FERI

The researchers are collaborating with the GEMMA laboratory, Institute of Computer Science, in the framework of the bilateral ARIS project. They presented their research work and exchanged ideas for further cooperation. The visiting research team consists of the leader Prof. Dr. Shuang Liu, and collaborators Dr. Qiguo Dai, Dr. Di Zhao and Dr. Dandan Zhao. Dr. Qiguo Dai presented a framework for learning with heterogeneous combinations of features to predict interaction in ncRNAs, and Dr. Di Zhao presented research on key technologies for biomedical text mining.

The website was created by the company Estrogeni srl, with the outstanding work of Agostino Santacroceand his team, with the support of Silvia Cappellozza, Aliona Lupu, Diana Mantegazza and Jenia Dubrivna.

ARACNE Projectis more than just a project: it has the mission to create a vast and interconnected innovation ecosystem centered around silk in Europe. We view silk not merely as an industrial sector but as a powerful tool for expressing cultural and landscape heritage. Our aim is to bridge culture, tradition, and modern industrial production within an ideal network of exchange and vision.
ARACNE Projectalso brings together 11 partners and 3 associated partners from 7 European and non-European countries.

We invite you to explore our new website https://aracneproject.eu/, where you can learn more about the ARACNE Project, our partners, and the exciting initiatives we have in store and to follow us on LinkedIn https://lnkd.in/e6wjTibrand subscribe to our YouTube channel https://lnkd.in/epbUjUiMto stay connected and informed about our upcoming activities and discoveries.

European Commission| European Research Executive Agency (REA)

Our partners: CREA Ricerca| Iniziativa| L.E.P.L. State Silk Museum | Nauchen Tsentar Po Bubarstvo Vratsa | Cultural Foundation of Piraeus Bank Group (PIOP)| Univerza v Mariboru| Ethnikon kai Kapodistriakon Panepistimion Athinon| IMIDA - Instituto Murciano de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario y Medioambiental| D'orica gold jewellery| Association Chemins de la soie| SERICYNE
Our associated partners: Università degli Studi di Padova| Council of Europe| Mouseio Technis Metaxiou

The University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) is one of the oldest universities in Italy, founded in 1175. Department Enzo Ferrari works in the fields of the automotive industry, electrical engineering, mechanics, telecommunications and ceramic materials. Jernej Frangež took part in training abroad as part of the Erasmus+ program. During the training, he saw the institute's organisation, workflow, and research projects.

As part of the visit, he visited and presented the faculty to the company Marmotors, founded and managed by Dr. Luca Marmorini. The company is developing internal combustion engines and hybrid powertrains, where Dr. Marmorini has extensive Formula 1 experience as a former lead engineer at Scuderia Ferrari and Toyota. The company's current major projects are supporting the development of an engine for Yamaha's Moto GP motorcycle and an efficient propulsion system for aircraft.

The roundtables will take place virtually from 9 to 13 October at 10 am:

• 9th of October: Erasmus @ Africa
• 10th of October: Internationalization of Higher Education for Students
• 11th of October: Internationalization of Higher Education for Academics
• 12th of October: The impact of European Universities
• 13th of October: The Impact of AI in Higher Education

Registration and more information is available on the ATHENA Erasmus Days 2023 website.

The address was given by the dean, Professor Dr. Gorazd Štumberger, who began his second term as the head of the faculty and wished everyone a successful year ahead. The Vice-Dean for Educational Activities, Associate Professor Dr. Boštjan Vlaovič, emphasized the importance of relationships among the staff, a focus that will continue in the future. For the first time in his new term, Associate Professor Dr. Marko Hölbl, the Vice-Dean for Research Activities, addressed the FERI community, offering encouraging words in support of the excellent research work conducted at the faculty. Following a pleasant conversation and breakfast, a group photo was taken of all teaching staff and employees from various service departments who joined us on this day. We hope that the academic year will continue as it began - with opportunities for camaraderie."

On Friday, September 29, 2023, at UM FERI, we welcomed new students. Our new students were first greeted by the dean of the faculty, Prof. Dr. Gorazd Štumberger, who wished them a successful academic journey. Further insights into their studies were provided by the Vice-Dean for Educational Activities, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Boštjan Vlaovič. The new students were also addressed by the Vice-Dean for Student Affairs, Gaja Gujt, and the head of tutors, Nina Planinšek, who introduced them to extracurricular student life they can expect during their studies.

In an effort to enhance the freshmen's experience, a musical performance by Leopold I took center stage, adding a touch of cultural enrichment to the occasion.

Following the event held in the atrium, the fnew students were divided into respective classrooms where comprehensive presentations on their specific study programs were delivered. This served as an opportunity for the new students to gain a deeper understanding of the academic journey that lay ahead, equipped with essential information and practical guidance. Throughout this process, tutors were readily available to engage with the new students, fostering meaningful interactions and potentially laying the foundation for enduring friendships.

For a visual glimpse of the event, we invite you to explore our extensive PHOTO GALLERY."

More information about SBLP 2023 and his talk is available at https://cbsoft2023.ufms.br/en-US/palestras/sblp.

Doctor Honoris Causa is conferred in recognition of exceptional and outstanding achievements, contributions to the development and operation of the University of Maribor, and the enhancement of its reputation. Professor Hameyer serves as the head of the Institute for Electrical Machines (IEM) at RWTH Aachen University and is a globally renowned scientist. He is distinguished by numerous innovative and groundbreaking projects in the field of electrical engineering, wherein he and his colleagues have achieved remarkable success.

His impressive bibliography comprises 700 articles, and he is the author of four books while also serving as the editor of several special issues in scientific research journals. The WoS database records more than 4,300 citations of his work, and the Scopus database records more than 6,100 citations. He has been collaborating with our faculty on research and projects since 1993. During this time, he has co-authored 20 original scientific articles with researchers from the Institute of Power Electrical Engineering UM FERI. Furthermore, he has provided access to original software and research equipment, facilitated visits by researchers and professors, promoted the inclusion of researchers in the scientific committees of international conferences, and engaged in many other activities.

The book is published in open access and available via: https://press.um.si/index.php/ump/catalog/book/812.

The Book promotes ATHENA's research and innovation capabilities and the strong cooperation potential of all contributing ATHENA partners.

The second volume of the ATHENA Research Book (ARB) complements the first volume, published in November 2022, by putting more emphasis on the institutional aspects of research carried out by the members of the alliance and on their achievements through an annotated bibliography of their outstanding academic publications. This new volume also reflects the alliance’s performance in the form of short reports on work packages and on the lectures given within the ATHENA Colloquial Talks. A chapter with student contributions is again included, as in the first volume.

The SET4Inclusion project aims to improve inclusive digital capabilities of the higher education sector to enable equal educational opportunities for all students, especially for students with disabilities or special needs. The two days were dedicated to finishing the activities in work package 2, which included development of a Theoretical framework on inclusive digital education and two Self-evaluation tools, one for HEI management and one for HEI teachers.

Title: The Paradigm Shift in SE & PL Research & Teaching due to LLMs,

Abstract: AI has slowly (?) made it into the reality of software engineering (SE) and programming language (PL) research and teaching over the last 10-20 years. For example, in research, think of grammar inference and pretty-printing models in PL; think of bug-prediction models and search-based software re-engineering in SE. However, the capabilities of (contemporary) large language models (LLMs) in terms of understanding (?) of software languages and related tasks of evaluation, translation, summarization, etc. may be interpreted as reaching a new level of AI-related qualities in SE and PL research and teaching -- to the extent of challenging the status quo. In this meeting, let’s put on the SE/PL hat and discuss a few related questions such as these: i) How can stereotypical SE/PL "tasks" be differently approached in the view of contemporary LLMs and other AIs? ii) How do SE/PL courses need to be adjusted to appropriately develop student skills in the view of contemporary LLMs and other AIs? iii) How does SE/PL research need to be adjusted in the view of contemporary LLMs and other AIs? iv) How do SE/PL symbolic computation approaches of parsing, type checking, refactoring, etc. need to be reevaluated in the view of impressive (?) and contemporary LLM/AI capabilities -- does ML make symbolic computations redundant (to what extent)? v) How to usefully inject more classic SE/PL strongholds into LLM architectures so that we get a win-win (rather than hallucinating AIs and the lack of using strong symbolic computation capabilities)? vi) How to — in terms of (AI) ethics and policy — redefine priorities or the value system in SE/PL research and teaching so that we — as a community — can make a useful contribution to a stable society in the near future?

The speaker: Prof. Dr. Ralf Lämmel, University of Koblenz, Germany
Joint work: Susanne Göbel, University of Koblenz, Germany

About the speaker: Ralf Lämmel held positions at University of Rostock, CWI & VU Amsterdam, Microsoft USA, University of Koblenz, Facebook London as well as various appointments during sabbaticals. He is a W3 professor in CS and dean of the CS faculty at the youngest university of Germany — University of Koblenz. He is professor in software languages and his research and teaching interests relate to the intersection of the areas of software engineering and programming languages with particular interest in executable language definitions, software analysis and transformation, as well as AI applications in these areas. He is the award-winning author of the "Software Languages Book". He is a co-founder of the SLE conference and the GTTSE summer school series.

More information:

• https://dblp.org/pid/l/RalfLammel.html
• https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rlhpWRQAAAAJ&hl=en

You are welcome!

For more information on the Summer School, please visit http://enai-summerschool2023.um.si/ . This website will also be used for posting presentations and videos of lectures and workshops. The main topics covered were research integrity, data management, academic and research integrity breaches, plagiarism, contract cheating, academic writing, ethical publishing and dissemination, academic integrity policies, and academic integrity in using artificial intelligence tools.

On Monday, 21st August, the Summer School focused on using AI tools in relation to academic integrity. On Tuesday, 22nd August, topics related to plagiarism, contract cheating (writing of assignments for students or writing of papers by researchers by third parties), and a portal for victims of academic integrity violations were presented. On Wednesday, 23rd August, the lecturers presented how to implement an appropriate academic and research integrity policy. On Thursday, 24th August, the Summer School participants learned about ethical publication and dissemination of research results and academic writing that aligns with the principles of academic integrity. On Friday, 25th August, they learned how to answer research ethics and data management questions. On Wednesday, 23rd August, the lecturers and students visited the Institute of Information Science. The focus of their visit was on the presentation of the Vega supercomputer, the largest supercomputer in Slovenia.

The summer school was attended by 18 Czech Republic, Georgia, Turkey, and Slovenia students. The Summer School was lectured by 12 lecturers from the UK, the Czech Republic, Germany, Turkey, and Slovenia. Two members of the FAITH project from Portugal also active participate in the Summer School. There were also 83 registered virtual participants (41 from Slovenia, nine from Ukraine, eight from Georgia, six from Kazakhstan, six from Oman, three from Latvia, three from Canada, two from Romania, one from Angola, one from Egypt, one from Ireland, one from India, and one from the UK) who listened to lectures and workshops via videoconference.

The first conference day began with the invited talk by Philipp Blanch, titled Deep and compositional, or shallow and direct: two routes and one loop for a new approach to language understanding in conversation. It was followed by 6 oral presentations of scientific contributions and discussions. In the afternoon, 13 posters were presented, some of them remotely. After the first conference day, the participants had the opportunity to attend the conference business meeting.

The second day of the conference hosted two invited speakers. Liesbeth Degand presented a talk titled Discourse markers in interaction: distribution and functions, and Marko Robnik Šikonja a talk titled Challenges in explaining machine learning models for text. In the two following sections, researchers presented current findings on semantics and pragmatics research of dialogue that is being performed at universities around the world using state-of-the-art language technologies.

The content of the talks and the presentations will be published in the conference proceedings. More information on the SemDial 2023 – MariLogue conference program is available HERE.

The main topics will be academic integrity in usage of artificial intelligence, plagiarism, contract cheating, academic writing, ethical publication and dissemination of research results, data management, breaches of academic and research integrity, and academic integrity policies. The lectures will be delivered in English. The schedule of lectures and workshops is available at http://enai-summerschool2023.um.si/#1#schedule .

Anyone interested in participating in the Summer School can apply via the online form. After successful registration, you will receive a web link to join the videoconference one day before the event.

Esteemed researchers, neuroscientists, and engineers joined forces to demonstrate the cutting-edge advancements in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and their integration with a wide range of neurophysiological modalities.

Kicking off the series of events was the 2nd HybridNeuro meeting, which served as a dynamic platform for exchanging knowledge and fostering collaboration among experts in the field. The "Leap to Hybrid BCI" workshop took centre stage, providing attendees with hands-on training on key aspects of neurophysiological recordings, neuromodulation tools, and advanced control techniques. The workshop's lectures were complemented by hands-on-training activities, including:

1. EEG and hdEMG Recordings: Participants delved into the intricacies of electroencephalography (EEG) and high-density electromyography (hdEMG). These techniques enable the analysis of electrical signals emanating from the brain and muscles, respectively, providing valuable insights into neural activity and motor control.
2. Non-invasive Neuromodulation Tools: The training shed light on the latest advancements in non-invasive neuromodulation tools. Attendees were introduced to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which offers exciting possibilities for modulating brain activity and augmenting cognitive and motor functions.
3. Advanced Control in Simulation and Real-Life Prosthesis Control: Focus of this session was on advanced control strategies for simulated and real-life limb prosthesis control. Participants received expert guidance on state-of-the-art algorithms and approaches that enhance the precision, dexterity, and intuitiveness of movements in prosthetic devices, ultimately empowering individuals with limb loss or motor impairments.
4. Intramuscular EMG Acquisition: This session explored the realm of intramuscular electromyography (EMG) acquisition. Attendees gained insights into the intricate process of inserting wire electrodes into specific muscles to capture and analyse their electrical activity. This technique complements the hdEMG and enables a deeper understanding of motor control mechanisms and muscle functionality.

The HybridNeuro "Leap to Hybrid BCI" workshop marked a significant milestone in our ongoing journey towards seamless interaction between the human brain and external devices. It showcased the potential of integrating various neurophysiological modalities into BCIs, paving the way for scientific advancements in neurorehabilitation, assistive technologies, and augmentation of human movement. As the field of neuroengineering continues to develop, events like the "Leap to Hybrid BCI" workshop serve as catalysts for collaboration, knowledge exchange and joint innovation activities of scientific, clinical and industrial partners.

Stay tuned for future HybridNeuro events, including forthcoming “Data management and Ethics in Research” and “Validation of results” webinars (autumn 2023) and “Brain connectivity and inverse modelling” workshop in Barcelona, Spain (February 2024).

HybridNeuro project is coordinated by Prof. Aleš Holobar and has received funding from the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under GA No. 101079392.

The program included interesting examples from the field of supercomputing with examples from industry and academia, presentations of new HPC infrastructure in Europe, HPC initiatives of EuroCC competence centers and much more.

The organization of the conference will take place internationally: the responsibility for the digitized experience (hybridization) is assoc. prof. dr. Ales Zamuda from UM FERI.

In addition to the 17-member core team of organizers, thirty members and dozens of volunteers participate in the preparation of the conference, members of the ACM, many of whom have already participated in the past as prominent members of the European Cooperation in the Field of Science and Technology (COST) in action CA15130 (ImAppNIO), which was also included in the project at UM FERI and the H2020 DAPHNE project, also included in the project at UM FERI.

More than 1,000 participants from more than 500 organizations worldwide are expected at the conference, and more than half of the participants will be remote (virtual). To the efforts of dr. Zamuda, digital participation is particularly simplified (Who's and ACM interface), and registration for participants with digital experience is also free for SIGEVO members. This year's conference experience via digital platforms includes a specially prepared application in Whova, meetings will take place via Zoom and Gather.Town tools, and scientific contributions are published on the SIGEVO website and will be available in the ACM digital library. As part of the digital experience, a schedule of contributions and meetings is available, which arranges more than one hundred scientific presentations and one hundred topics in more than ten parallel timetables.

Different competitions are also held at the conference, which are mainly attended by doctoral students and many other researchers:

• AbstractSwarm Multi-Agent Logistics Competition
• Automated Design Competition
• Dynamic Stacking Optimization in Uncertain Environments
• Evolutionary Computation in the Energy Domain: Operation and Planning Applications.
• Evolutionary Submodular Optimisation
• GECCO 2023 Competition on Star Discrepancy Computation
• Interpretable Symbolic Regression for Data Science
• Machine Learning for Evolutionary Computation - Solving the Vehicle Routing Problems (ML4VRP)
• Predicting Good Configurations for Topic Models
• Science Communication for EC - Let’s Show the World, how Evolutionary Computation Works
• SpOC: Space Optimisation Competition
• Travelling Thief Problem Competition

The organizer and sponsor of the conference is ACM SIGEVO (Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group for Genetic and Evolutionary Computation), otherwise Abzu (from discovery to computer search for drug targets), Google, Cognizant, Autogenetics, and Springer are also sponsors.

More information about the conference is available on the conference website and social networks:

• https://gecco-2023.sigevo.org/HomePage

• https://www.facebook.com/GeccoConf

• https://www.linkedin.com/events/gecco20236991338494925107200/

The ADORE project aims to bring accessibility to the forefront of higher education curricula related to communication.

The second day was dedicated to integrating defined personas, representing professional profiles in the field of accessible communication with training modules and accessibility topics.

The ADORE project aims to bring accessibility to the forefront of higher education curricula related to communication.

The first day was dedicated to an overview of the Accessibility training toolkit and presenting a set of personas representing professional profiles in accessible communication.