UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Harsh Nisar, lead data scientist at the Ministry of Rural Development for the government of India, will present a free public lecture titled “Algorithmic Rural Road Planning in India: Constrained Capacities and Choices in Public Sector” at 10:45 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 29. The lecture is hosted by the Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence (CSRAI) at Penn State and will be held live via Zoom webinar.

No registration is required. Penn State students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty with an interest in socially responsible AI applications are encouraged to attend.

Nisar’s talk will discuss how the peculiarities of government (within and the setting it operates in) impact algorithmic design, development and deployment. He'll use his experience developing the resource allocation mechanism for a $10 billion road-maintenance program launched in 2018 to improve rural connectivity to schools, hospitals and markets.

The lecture is part of the center’s AI for Social Impact Seminar Series and brings together researchers and thought leaders from a variety of fields to explore the diverse applications of artificial intelligence for a societal benefit. Through the series, CSRAI aims to inspire new ideas and collaborations and to identify novel approaches that can advance discovery in the field at Penn State and beyond.

For more information about this event, contact Amulya Yadav, CSRAI program chair, at auy212@psu.edu.

About the Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence

Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence aims to enhance interdisciplinary education, research and outreach in artificial intelligence; its applications; and its impact on work, society and all aspects of daily life. Launched in April 2020 and housed administratively in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, the center promotes the development and application of AI to all areas of human endeavor, with an emphasis on understanding the social and ethical implications of these activities. The center also supports and encourages activities that enhance social good through the ethical use of AI and efforts that can mitigate threats from its misuse.