Maria Inês Conceição wins first place at SIRESP Desafio Inovação 2023
Maria Inês Conceição has won first place at SIRESP Desafio Inovação 2023 (SIRESP Innovation Challenge 2023).
Maria Inês was awarded for her project “Lightweight indoor environment mapping using micro aerial vehicles (MAVS)” at the second edition of the SIRESP Tech Days, on 02 June 2023. A PhD student in electrical and computer engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico and the Intelligent Networks and Communications Systems (INCS) research area at INESC-ID, Maria Inês reported that “It was a great experience! It allowed me to present my project and get to know other very interesting projects developed in this area.”
Part of the activities of SIRESP, S.A. in promoting innovation in the field of new communication technologies, training and skills enhancement, SIRESP Desafio Inovação “meets the training objectives of Higher Education students and is seen as an added value to stimulate the development of ideas, particularly in the new generations, promoting national engineering and the development of innovative technological solutions in the context of the SIRESP network.” “The exchange of ideas, perspectives and opinions regarding the projects presented, and their possible future developments, was very interesting,” Maria Inês commented, “[as well as] important for the continuation of my work.”
The SIRESP network is the Portuguese State’s exclusive communications network for command, control and coordination of communications in all emergency and security situations.
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.”