Sciencepreneurship Summer School 2024 on Sustainability & AI: Empowering Entrepreneurial Innovators

by elias_admin | May 27, 2024 | Events, News

Sciencepreneurship Summer School 2024 on Sustainability & AI: Empowering Entrepreneurial Innovators

Name: ELLIS Doctoral Symposium #EDS2024: AI & Sustainability
Start: 2024-08-26T00:00:00+02:00
End: 2024-08-30T23:59:59+02:00
Location: Campus des Cordeliers – Sorbonne university

The Sciencepreneurship Summer School: Sustainability & AI took place from April 29 to May 3, 2024, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Its aim was to help participants turn scientific innovations into real-world businesses.

The summer school focused on addressing important issues related to the translation of scientific advancements into tangible societal impact through entrepreneurship. Key focal points included:

Understanding the societal benefits of scientific discoveries and navigating the journey from lab to market.
Building teams, securing funding, engaging advisors, and establishing legal frameworks.
Recognising and overcoming common entrepreneurial challenges through risk mitigation strategies.

The summer school offered participants a comprehensive framework to leverage the societal impact of scientific breakthroughs. It all kicked off with participants showcasing their scientific innovations and teaming up to co-found ventures,fostering collaborative innovation. Throughout the program, a series of informative talks, hands-on workshops, and lively social events guided teams in shaping their science-based businesses. Keynote speakers shared insights and expertise, fueling the journey of these budding entrepreneurs.

Overall, the event aimed to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to make a difference in the world through science-based entrepreneurship, while also fostering valuable networking opportunities. A significant benefit of the event was the opportunity for attendees to build networks and meet potential co-founders.

Heartfelt gratitude is extended to the esteemed speakers whose invaluable contributions enriched the discourse, and to all those involved in making the event a success:

Nettra Pan, Oryl Tarun, William Cockayne, Luis Huber, Michelle Tschumi, Max-André Haas, Eva Luethi, Nicola Leuenberger, Aziz Belkhiria, Michael Linder, Till Schlotter, Alexandre Gachet.

The success of the Sciencepreneurship Summer School: Sustainability & AI would not have been possible without the support of our partners:

HPI School of Entrepreneurship, Kellerhals Carrard Startu & VC Desk, QBIT Capital, ETH AI Center, Hasso Plattner Institute, Zürcher Kantonalbank, EPFL – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne.

About the Sciencepreneurship community

The Sciencepreneurship community, a grassroots movement uniting entrepreneurial scientists, experienced sciencepreneurs, and ecosystem players, shares a collective passion for translating scientific discoveries into real-world applications for a better and more sustainable world. Since 2023, the community has proudly hosted the annual Sciencepreneurship Summer School, a premier event convening a distinctive cohort of entrepreneurial graduate students, seasoned sciencepreneurs, and ecosystem players.

For more information: https://sciencepreneurship.ch/

AAAI Bridge Programme: Collaborative AI and Modelling of Humans

by elias_admin | Mar 15, 2024 | Events, News

AAAI Bridge Programme: Collaborative AI and Modelling of Humans

Image source: Freepik

Vancouver, BC, Canada – 21 February, 2024

On February 21, 2024, the AAAI Bridge Program convened at the Vancouver Convention Centre to explore the intersection of AI and human modelling in an initiative aimed at fostering collaboration between artificial intelligence (AI) systems and human users. This workshop, aptly named the AAAI Bridge Programme: Collaborative AI and Modelling of Humans (CAIHu), drew together leading experts and researchers from diverse disciplines to address one of the most pressing questions in AI today: How can humans and AI systems effectively collaborate to tackle complex real-world problems?

The programme, organised in coordination with the ELLIS Robust Machine Learning and Human-centric Machine Learning Research Programmes, received substantial support from various entities, including the EU H2020-funded ELISE project and the CIFAR Pan-Canadian AI Strategy. ELIAS, in collaboration with its partners Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence FCAI, Aalto University, ELLIS Alicante, University of Manchester, as well as ELLIS Unit Helsinki, Delft University of Technology, University of Alberta, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute and UK Research and Innovation, played an important role in supporting and organising this significant workshop.

“We need collaborative AI tools to solve tough problems, and these tools work better when they incorporate data and knowledge about humans,” emphasised professor Samuel Kaski, Director of FCAI and Professor at Aalto University.

The workshop featured keynote addresses from prominent figures such as Microsoft’s Chief Scientific Officer, Eric Horvitz, who underscored the critical need for interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing AI research.

Reflecting on the success of the programme, co-organiser Sammie Katt, a postdoctoral fellow at FCAI, emphasised the value of bringing together diverse communities to exchange ideas and perspective and the significance of bridging the gap between disparate research domains.

The programme also included informative sessions, including a tutorial on user modelling for cooperative AI, led by Samuel Kaski and doctoral researcher Sebastiaan de Peuter. The tutorial delved into the intricacies of collaborative AI and the imperative of improving user modelling to enhance human-AI interactions.

One notable aspect of the tutorial was the exploration of preference learning, which seeks to infer underlying objective functions from user preferences. Kaski and de Peuter showcased the potential of leveraging insights from cognitive science to refine user modelling techniques, ultimately leading to more accurate inferences and better recommendations.

With nearly 400 registrations and enthusiastic participation from the AI research community, the CAIHu Bridge Program marked a significant step forward in fostering collaborative research initiatives aimed at harnessing the full potential of AI-human collaboration.

As the programme concluded on a high note, discussions turned towards the possibility of future recurring events, indicating the continued momentum towards advancing collaborative AI research and modelling of human behaviour.

Read here the orginal article: Bridge program at AAAI focused on collaborative AI and modelling of humans

More information on the programme and panels can be found here: Collaborative AI and Modeling of Humans (CAIHu 2024)

Advancing AI Frontiers: Exploring Multimodal Foundation Models at ELLIS Workshop

by elias_admin | Jan 22, 2024 | Events, News

Advancing AI Frontiers: Exploring Multimodal Foundation Models at ELLIS Workshop

ELIAS Consortium Members Engage in Cutting-Edge Exploration of Multimodal Foundation Models at ELLIS Workshop

The ELIAS Project Coordinator Niculae Sebe and Consortium Member Cees Snoek, both directors of the ELLIS Program on Multimodal Learning Systems, lead discourse on advancements in Multimodal Learning Systems.

January 17 – 19, 2024, Oberwolfach-Walke, Germany – In a groundbreaking event, members of the European Lighthouse of AI for Sustainability (ELIAS) consortium gathered at the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (MFO) in Oberwolfach-Walke, Germany, for an important workshop focusing on Multimodal Foundation Models. The workshop, organised by ELIAS Coordinator Niculae Sebe and Consortium Member Cees Snoek, both directors of the ELLIS Program on Multimodal Learning Systems, sought to delve into the intricacies of this paradigm-shifting facet of artificial intelligence.

Workshop Deliberations: At the epicenter of the discussions were Multimodal Foundation Models, a paradigmatic class of artificial intelligence models renowned for their prowess in synthesizing multifaceted content, ranging from textual information to images, sound, and videos, often via interactive prompts. Models such as ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, Gemini, and GPT4 were scrutinised for their perceived intelligence, adaptability, and, notably, the ethical concerns associated with their capacity to produce potentially misleading information. The workshop facilitated an international assembly of researchers from both academia and industry to scrutinise recent advancements, deliberate on their impact, and envisage future implications.

The ELIAS Project Coordinator Niculae Sebe and Consortium Member Cees Snoek, leading figures in the ELLIS Program Multimodal Learning Systems, guided the discussions throughout the workshop. Their leadership underscored the collaborative efforts propelled by ELLIS Programs, fostering interdisciplinary engagements across European scientific communities to propel the frontiers of artificial intelligence.

The ELIAS Project Coordinator Niculae Sebe and Consortium Member Cees Snoek, leading figures in the ELLIS Program Multimodal Learning Systems, guided the discussions throughout the workshop. Their leadership underscored the collaborative efforts propelled by ELLIS Programs, fostering interdisciplinary engagements across European scientific communities to propel the frontiers of artificial intelligence.

In-Depth Program Structure: The workshop unfolded through meticulously structured sessions, encompassing Foundation Models, Vision & Language, Generative AI, and Multimodality. Renowned experts, including Karteek Alahari, Cristian Sminchisescu, Xavier Alameda-Pineda, Elisa Ricci, Hakan Bilen, Shaogang Gong, Jakob Verbeek, Juergen Gall, Ioannis Patras, Dima Damen, and Dimosthenis Karatzas, shared their insights and research findings.

European Union’s Scientific Support: This scientific endeavor received financial backing from the European Lab for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), aligning with the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 951847, known as ELISE – European Network of AI Excellence Centres.

Future Trajectory: The fruitful discussions and presentations at the workshop are expected to pave the way for further advancements in the field of Multimodal Foundation Models. The collaborative efforts of ELIAS and ELLIS Programs continue to drive progress in artificial intelligence, ensuring its responsible and sustainable development.

For more information:

For a detailed breakdown of the workshop’s scientific program, refer to The ELLIS Multimodal Learning Systems Workshop on Multimodal Foundation Models

For a broader understanding of the ongoing initiatives and endeavors within the ELLIS Program, we invite you to explore the full spectrum of activities at ELLIS Programs.