WVU to host IBM Watson Talk on delivering smart healthcare services

WVU will host a talk on using IBM Watson to deliver smart healthcare services on May 3.

On Thursday, May 3, West Virginia University will be hosting “Powering your Research with IBM Watson: IBM Watson + Healthcare,” from 5-8 p.m., in room 135 of the Advanced Engineering Research Building. The event is open to the WVU community; dinner and refreshments will be provided.

“Our main goal for hosting this workshop is to transform West Virginia into a rural tech force,” said Saiph Savage, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering and the J. Wayne and Kathy Richards Faculty Fellow in Engineering. “In order to accomplish this, we are bringing industrial and academic researchers to campus who are working with the latest technologies, such as IBM Watson. We hope that through these series of talks we will spark collaborations and also inspire West Virginias to start to develop and innovate in the area of technology.”

Watson is an IBM supercomputer that combines artificial intelligence and sophisticated analytical software for optimal performance as a “question answering” machine. The supercomputer is named for IBM’s founder, Thomas J. Watson.

The director of IBM Watson in Latin America, Enrique Estremadoyro, will be joined by Professor Alejandro Garcia, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. They will discuss how they use IBM Watson to build innovative intelligent systems and how several startups have integrated IBM Watson to deliver smart healthcare services.

Estremadoyro runs all of the IBM Watson-related projects in Latin America. He focuses on helping businesses, universities and research institutions use IBM Watson technology to transform and improve their work. His company, which operates in more than 23 countries in Latin America, offers consultancies to others to help them understand the best ways that they can integrate and use IBM Watson for their own work. Estremadoyro has especially helped healthcare companies integrate IBM Watson to provide patients with better services that include a more transparent understanding of why they were diagnosed with a particular illness and low-cost virtual assistants to help them with all of their medical problems.

Garcia directs the UNAM Mobile Laboratory and is also CEO of the startup, Artificial Nerds. He was developed award-winning bots that utilize IBM Watson for law and healthcare. His healthcare bots focus on providing diagnoses of illnesses as well as offering psychological support for trauma victims. His work has also been used to create user-friendly interfaces for engaging with the government. He also utilizes deep learning in his research to provide healthcare solutions.

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