Short courses

Photo by Alexander Sinn/unsplash 'Red heart made out of binary digits'

These virtual short courses are for graduate students, public health professionals, data science professionals who want to develop their skills and understanding in AI, public health and equity in order to apply them in their research and practice. This program is concerned with transformative change in addressing population and public health challenges and understanding how these tools impact health equity.

Learners can expect to apply the knowledge from these courses directly in their own practice or research roles in public health. Courses are organized according to three streams: Equity, AI Methods, and Public Health.

Learners access and manage online course learning materials online using a web-based learning management system called CANVAS and synchronous sessions will take place via ZOOM. Here learners will find online learning materials, be able to submit assessments and receive feedback about skills development and learning achievements.

Below are the first courses that will be offered. More courses will be added in due course as they are developed.

 

course Outlines

Introduction to AI for Public Health

Photo of Laura Rosella, David Buckeridge, Nate Osgood and Lisa Lix

Instructor: Dr. Laura Rosella (BIO), Dr. David Buckeridge (BIO), Dr. Lisa Lix (BIO), Dr. Nathaniel Osgood (BIO)  

This is an introductory course aimed at those with a background in public health who are new to AI and machine learning. The beginner course will introduce learners to describe the basic definitions of AI and ML in a public health context. Learners will gain a deeper understanding of the public health context and the unique challenges and opportunities for AI implementation in public health. This course is not a prerequisite for other courses, instead meant as a foundation course for those who have not yet had any background or practical exposure.

The Tools for Data Science: Notebooks and Versioning

Farbod Abolhassani

Instructor: Farbod Abolhassani (BIO)

This course provides learners with the necessary skills to work effectively with data science tools, specifically Jupyter Notebooks and versioning systems. Participants will gain a fundamental understanding of how Jupyter Notebooks function as an interactive computational environment for creating, sharing, and documenting code, and how it can be leveraged to analyze large datasets in Public Health. It will also cover version control systems, such as Git and key data science libraries, including pandas for data manipulation and analysis, and matplotlib for data visualization, as well as Anaconda, a popular distribution of Python that includes Jupyter Notebooks and key data science libraries.

Introduction to Quantitative Perspectives on Measuring Equity

Mabel Carabali

Instructor: Dr. Mabel Carabali (BIO)

This short course provides foundational concepts about inequalities and equity in public health. The course provides an opportunity to think critically about considerations of social determinants of health and their use public health research in the context of AI. The introductory content provides methodological tools to identify the presence and accurately measure inequalities. 

Ethics & AI for Public Health

Dr. Nick King and Dr. Jay Shaw

Instructors: Dr. Nick King & Dr. Jay Shaw (BIO)

The course introduces learners to the range of perspectives on ethical issues associated with uses of AI in public health and support learners to critically engage with risks and opportunities of AI from one or more ethics perspectives. Beginning with an overview of the World Health Organization’s guidelines on ethics and governance of AI for health, the course will include case examples in Natural Language Processing and Large Language Models related to public health.

Natural Language Processing

Instructor: Dr. Joon Lee (BIO) 

This course is an introduction to natural language processing
that covers basic raw text data pre-processing, part-of-speech tagging, and simple machine learning-based text
classification and prediction models. This course is hands-on and proficiency in Python programming is
required.

Developing and Deploying Transparent and Reproducible Algorithms for Public Health

Dr. Douglas Manuel

Instructor: Dr. Douglas Manuel (BIO)

Public health predictive algorithms and models are becoming increasingly complex which poses a challenge for reproducibility, transparency and use in practice (deployment). Inefficiencies, biases and errors will occur if algorithm developers cannot report their algorithms clearly, in both human and machine-readable formats. This course introduces the concept of “data pipelines”, software libraries and standards for generating algorithms that can be easily used by others in validation studies and application. Trainees will have the opportunity in the hands-on component to create an algorithm and deploy it as a web application (web API). 
Learners are required to have proficiency in R for this course. 

Public Health Data Visualization & Storytelling

Dr. Zahra Shakeri

Instructor: Dr. Zahra Shakeri (BIO)

This course will expose students to various visualization techniques and tools to transform complex data into compelling and interactive visual reports. Students will learn design principles and exploratory/ explanatory visualization techniques to accurately distill complex datasets into coherent insights for audiences with varying levels of data literacy. The class will also focus on critical thinking, problem-solving, and sound analysis practices to avoid cognitive biases. Course materials, in-class activities, and the assignments will be designed for real-world application in the data-driven and data-intensive domain of public health.

COURSE STRUCTURE

Each course offers 8-hours total content (split between synchronous and asynchronous learning); all courses will be offered online (virtual).

CERTIFICATION

To receive a certificate, enrollees must complete five (5) courses from the short course in at least 1 in each of the domains of equity, AI methods and public health.  Upon completion of the required modules, trainees will be provided with a digital certificate.  Please note that more course offerings will be added over time. Learners who do not want or need the certificate are welcome to pick and choose the courses that best suit their needs.

ON DEMAND (NO CERTIFICATE)

Photo by Nick Morrisson/Unsplash 'Editorial, Business & Work, Back To School'Learners who do not want or need the certificate are welcome to pick and choose the courses that best suit their needs.

APPLICATIONs ARE NOW CLOSED

Submitted applications are under review.

When you have been accepted, you will be sent a link to register for the course(s) that you want join. If you have any questions, please send an email to: ai4ph.dlsph@utoronto.ca 

FAQ

How much do the courses cost?
The courses are free to eligible applicants who are offered a place on the course.

Can beginners take these courses? 
⇒ While many of our courses are introductory, some of our courses are not meant for beginners. Please ensure you check for course requirements posted under the description of each course (if applicable). If you are new to programming, we suggest taking a look at these free resources: 
https://ai4ph-hrtp.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/AI4PH-Intro-Coding-Resources.pdf 

I only want to do one or two courses, and I am not interested in the certificate, can I still apply?
Yes, you can apply to as many or a little courses as you like.

I applied to five of the courses to get the certificate, but have only been offered a place on two  – will I get a chance to do five courses?
Yes, you will as there will be multiple offerings of the courses and more courses will be added as they are developed.

I do not live in Canada, can I still do the courses?
No, at this time we are in our pilot phase and do not have capacity to accept international learners. We hope to be able to offer this in the future.

I work in a public health related field and I am not enrolled in any educational program, can I still apply to do the courses?
Yes, we welcome applications from practitioners who would like to apply their learning to their work.

When will the courses be held?
The first courses will run in Fall 2023 and Winter 2024.

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About

AI4PH is focused on building capacity in AI and big data skills for transformative change in addressing population and public health challenges, and understanding how these tools impact health equity.

Contact

155 College St, 6th Floor
University of Toronto,
Toronto, ON M5T 3M7

ai4ph.dlsph@utoronto.ca

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