On 28 June 2024, the HeiCAD Retreat was successfully held for the first time in the University building. The event, organised by HeiCAD, aimed to bring together the research groups of HeiCAD members and provide an opportunity to discuss ideas on AI and data science across faculties. There was great interest in such a networking event and the university building was filled to capacity with 80 people. The researchers dedicated a whole day to discussing AI from different perspectives and questions. The event was also open to all interested students and researchers working on AI and data science at HHU or affiliated institutions.
The day started with a keynote speech by Dr Hsien-Chin Lin, postdoctoral researcher in the Dialogue Systems and Machine Learning group at the Institute of Computer Science at HHU, entitled "Generative AI". He focused on Large Language Models (LLM), a popular type of generative AI, and how these systems are trained and why they can solve so many different tasks.
After the talk, it was the participants' turn: the "45s Madness". Each person had the opportunity to present themselves and their area of research in exactly 45 seconds. With 67 slides, a wealth of perspectives, careers and interests emerged, which was impressive!
The "Madness" was followed by a three-part poster session. 27 posters were presented in the lecture hall, and the young researchers had the opportunity to explain and discuss their PhD or other research projects in detail with interested parties during the lunch break.
Prof. Dr. Johann Justus Vasel, Junior Professor of Public Law and Legal Issues of Artificial Intelligence at the HHU Faculty of Law, then gave the second keynote speech, titled "7 Sins and 10 Commandments of AI Regulation". He addressed the regulatory landscape of AI from a global perspective, with a special focus on the EU-law. He highlighted shortcomings, false promises, deficits, and inadequacies in AI regulation, and then presented ideas and guidelines for improvement.
If you were eager to receive more feedback, you were able to discuss research challenges in more detail with some of the audience in the subsequent Custom Colloquia, in order to gain new ideas or approaches to solutions.
The grand finale was the award ceremony for the best poster as well as for posters from three other categories: most creative, most thought-provoking, and most understandable. During and after the event, the feedback from the participants was overwhelmingly positive. Those who missed out this year will have the opportunity to take part in next year's HeiCAD Retreat 2025.
