Under the patronage of Princess Lolowah Alfaisal, vice chair of the Board of Trustees and general supervisor, Effat University launched the 16th Learning & Technology Conference, under the title: "Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Intelligence is Power" on Sunday at the university's Library & Cultural Museum. The two-day conference focuses on teaching the community about recent technological developments underpinning best practices and innovations in learning and teaching. The program started with an opening speech by Dr. Khulood Rambo, dean of Effat College of Engineering, in which she said: "Today, with the presence of big data and other new technologies, a new time of intelligence is rising.... Artificial Intelligence is restructuring our lives, inspiring change and shaping our future world." She added: "In the next years we will be able to talk in one language and listen in another language at the other end. Artificial Intelligence, especially Artificial Intelligence powered language capabilities, will allow us to improve our communication." Many students, lecturers and guests participated in the conference that contained inspiring speeches, paper sessions and workshops. Some of the keynote speakers of the conference were Dr. Nikolaos Mavridis, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Dr. Richard M. Satava, Professor Emeritus of Surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center (Seattle), and Badar K. Khanbadar, head of Development at the MindSphere Application Center, Siemens. Many students and speakers from local and international universities presented their interesting ideas regarding the topic of the conference. Some of the titles were: Artificial Intelligence Research for Sustainable Economic Growth in KSA: A Learning and Technology Challenge for Vision 2030, Modeling Sentiment Dynamics in Event-Based Text, Artificial Intelligence Applications in the Healthcare Industry, and Artificial Intelligence to Counter Next Generation Threats. The conference concluded with paper sessions and presentations and by honoring all the participants. — SG
