The Northeast Chapter of the Association for Information Science & Technology (NEASIS&T), together with the Simmons University Student Chapter, invite you to join us (virtually!) at our 2022 Annual Conference. The theme for this year's conference is “With Great Power: AI and Equity". This event looks at equity considerations when creating and deploying artificial intelligence (AI) and how we can be intentional about our use of artificial intelligence to do good and remove barriers. AI is already very deeply entrenched in our lives. AI is deployed every time computing technology is used to help make decisions or do any of the million things that replicate human behavior. The intelligence component of AI derives from humans pouring massive amounts of data for the machine to learn, analyze, and create recognizable patterns and it reflects the best and worst of us.  AI has made our lives easier in many ways; it has also perpetuated existing harmful biases and barriers which must be addressed.  As the adage goes: “with great power comes great responsibility”.


For our call for proposals, we are particularly interested in the following:
Biases in data used by AI and machine learning.
How to make AI more ethical
Barriers to accessing AI
Using AI to support socially vulnerable populations
Harm of AI to socially vulnerable populations
Media and information literacy and AI
Use of AI in augmenting teaching
AI in libraries (programming, services, and collections management), academic support, and healthcare
AI and personalization
Privacy considerations and impact of surveillance
Recruitment of diverse participants for UX and usability testing

We are accepting proposals for presentations, panels, workshops and posters related to our conference theme. We welcome proposals from students, faculty, practitioners, and any other role in the information sciences, libraries, archives, and other related sectors. Priority will be given to proposals from presenters in the Northeast region (ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ)

Proposed topics can be in any format: panel, presentation, 10-minute lightning talk/poster, hands-on workshop, etc.

Deadline for submission: February 9, 2022
Notification by:  February 18, 2022