September 11, 2025: “Welcome Back!”
CFUW St Thomas kicked off the 2025-2026 year with a pot-luck supper in Rodney Hall, Knox Presbyterian Church in St Thomas. Tables were filled with delicious offerings from the members, with appetizers, main dishes, salads and desserts on display. We also got better acquainted with other members by pairing people through matching scraps of fabric and having them introduce each other to the rest of the group. There were also thought-provoking questions on each table for group discussion and sharing of experiences. It was a lively crowd with lots of chatter and laughter throughout the evening. A great way to begin our year!
October 9, 2025: “Impacts & Benefits of A.I.”
Our guest speaker for our first formal meeting of the year was Dr. Magdalene Ravichandran, Co-ordinator of Machine Learning at Fanshawe College. Her presentation gave us a crash course on Artificial Intelligence or A.I., outlining its purpose and usefulness in such diverse fields as music and medicine. She told us of her academic interests and background, and how she came to understand and work in this complex and rapidly changing field. We found out how A.I. can be used for lightning quick calculations and broad information searches. Dr. Ravichandran gave us information about the relationship between A.I. and A.I. tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot, etc. She answered our many questions, including about risks where tools may be used improperly or for purposes it may not have been designed for. It certainly made us all think about our own relationships with our computers and smartphones! Here are a few photos from the evening (click on photo to enlarge).
