This blog series showcases skills development opportunities across services, schools and colleges.
Part 5 introduces Louise Hatherall & Jaime Garcia-Iglesias, who identified and addressed the need for an AI Horizon Scanning Event, thereby facilitating an important exchange of knowledge, skills and ideas for the Usher Institute.
Behind the Scenes: Organising the AI in Usher Horizon Scanning Event
The AI in Usher event brought together 45 academic staff, professional services staff, and research students to discuss the future of AI within the Usher Institute. The session included presentations of works in progress, and facilitated group discussions about how AI can address health challenges, as well as attendees hopes and fears about these new technologies. The event was organised by Louise Hatherall & Jaime Garcia-Iglesias, both based at the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society. This blog outlines the steps they took to host the event, and reflections on organising institute-wide activities.
Identifying a need
At the Usher Away Day in June there were many discussions about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on working practices, research processes, and on healthcare generally. Lots of people were interested in, or already working with, AI but there was scope for more cross-institute communication. We decided a horizon scanning event, informally bringing together anyone with an interest in the topic, would be a good opportunity to continue these discussions.
Identifying Audiences and Setting Goals
We wanted to engage academic staff, professional services staff, PhDs and others within Usher. Given the breadth of the impact of AI, we wanted the scope to be similarly broad and to foster communication across the Institute. We established goals for the session: a two-hour event to share research ideas / thinking around AI; have facilitated discussions to explore key questions and emergent themes about opportunities / challenges for Usher as AI develops; and provide space for colleagues to connect and share expertise during breaks.
Engaging Stakeholders & Securing Support
Once the audience & general scope of the event was decided, we engaged with key stakeholders to share event information and secure fund to run the session. We spoke with Aziz Sheikh (Director, Usher Institute) and Sarah Cunningham-Burley (Director, CBSS) to check the suitability of the event, outline our planned activities, and identify appropriate funding. We then shared the event poster with the Usher Senior Leadership team to share within their Centres and Teams to begin raising awareness of the event.
Managing Demand
We asked people to register for the event and indicate interest in giving a 5 minute presentation of their research or idea on AI. It quickly became clear that the interest in the event was far higher than we had anticipated. We capped the number of presentations to ensure people had a full 5 minutes, and to leave time for the facilitated discussions. We created a waiting list using the registration form, once the room capacity was met.
Determining Format
With a clear idea about the number of presentations and attendees, we finalised the event format. The event was delivered in three sections: lunch, 50 minutes of presentations, and an hour of discussions and networking. No questions were asked during the presentations, to enable us to keep to time but people could find the presenters in the second hour. The networking and discussions were facilitated through a selection of memes and headlines about AI in healthcare, and a reflexive worksheet. We asked participants to write responses to the worksheet on post-it notes, and share them publicly.
Outputs & Next Steps
The worksheets, post-it notes, and reflections from the session were written up in a two-page report which was shared among the Usher Senior Leadership team and attendees of the event. Given the unexpected interest, we also decided to explore hosting a second event early in 2024 to enable those who could not attend or present to do so, and to explore a potential AI in Usher network.
Lessons Learned
- Engage support early
- Monitor demand, and prepare for more than expected
- Set goals and aims at the outset: what do you hope to achieve?
Interested to read more about the event? You can view the full summary of findings of the AI Horizon Scanning event here.