INESC ID at Técnico Taguspark Open Day
On November 10th, INESC ID was part of Técnico Taguspark Open Day 2023, joining the celebration of its 23rd anniversary. The annual event organized by the Técnico Campus in Oeiras, welcomes the community, offering an opportunity for all to explore the institution’s labs and gain insights into Técnico’s research through lectures, scientific experiments, and demonstrations.
INESC ID contributed to the occasion by participating in three distinct activities throughout the day. In the morning, INESC ID researcher Ana Paiva hosted the Lecture “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Society”, a talk addressed to a broad audience explaining the most common threats associated to the use of Artificial intelligence, its impact on the society and future opportunities & challenges.
In the main Hall, Luísa Coheur, INESC ID researcher at the Human Language Technology Lab (HTL) and Associate Professor at Técnico, organized the demonstration “Human Language Technologies to explain how large language models, like ChatGPT and GPT-4, can create highly customized dialogues from information provided by a user. The demo also counted on two Ph.D. candidates from INESC ID and from the HTL lab, Gonçalo Raposo and John Mendonça, who is currently conducting is Ph.D. under the CMU Portugal Affiliated Ph.D. Program Initiative.
Throughout the day, the GAIPS LAB (Research Group on AI for People and Society) warmly welcomed visitors, offering them a unique chance to meet robots such as Pepper, ASTRO, and others. Social robots can simulate human-like behaviors, interact with humans, and even give the illusion of life. Under the guidance of INESC ID researcher Ali Kordia, attendees had the opportunity to interact with the robots, who can perform tasks such as playing games with children, dancing, or even support elderly people in daily tasks. This event provided a distinctive chance for both children and adults to spend time with these amazing robots.
More at Técnico Website.
Upcoming Events
NII International Internship Programme Presentation and Q&A by Emmanuel Planas
On April 30, Emmanuel Planas, the acting director of the Global Liaison Office (GLO) and responsible for the internationalisation program at the National Institute of Informatics (NII) in Tokyo, Japan, will give a presentation to introduce the NII and its internship program to INESC-ID students and IST’s Master’s in Computer Science students.
Date & Time: April 30, 14h00
Where: Sala Polivalente, Técnico – Taguspark
“The NII International Internship Program is an exchange activity with students from institutions with which NII has concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreement. This incentive program aims at giving interns the opportunity for professional and personal development by engaging in research activities under the guidance and supervision of NII researchers.
The NII Internship Program is open to Research Master’s and PhD students who are currently enrolled at one of the partner institutions that have signed an MOU agreement with NII.”
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.”