AI Advances and Applications Virtual Seminar – Dr. Rachel J. C. Fu
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AI Advances and Applications Virtual Seminar – Dr. Rachel J. C. Fu
February 24, 2021 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
AI Advances and Applications Virtual Seminar Series
“Artificial Intelligence Revolutions and Applications in Tourism, Hospitality, and Event Industries”
by Dr. Rachel J. C. Fu
Chair and Professor of Tourism, Hospitality, and Event Management (THEM) and
Director of the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute (EFTI)
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
ABSTRACT:
Travel, tourism, hospitality, and events, like all other industries, have become increasingly digitized and demonstrates the value of big data and how one can apply and gain wisdom from intellect machine learning. The rapid development of information communication technology such as cloud computing, social media, mobile devices, and big data mining indicates the importance and popularity of supercomputing, high volumes of storage, and other advanced and relevant software and hardware. The functions of artificial intelligence (AI) in the travel, tourism, and hospitality include (1) cognitive engagement (pattern recognition function), (2) cognitive process automation, and (3) cognitive insight (forecast/recommendation). This study aims to (1) introduce AI revolutions and applications in tourism, hospitality, and event industries, (2) integrate artificial intelligence/machine learning with available big datasets in identified business sectors, (3) compare the merits and limits among supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, and enhanced learning, and (4) educate various stakeholders as to how to leverage artificial intelligence across multidisciplinary collaborations strategically.
Bio:
Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu has many years of experience in the tourism and hospitality business. Rachel is the Chair and Professor of the Department of Tourism, Hospitality, and Event Management (THEM) at the University of Florida, where she is also the Director of the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute (EFTI) in the College of Health and Human Performance. In the past decade, through serving as guest editor, associate editor, editorial board member (for 14 leading and well-respected international journals), reviewer (for 9 leading international journals), and chair/reviewer (for 4 major international associations), Rachel has provided leadership in academic and professional organizations. Rachel has published more than 178 papers, including refereed journal articles (55), refereed conference papers (71), a magazine article (1), newsletters (10), technical reports (37), and book chapters (4).
Her primary fields of interest include:
- AI and Data Science in THEM, Business, and Transportation
- Economic Impact Assessments
- Forecasting Methods and Applications
- Hospitality and Tourism Analytics