Two tutors at Middlesbrough College have had their cutting edge work on Artificial Intelligence (AI) hailed at an international conference.
Onike Amodu and Adel Shaban, who teach students at Middlesbrough College’s MC Digital faculty, co-authored an academic paper on the use of AI in managing vehicle damage inspection, particularly in large car fleets.
After having the paper accepted by the academic journal Scitepress, Onike was invited to the 9th international conference on the Internet of Things, Big Data and Security at Angers in France to present the paper to an international audience.
Onike, who has an MSc from Teesside University in Artificial Intelligence, said: “It was a fantastic experience.
“There were people from all over the world – the US, Asia, Canada, Australia and across Europe – in the room as well as others following online.
“Our paper got a lot of interest and people had a lot of questions about it. We’ve already talked to two professors – one from the US and one from Canada – about potential collaborations in the future off the back of it.”
The paper – entitled ‘Revolutionizing Vehicle Damage Inspection: A Deep Learning Approach for Automated Detection and Classification’ – looks at how using Artificial Intelligence to examine photographs of vehicle damage has the potential to speed up processing vehicle inspections, improve their accuracy and process insurance claims quicker.
Onike explained that the technology and techniques used in this process also have the potential to be used for autonomous self-driving vehicles.
She said: “There is a lot of interest in this technology and the potential which it has and that was certainly reflected in the reception which the paper got in France.”
Onike has been teaching students on T-levels, HND and BTEC Level 3 courses at Middlesbrough College for the past year and praised the support which she and Adel had received from the College in putting together the paper and going out to the conference.
Onike said: “We got a lot of support and encouragement from our manager at the College, not just on writing and publishing the paper but also in terms of funding the trip to France.
“We get a lot of motivation from the College in terms of our development and that makes such a big difference.
“It also means we can bring a lot of this knowledge into our teaching of the students at the College – we did a presentation to the final year students at the College, which was great preparation for the conference.”
Onike and Adel, who has a PhD in Computer Science from Teesside University, are now looking at ways in which Artificial Intelligence can help in the educational sphere.
Onike said: “We are now looking at ways to bring AI into the classroom and into teaching.
“We are currently working on two papers which are in the draft stages and which we are looking to submit to other publications next month.”
Zoe Lewis, principal at Middlesbrough College, said: “We’re delighted that Onike and Adel’s knowledge and expertise is being recognised on an international level.
“Career development is vital for our staff as it means that their progress enhances the tuition which they can provide to our students.
“We wish them every success as they continue their work at the cutting edge of Artificial Intelligence research.”
