Today’s meeting was called to order by President Joyce and we then sang our patriotic song. 

Our inspirational message today was to remember to embrace humor.  There are numerous scientific studies that tout the many benefits of humor including keeping us healthy.  Plus, it’s fun!  A laugh or a joke is contagious and it’s hard to tell a joke without a smile on your fact.

Today’s musical ensemble was ‘Joey D and the Dipsticks and Dipchicks’, who led us in the popular Righteous Brothers song, ‘You’ve lost that Lovin’ Feelin’.  A bit of a flashback to the movie Top Gun!

We had several guests visiting today:  the Deputy Police Chief, a film maker, a former nurse who now is connected to Meals on Wheels and a UM faculty member attending with his father.

Thank you to the many members who are part of today’s set-up team and Happy Birthday to 5 Rotarians this week.

Kathy Waugh then introduced us to our club’s new Executive Administrator, Daniel Earle.  Daniel has a long resume of activities and also as a non-profit administrator.  We are all excited to welcome Daniel to the fold of the AARC, so be sure to give him a shout or welcome when you see him at a meeting!  Welcome Daniel!

Barbara Eichmuller announced that we have 7 new members being introduced today:

Andre C. Anderson – the Ann Arbor Chief of Police

Kristen Giant – an attorney and administrator with the Children’s Literacy Network

Elliott Greenberg – a retired entrepreneur and businessman

Ramone Harris – an Associate Director with AARP

Carolyn Lepard – a long-time real estate professional in Ann Arbor

Bryn Mickle – a former athletic trainer turned journalist who now works with MLive

Linda Wallis – long time Rotarian in California who has relocated to Ann Arbor

Ed Wier shared information about a recent Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) conference.  Rotary sponsored three high-school students to attend the 2-day conference near Fenton.  Two participants, Logan and Brock (brothers) then provided feedback about their experiences at the conference.  Some highlights included exposure to topics such as humanitarian aid, service projects and meeting new people with the same values of helping their community.

Our speaker today was Dr. Andrea Forte, the Dean of the UM School of Information.  Before going into her presentation, she announced that she has Rotary ties:  as a young adult, she was a Rotary Youth Exchange student and she spoke of how that experience was formative and that many things she learned as part of that experience, she still uses in her work today!

Dr. Forte started by defining what is a School of Information?  In short, it’s bringing together many disciplines to solve problems and make discoveries with emerging technologies.  The advent of the internet is one thing that fueled the need for such a school.  Now we have new technology, such as AI, that is fueling how we all work and engage.

The School’s 3-part Strategic Plan includes Practical Impact, Information Integrity and Access, and Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.  Human-centered AI is where we imagine, design, test and study AI technologies to advance innovation centering around human needs and interests.

Dr. Forte went on to discuss three School of Information faculty who are engaged in ground-breaking research.  Jiayu Zhou’s research concerns AI for healthcare, including studying Alzheimer’s Disease.  Nazanin Andalibi studies AI that respects human boundaries, such as Emotion AI – using human data like voice, face or text to infer emotion.  Florian Schaub is engaged in privacy research with practical impacts.  For example, he investigates privacy practices in kids and older adults, and challenges stereotypes like ‘seniors don’t understand privacy’.

The School of Information prepares students for tech careers with purpose.  Students are not just coders, they are information professionals.  They are data scientists, analysts, UX designers and digital strategists who emphasize ethics and human needs.  One important component of their school is engaged learning.  Students are engaged with experiential learning such as client-based course projects, global programs, research and entrepreneurship.

After reciting the 4-way test, our meeting was adjourned.