The Artificial Intelligence Research Alliance of Catalonia (AIRA) will celebrate its official kick-off on November 23 at Casa Convalescència, Barcelona. The aim of the event is to introduce the AIRIA initiative to the Catalan AI research community.
AIRA is a pillar of the Catalonia.AI strategy, defined by the Catalan Government, which aims to foster excellence in scientific research and talent management in the field of Artificial Intelligence in Catalonia.
The AIRA kick off event will feature the presentation of the alliance and its strategic lines, the introduction of the different members and the initiative’s next steps. In addition, we will also have an inspiring keynote talk by Dr Luc Steels (ICREA researcher at Institute for Evolutionary Biology (IBE – UPF/CSIC)).
Details of the event:
📅 November 23
🕓 16:00 – 18:00 h
📍 Casa Convalescència (C/ de Sant Antoni Maria Claret, 171, Barcelona).
Schedule of the event:
- 16:00 h – Welcome
- 16:03 h – Institutional Welcome | Mr Lluis Juncà, general director of Innovation, Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship of the Catalan Government
- 16:10 h – Presentation of the Artificial Intelligence Research Alliance (AIRA) | Dr Josep Lladós, CVC Director (AIRA’s coordinating entity)
- 16:35 h – AIRA members’ interventions
- Dr Josep Maria Martorell – BSC-CNS Associate Director
- Dr Lluís Calvo – CSIC Delegate in Catalonia
- Dr Jordi Llorca – UPC Vice-rector for Research
- 16:55 h – Key Note Talks | Dr Luc Steels
- «AI in Catalonia: a success story with a bright future» | Focused on highlighting the advantages of the Catalan AI R&D ecosystem and the factors that might make someone from another country want to conduct his/her research there.
- «Can AI be made to be trustworthy?» | Focused on the study of new AI approaches that facilitate the development and implementation of ethical AI; people-centred, respectful of human rights and, above all, that does not increase social inequalities or act in a biased way.
Short bio: Dr Luc Steels was a research professor at the Catalan Institute of Advanced Studies (ICREA) at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE-UPF/CSIC) of Barcelona at the end of 2021. He is currently collaborating with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center in the framework of the European SCALA project and the IIIA in the EU European project VALAWAI (Value-Aware Artificial Intelligence)
- 17:30 h – Meeting closure, institutional picture and snacks
Registration:
This event is specifically aimed at members of Catalonia’s AI research ecosystem. If you are one of them, you can register here: