize AI while trying to create opportunities for collaborative research across campus as well to build a network for internships and jobs. Regular meetings will not only include workshops and guest speakers, but the chance to participate in hands-on projects to address public health issues.

“We want to create a platform that gives students access to all the resources they need,” said Mithu. “We’re trying prepare our future workforce — especially in the health sciences — to have access to any job they want.”