March 11, 2025, Mary (Missy) Cummings, George Mason University

4:00 pm

230 New Classroom Building

"Assessing Computer Vision Image Annotation Brittleness"

Abstract:  Against the backdrop of perception problems in safety-critical systems, this talk will focus on characterizing how poor image annotation for computer vision negatively impacts predictive artificial intelligence (AI). A new concave segmentation transform is proposed that can be used to determine the degree of brittleness in image annotations, which can help evaluators determine whether computer vision systems are ready for deployment.

Bio:  Professor Mary (Missy) Cummings received her B.S. in Mathematics from the US Naval Academy in 1988, her M.S. in Space Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1994, and her Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2004. A naval officer and military pilot from 1988-1999, she was one of the U.S. Navy's first female fighter pilots. She is a Professor in the George Mason University College of Engineering and Computing, and directs the Mason Responsible AI program as well as the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC). She is an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Royal Aeronautical Society Fellow, and is a Commissioner for the Global Commission on Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain. Her research interests include the application of artificial intelligence in safety-critical systems, assured autonomy, human-systems engineering, and the ethical and social impact of technology.