INESC-ID researchers receive António Brandão Vasconcelos Award
INESC-ID researchers Rui Prada, Diogo Rato and Pedro M. Fernandes have received the first ever António Brandão Vasconcelos Award.
Set up in honour of the founder of the iLLP@Técnico – Innovation Lean LaunchPad, the acceleration programme that became Lab2Market@Tecnico, the António Brandão Vasconcelos Award recognises “the most outstanding team within the Lab2Market@Técnico program, which, with the support of NTT Data Portugal and i-Deals, aims to identify and support the path to market of projects and technologies developed by researchers, teachers, and students of Instituto Superior Técnico.”
And the most outstanding team within the Lab2Market@Técnico program is exactly what the three Artificial Intelligence for People and Society (AIPS) researchers were. Sharing, with three additional teams, three months-worth of training on how to turn their unique ideas into a viable business, Professor Prada, Diogo and Pedro — both PhD students at AIPS — were recognized for their project Testwaves, through which they intend to explore AI-based solutions for automated play-testing. The budding company has exciting plans for the near future, so definitely stay tuned.
The Testwaves team received the António Brandão Vasconcelos Award, worth a cash prize of €3,500, on 31 May at Instituto Superior Técnico.
Photo credit: Departamento de Engenharia Informática (DEI), Instituto Superior Técnico.
Upcoming Events
Educational Workshop on Responsible AI for Peace and Security (UNODA)
On June 6 and 7, The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) are offering a selected group of technical students the opportunity to join a 2-day educational workshop on Responsible AI for peace and security.
The third workshop in the series will be held in Porto Salvo, Portugal, in collaboration with GAIPS, INESC-ID, and Instituto Superior Técnico. The workshop is open to students affiliated with universities in Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East and Africa, Oceania, and Asia.
Date & Time: June 6 a 7
Where: IST – Tagus Park, Porto Salvo
Registration deadline: April 8
Summary: “As with the impacts of Artificial intelligence (AI) on people’s day-to-day lives, the impacts for international peace and security include wide-ranging and significant opportunities and challenges. AI can help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, but its dual-use nature means that peaceful applications can also be misused for harmful purposes such as political disinformation, cyberattacks, terrorism, or military operations. Meanwhile, those researching and developing AI in the civilian sector remain too often unaware of the risks that the misuse of civilian AI technology may pose to international peace and security and unsure about the role they can play in addressing them. Against this background, UNODA and SIPRI launched, in 2023, a three-year educational initiative on Promoting Responsible Innovation in AI for Peace and Security. The initiative, which is supported by the Council of the European Union, aims to support greater engagement of the civilian AI community in mitigating the unintended consequences of civilian AI research and innovation for peace and security. As part of that initiative, SIPRI and UNODA are organising a series of capacity building workshops for STEM students (at PhD and Master levels). These workshops aim to provide the opportunity for up-and-coming AI practitioners to work together and with experts to learn about a) how peaceful AI research and innovation may generate risks for international peace and security; b) how they could help prevent or mitigate those risks through responsible research and innovation; c) how they could support the promotion of responsible AI for peace and security.”