Jesse Pilcher
Human research ethics committees (HRECs) are under pressure. Growing submission volumes mean delays that affect researchers, participants, and the institution. The AI Pre-Screening of Research Ethics Applications project, led by Lindsey Te Ata o Tū MacDonald and Lui Holder-Pearson, asks: can an AI pre-screening tool reduce that pressure, and if so, how should it be built and governed?
Jesse Pilcher is one of two RAs tasked with building a pilot AI pre-screening tool for the UC Human Ethics Committee. The tool will be sandboxed within UC’s IT infrastructure, trained on anonymised past ethics applications, and used to triage incoming submissions before they reach the ethics advisor to the committee. It will not make approval decisions. It will check completeness, flag likely issues, and route applications to the appropriate review pathway.
In this presentation, Jesse will discuss the progress the project team has made towards building a pre-screening tool, and the challenges they have met along the way.
Monday 15 June, 10 – 11 am
Elsie Locke 313
Jesse Pilcher is a Masters of Applied Data Science student, with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Communications. Before studying at UC, he worked as a Business Operations Analyst. He is passionate about research that enhances Te Ao Māori perspectives and supports Iwi to achieve equitable outcomes.