Friday, 28 July 2023 Artificial intelligence brought together more than 600 participants from Europe, North and Latin America, and Asia
The first European Summer School of Artificial Intelligence successfully ends today.
As part of the one-week ESSAI & ACAI summer school, where we hosted over 600 participants from Europe, North and Latin America and Asia, a wide range of courses, workshops and lectures took place, which enabled the participants to spread knowledge, gain experience and establish useful connections in the rapidly developing field of artificial intelligence.
»Recent applications of artificial intelligence available to the general public have sparked an important public debate about the far-reaching implications of this technology. In the EU, we are taking the role of a global leader in regulating the field of artificial intelligence, and we can be proud of this, because we must protect our values and way of life and not be dependent on large companies driven by specific goals and private interests. We must not be afraid of this responsibility,« emphasized the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar, in her address at the opening of the event. Just like at the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO), which UP co-organized in April this year, the president also highlighted the importance of encouraging girls to enroll in the so-called STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
The University of Primorska is also co-organising the summer school together with the Slovenian Artificial Intelligence Society (SLAIS), the University of Ljubljana and the Jožef Stefan Institute.
Dr. Vida Groznik from the Department of Information Sciences and Technologies of UP FAMNIT and the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at UL FRI chaired the local organizing committee. »We are glad that such a large number of participants applied for the summer school. We have over 630 participants, about 50 of whom are following us online. We have 60 lecturers who will give 36 lectures held in seven parallel sections. All in all, we have participants from 42 countries, so they came to Ljubljana from all over the world, which makes us very happy,« she summed up at the start of the week.
Strengthening the development role of UP in the field of artificial intelligence
UP has been actively involved in research about artificial intelligence technologies for many years and strives for its further development.
Thus, as part of the GDI UP (Green, Digital & Inclusive University of Primorska) project, we strive to improve the digital skills of teachers and students in the context of digital transformation. As part of one of the three pilot programs of GDI UP, we are also starting a pilot implementation of the Master's study program Data Science in the 2023/24 academic year. Candidates for enrollment in the first year of the study programme Data Science in English in the academic year 2023/2024 can also apply for the advertised position J037003 Technical Worker VII/1, which is published on the Employment service of Slovenia website. Students selected for the advertised position within the pilot project will be directly involved in research and development projects at the University of Primorska through an employment contract. More details are available here.
In recent months, UP FM has been awarded the ThinkXR project, which will allow augmented reality technology to enter Slovenian schools and companies. Within this project, which aims to establish a curriculum and new teaching modules in the field of augmented and virtual reality, we have acquired several pieces of high-quality equipment that will be used for demonstration purposes and will also be available for the students' own innovative work.
Three laboratories operate within our HICUP Lab (“Humans Interacting with Computers” Lab at University of Primorska): Cognition, perception and behaviour analysis lab, Cognition, perception and behaviour analysis lab and Maker Studio. With the results of new research, a young and ambitious group of UP researchers is successfully striving towards the goal of making the digital world more suitable for humans.
At UP FAMNIT, we run the Computer Science study programme at Undergraduate, Master’s and Doctoral level, and students already have many opportunities to acquire practical knowledge in the field of artificial intelligence during their studies. They often participate in research and events organized by our Department of Information Sciences and Technologies, thus, some students also attended the ESSAI & ACAI summer school. The Google Developers Club of the University of Primorska (GDSC Primorska) has also been very active at UP for the last two years, enabling students to upgrade their knowledge and skills in the field of modern technology.
Our university is also cooperating with the Ministry of Digital Transformation in the preparation of the future Slovenian center for artificial intelligence, with the aim of connecting in the field of artificial intelligence in Slovenia.
UP group at the first European Summer School of Artificial Intelligence
