Call for Participation

Second Call for Participation

EUROLAN-2023

Autumn School on
Architectures, Resources, Evaluation and Implications of Generative AI

10 – 17 September 2023, Bălți (Republic of Moldova) & hybrid

The 16th in the series of EUROLAN biannual Schools on Natural Language Processing

30 years after the first edition (1993)

This Edition and the Series

EUROLAN-2023 will focus on recent research in natural language generation, machine learning applied to language, artificial intelligence (AI) and reasoning systems, computational linguistics and implications of AI in society, education and science, in order to familiarise participants with the theory and practise underlying Generative Artificial Intelligence Models (GAIM). In the tradition of previous EUROLAN schools, each day of the school will consist of tutorials/lectures in the morning, followed by hands-on exercises in the afternoon. The decision to organise EUROLAN events this way enabled participants to immediately apply the concepts covered in the lectures to practical problems, possibly creating “toy” applications that could potentially serve as a basis for future work.

The School is open to students at the bachelor, masters, and PhD levels, but exceptional undergraduates interested in learning about GAIM are also welcome.

In addition to lectures and exercises, brainstorming sessions and round tables will allow students to interact with professors and gain additional experience.

The school is open to students at the bachelor, masters, and PhD levels, as well as to exceptional undergraduates and industrial IT workers interested in learning about GAIM.

Topics

Tutorials and practical sessions will deal with the following topics:

Types of Artificial Intelligence Models
Evolution and Present-Day GAIM
Core Algorithms: Neural Networks, (Large) Language Models, Generative Adversarial Networks
Resources for AI
Evaluation of GAIM
Applications of Generative AI: GAIM for Images, Videos, Texts
Benefits to Science, Medicine, Media, Humanities etc.
Implications and Concerns: Social, Educational, Professional

Structure

Brainstorming sessions will address questions such as:

Can computers learn common sense?
Is the so-called “AI bottleneck” hampering the acquisition of pragmatic and conceptual knowledge by computers obsolete?
Can the current limitations of GAIM be overcome?
How could humanity guarantee safe usage of future AI?
How should AI be reflected in legislation?

Registration

To announce your intention to participate in EUROLAN-2023, please fill in the registration form, no later than August 28th. Since the number of participants in the school is limited, you will be contacted immediately after this date to secure your registration.

Teams of 2-4 students who will work together on hands-on exercises are encouraged to be formed and will be announced on the first day of the school. Preferences for teammates can be forwarded to the organisers before or in the evening of the school opening and will be taken into consideration to the extent possible.

Registration Fee

before August 28th (early registration): ~~100~~ 120 EUR.
after August 28th: 200 EUR.
Non students: 200 EUR.

The fee provides access to all tutorials and hand-on sessions, includes school’s materials, coffee breaks, as well as the social events (city tour, excursion).

A small number of grants could be announced later, depending on the sponsorships the school will receive. If you are interested, please keep an eye on the News section of the EUROLAN-2023 pages.

Important notice!

Due to last minute updates in the prices of the services offered to the School by our collaborators, we announce that we are forced to increase the early registration fee from 100 to 120 Euros. We apologize for any inconvenience this increase in the cost of attending our school may cause you. Meanwhile, the organisers decided to extend the early registration deadline till September 4.

Important Dates

~~31 July~~ 21 August – deadline paper submission for satellite event
~~08 August~~ ~~28 August~~ 4 September – notification for satellite event
~~10 August~~ ~~28 August~~ 4 September – early registration deadline
~~31 August~~ 4 September – last day for late registration
10 September (Sunday) – on-site registration and opening of the School
11 September (Monday) – 16 September (Saturday) – EUROLAN-2023 School (including excursion day)
17 September (Sunday) – closing of the School

Confirmed Lecturers

Andrei-Marius Avram – University Politehnica of Bucharest
Mădălina Cocea – University “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” of Iași
Dragoș Gavriluț – Director, Cyber Threat Intelligence Lab at Bitdefender
Nancy Ide – Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York
Paola Monachesi – Utrecht University
Valentin Nagacevschi – Lead Mobile Developer at Minds
Florin Olariu – Technical Coordinator at Centric IT Solutions Romania
Vasile Păiș – Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence ”Mihai Drăgănescu”, Romanian Academy
Gheorghe Tecuci – George Mason University
Tudor Toma – Consultant Respiratory Physician at NHS England
Ștefan Trăușan-Matu – University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania

Venue and travel

The lectures and the practical sessions will be held in the “Alecu Russo” Bălți State University (38, Pușkin St.), Republic of Moldova.
Bălți can be reached from two directions, mainly by car: from Chișinău, the capital of the Republic of Moldova (135 km) and from Iași, Romania (85 km). Both Chișinău and Iași have very good national and international air connections. There is no VISA required to entry the Republic of Moldova for EU citizens. See here for more details.

Programme

Each day of the school will typically include two tutorials in the morning and one or two hands-on sessions in the afternoon, each lasting approx. 1.5 hours (the balance of tutorials and hands-on sessions may vary from topic to topic). Changes may occur in the actual programme.

The school will begin on Sunday evening, September 10, with the registration of participants. A welcome reception will be offered on Monday evening. Evenings are usually dedicated to group or individual discussions and social events in the city.

The school will include a visit in the city of Bălți and a one-day excursion to a vineyard / wine cellar of the Republic of Moldova (renowned for its rich history in wine making).

Satellite Event

FUTURITY-2023 workshop, the third in a series, will be held as a satellite event of EUROLAN-2023. The workshop will enable participants to present their own work related to the topic of the school to an audience of practitioners, researchers, and scholars, and provide opportunities to receive feedback.

The registration fee for EUROLAN-2023 will be reduced to 100 EURO for early registrations and 200 EURO for late for those participants presenting a paper in the FUTURITY Workshop. In order to benefit of the reduced fee, participants need to register their paper to easychair, before 28th August. The notification of the acceptance will be sent before August 31st.

Please notice that no other call for participation will be issued for this event.

Accommodation

Low-cost accommodation for EUROLAN-2023 participants will be available in the University’s premises (single or shared double rooms). Alternatively, participants may opt for a number of hotels in the Bălți city.