Bringing AI Closer to the Physical World: Smarter Sensing, Connected Devices, and Real-world Applications

Join us for Towson AI Institute’s Research Seminar featuring Yifan Guo, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences.

“Bringing AI Closer to the Physical World: Smarter Sensing, Connected Devices, and Real-world Applications” explores how AI and connected devices support smarter homes, healthcare, transportation, and robotics.

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Talk: 11a - 12p

Food and conversation: 12p - 1p

Talk Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly moving beyond large cloud data centers and becoming part of the physical environments around us. From smart homes and buildings to healthcare, transportation, robotics, and autonomous systems, many emerging applications rely on sensors, connected devices, and local computing to understand what is happening in the real world and respond quickly and intelligently.

In this talk, it will discuss our research on bringing AI closer to where data are generated and actions take place. Rather than relying entirely on distant cloud servers, we explore how nearby devices at the network edge can learn, sense, communicate, and make decisions together. This approach can make intelligent systems more responsive, reduce unnecessary data transmission to remote cloud servers, and better accommodate devices with different computing capabilities and energy limitations. Additionally, it will explore how different types of sensing, including mmWave radar, cameras, WiFi, and LiDAR sensing, can help better understand people’s daily activities and objectives. Together, it will illustrate how advances in AI can be more effective when learning, sensing, and communication are designed together around the needs of real-world systems.

Furthermore, it will also discuss how this research is being integrated into education. By bringing emerging AI technologies, hands-on experimental platforms, and research-inspired projects into the classroom, it aims to give students opportunities to connect fundamental concepts with real-world applications. These activities also help students develop interdisciplinary skills spanning AI, cybersecurity, networking, and intelligent systems.