Pint of Science Festival – Bridging AI and Community

Pint of Science Festival – Bridging AI and Community

We are thrilled to announce that, for the third consecutive year, the Idiap Research Institute will participate on May 14th in the annual Pint of Science Valais Festival, taking place from May 13th to May 15th 2024. This worldwide event, renowned for its commitment to making science accessible to all, aligns perfectly with the institute’s mission to engage and inspire the broader public about the potentials and advancements in Artificial Intelligence.

This event, in which Idiap’s researchers participate since its creation in 2022, attracts visitors from across the region, including students, professionals, and families. Its goal is to provide a unique platform for direct interaction with the community. Through interactive sessions and presentations, our experts have the opportunity to demystify AI technologies and showcase how these innovations can be beneficial in everyday life.


For its first edition in 2022, Rémy Siegfried, then postdoctoral fellow at Idiap, presented his research through a talk entitled “thinking without brain: the robotic logic”, sharing with the public how current research is steadily pushing back the boundaries of what machines can do: playing chess, optimizing a company's energy consumption or identifying people.

 

 

Later on, in 2023, Lonneke van der Plas, Research Scientist at Idiap, and her doctoral student Vincent Jung, discussed with Christophe Burgess from the RGB Project Association, which aims to explore new forms of storytelling, more specifically, the creation of immersive scenic realities. They talked on how AI can enhance theatrical experiences and their ground-breaking collaborations, fusing artificial intelligence, virtual reality and human creativity to push back the boundaries of artistic expression.

 



This year’s festival will feature the theme “AI against cancer”, where two colleagues from our AI for Life Research Program, aiming to harnesses AI to advance biological understanding, develop personalized medicine, and improve health outcome, will share their insights. Our guest colleague, Raphaëlle Luisier, Research Scientist at Idiap, will talk about the path to becoming a researcher, the barriers hindering diversity in this field, and encourage every young person to listen to their youthful dreams and to cherish them. "It's by aiming high that we achieve even the smallest victories, the ones that count.” she explains.
Her PhD student, Lisa Fournier, will then present her research leveraging data science to understand therapy resistance for cancer patients, and how to extract the essence of complex data and transform it into discoveries that could, one day, revolutionize cancer treatments.


“As everyone at Idiap continue to advance in their research and applications of AI, the institute’s mission remains dedicated to being an integral part of the regional community. Its involvement in events such as Pint of Science Festival helps bridge the gap between cutting-edge science and public understanding.
We invite everyone to join us this year in Sion to learn more about the exciting world of AI, meet our researchers, and discover how artificial intelligence is transforming our world for the better.” concludes Andrea Cavallaro, Idiap’s Director.

For more information about our participation in the Pint of Science festival and details about the schedule of activities, please visit https://www.science-valais.ch/fr/festival-pint-of-science-2024.

Learn more about our research programs at: https://www.idiap.ch/idiap/en/scientific-research/programs