2 Artificial Intelligence PhD Degree Programs in Canada

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be harnessed to develop predictive models of potential climate change impacts and mitigation/adaption measures in a variety of application contexts. In this four year, funded Ph.D. project, predictive analytic models will be developed to estimate the probable range of morbidity, mortality, productivity, resource/environmental, economic, and animal welfare impacts associated with extreme heat events for each livestock species in British Columbia, Canada, under current climate change projections, and to assess the potential benefits/trade-offs associated with scenarios for heat stress risk monitoring and mitigation technology implementation.

The livestock sector faces increasing pressure to identify and adopt strategies to reduce resource use and environmental impacts so as to maintain social license within the context of sustainable production and consumption. While relatively efficient in terms of environmental outcomes per unit of product compared to other livestock species, the scale and projected increase in production in the global egg sector necessitates concerted efforts towards achieving this goal. Predictive analytics using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques provide novel and potentially powerful meanings of integrating and parsing diverse data streams from the poultry sector. This four year, funded Ph.D. project will answer this challenge by (1) preprocessing Canadian egg industry data through tasks such as outlier identification and prediction of missing data, which makes data streams suitable for AI techniques; (2) identifying or developing, validating, and implementing the best selected AI techniques; and (3) utilizing lifecycle-based, multi-criteria assessment methods in order to improve sustainability decision support in the Canadian egg industry.