3/13/36: Read from proposal "Evaluating Biological-Inspired Neural Architectures Against Strong Machine Learning Baselines"

Artificial Intelligence Study Group

Welcome! We meet from 4:00-4:45 p.m. Central Time on Fridays. Anyone can join. Feel free to attend any or all sessions, or ask to be added to the invite list - or removed as we have no wish to send unneeded emails of which we all certainly get too many.

Contacts: jdberleant@ualr.edu and mgmilanova@ualr.edu

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Agenda, Minutes & Status (198^th meeting, Mar. 13, 2026)

• Announcements

• Last week: How to find a job in AI. Welcome to MM from UALR Career Services.
• Presentation from Career Services (15 min.)
• Discussion (45 min.)
• AI Is Disrupting Tech: How I Pivoted My Career at Google - Business Insider https://share.google/wQsyWPv5ymTb3AWKF
• Link to Transcript of today's session 

• March 20: Arun Kaarat (Walmart and Ohio learning initiative) will discuss applying AI.
• Today: BI will be present to explain as we read passages from her masters proposal.
• AI can simulate handwriting on a piece of paper...https://aintwhatitusedtobe.blogspot.com/2026/03/can-ai-draw-by-hand.html
• A new forum for connecting about AI: https://www.intherock.ai.
• "Go Fourth Fridays" series: 4th Friday of each month at Noon - 1:30. Free pizza and AI real-world AI insights. Reynolds First Floor Atrium. Noon - 12:30: Lunch & networking (FREE PIZZA! 🍕)
      12:30 - 1:30: Presentations & open mic for YOUR ideas. Contact: Marla Johnson mkjohnson@ualr.edu
• Any other announcements? 

• Other plans for future meetings
• Read/view items suggested by attendees. Evaluate some of them, then do one which is highest in full.
• What if we read from papers authored by people in this group? Then an author would be present to help everyone understand it.
• AB has a paper under revision.
• DR has a paper just published.
• Similarly: Invite paper authors at UALR or anywhere to host a reading session on the abstract and various paragraphs of a paper they published or plan to submit.

• Readings/viewings for future discussion. Here is the latest on future readings and viewings. Let me know of anything you'd like to have us evaluate for a fuller reading, viewing or discussion. 

• Any projects that MS students can sign up for? If anyone has an idea for an MS project where the student reports to us for a few minutes each week for discussion and feedback - a student might potentially be recruited! Let me know.
• Please suggest a project!