The first TED4LAT PhD school and the sixth edition of the DASC conference was held at the Polytechnic from 16 to 18 November, an opportunity to reflect, together with industry experts, on the challenges and opportunities posed by new Artificial Intelligence technologies . The event, divided into two days of meetings, was aimed at students of the University’s Master’s Degree and Doctoral School.
The invited speakers – high-profile figures from the most prestigious research centers and European universities – have suggested numerous areas of application of AI as concrete possibilities for producing innovation and supporting the challenges of our time .
The geography of urban areas , first and foremost: Denise Pumain , professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris, offered the audience a series of examples to illustrate the contribution that the new technology could bring. Satellite observation was the topic addressed by Alessandra Tassa of the European Space Agency who, in her speech, supported how Artificial Intelligence could make the monitoring of ongoing climate changes more precise and timely. And again, the clinical analysis in which, experts have indicated, Artificial Intelligence could act to support epidemiological and oncology medicine .
Quantum computing and economics are the fields of study investigated on the second day: the first addressed by Bob Coecke , professor at the University of Oxford, in relation to Machine Learning processes, and the second by Gabor Vattay , professor at Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, with the use of AI to model innovative financial instruments such as cryptocurrencies, and by Juri Marcucci of the Bank of Italy, with the use of technology to build macroeconomic forecasts instead.
Central to all the reflections proposed was the theme of the security of AI technologies , particularly relevant if we consider widely used tools such as ChatGPT. An in-depth analysis, in this sense, was offered by Dirk Helbing , professor at ETH Zurich.
The event included the first edition of the Doctoral School as part of the TED4LAT coordination action – an initiative financed by the European Commission – during which concrete research experiences of the four partner universities and the INRAE center on the modeling process were explained of environmental data. During the first days, a visit to the laboratories of the LINK Foundation – Leading Innovation & Knowledge for Society was also organised.
“The event was an excellent opportunity for students, men and women, to discuss with top-level experts and access a wide range of highly topical topics and applications – commented Anna Carbone , professor at Department of Applied Science and Technology – DISAT and Chair of the conference – And it is certainly a merit of the researchers of the Polytechnic of Turin to have launched the initiative “Challenges in Data Science: a Complex Systems Perspective” as early as 2015, when Artificial Intelligence technologies such as CHATGPT and cryptocurrencies were still niche applications for industry experts. This is another opportunity to confirm the University’s role as a pioneer and driving force of innovation for the territory” .
Visit the DASC2023 webpage to read more!
FOR PHD STUDENTS AND POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS AT RIGA TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, VIDZEMES UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES AND LIEPAJA UNIVERSITY (December 31st, 2024)
Application deadline – December 31st , 2024
PhD students or candidates: to qualify for this research exchange program, the candidate must have a Master degree in physics, computer science and engineering, environmental engineering or other relevant fields by the start date of the position.
Post-docs or junior researchers with Ph.D: to qualify for this research exchange program, the candidate must have Ph.D or equivalent in physics, computer science and engineering, environmental engineering or other relevant discipline by the start date of the position, or awarded no more than seven years (according to European standards) prior to the application deadline.
The exchange research program requires documented expertise in software like MATLAB, PYTHON and sound verbal and written communication skills in English.
Salary or grant will be provided according to university policy and agreement with junior researcher based on achieved results (accepted publications).
Liepaja University PhD student Dzintars Jankovskis, active participant in TED4LAT project, presenting his research “Digital Twins and E-Learning: Challenges and Opportunities.” in 5th International Conference on Higher Education Learning Methodologies and Technologies Online, September 13-15, 2023 Foggia, Italy. Scientific advisors Iveta Cīrule and Anna Carbone
The Horizon Europe project “TED4LAT” team (Atis Kapenieks, Anita Jansone, Lāsma Ulmane – Ozoliņa, Aleksandrs Gorbunovs, Jānis Kapenieks sen. and Guna Jākobsone-Šņepste) participated in the congress to present the project, attract future cooperation partners and motivate doctoral students to go on exchange trips, to expand the network of cooperation.
The project is picking up speed!
On June 1, Riga Technical University researcher Ieva Vītoliņa participated in the 81st international scientific conference of the University of Latvia and presented the TED4LAT project and the research conducted within it.
On June 2, the Seventh Annual International Conference on Innovations and Creativity was held at the University of Liepāja. The theme of the conference was digitization and artificial intelligence, how to meaningfully use it in a modern environment. TED4LAT participant – Atis Kapenieks and young scientists – Dzintars Jankovskis and Arturs Mietulis talked about the research that is being developed in the project.
At the high-level expert conference “Digitalization of education: new solutions for transformation in action”, which was organized by the association “Latvijas Formula 2050” and Riga Technical University in cooperation with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development, JSC “Latvijas Valsts Radio und Televīzijas Centrs”, the representative office of the European Commission in Latvia, SIA “Latvijas Mobilais Telefons”, experts discussed current solutions and future challenges in the digitalization of education, including innovations in various forms and levels of education.
The TED4LAT project was mentioned as a good example of how to promote the digitization of the country and build education at the doctoral level in the digital age.
During the workshops, we got acquainted with interesting Latvian and foreign projects and scientific works, such as “Case study and experience from BOSC” (Kaspars Skalbergs, director of the Baltic Open Solution Center) “Wellbeing Monitoring: Environmental data and Dynamics System Modelling” (Riga Technical University group ), “Digital Twins and E-learning: Challanges and Oppurtunities” (Dzintars Jankovskis, University of Liepāja), Tautvidas Rančelis (Tautvydas Rančelis) from Vilnius University, who presented the topic “Tools to predict human behavior traits from genome data” and others.
Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences and TED4LAT researcher Ginta Majore says: “The workshops were valuable mainly because for the first time doctoral students and young researchers met and shared their experiences in person. Today we worked on generating ideas for “Horizon 2020″ project applications and publications. The added value of the workshop was the visit of the head of the Valmiera Business Incubator Juris Čeičs, he saw what we do and saw the potential contribution of scientists to business, which I think is important.” At the end, the young scientists presented the project ideas created during the workshops, shared their scientific experience and impressions of the work done.
By exchanging ideas, the participants are inspired to create new projects, good luck!
Doctoral students, scientific degree applicants and young scientists!
From May 25 to 26, the workshops of the TED4LAT project will be held at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, with the aim of strengthening scientific cooperation and expanding knowledge about the development of project ideas and mentoring.
The workshops will be attended by professionals from universities cooperating with the project – Riga Technical University, Liepāja University and Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences. The special guests of the workshops will be the representatives of Italy (Politecnico di Torino), France (National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment) and the Czech Republic, who have particularly extensive experience in projects in environmental engineering, socio-technical digital systems, statistical data analysis and material sciences.
In the workshops, participants will discuss participation in new Horizon Europe projects.
dr. phys. Atis Kapenieks, who has developed more than 60 publications in physics, 6 publications on higher education and research policy, 70 on Internet and multimedia applications in e-learning, says about the workshops: “If you want to become a scientist of the future, you must definitely participate! The skills you will acquire will be necessary to be able to teach others. Nowadays, skills are needed to work at a high level.”
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