The ERC=Science² project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC), attracted once more hundreds of people in Latvia to the topic of “Artificial Intelligence and robotics.” In Riga, Curiosity Centre ZINOO held a three day long Thematic program, aimed at different target groups, including pupils and professionals in the field.
On the launch day on 6th of March ZINOO held discussion “Artificial Intelligence & Robots – future of the labour market in Latvia.” Professionals in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Latvia took part in the discussion and concluded that role of AI enabled virtual assistants will be increasing very dramatically in the very near future.
Mara Pudane PhD Student, scientific assistant at the Riga Technical university (RTU) "Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology Department of Artificial Intelligence and Systems Engineering,” underlined, that labour market is already taken over by the AI where big amounts of data have to be analyzed by virtual assistants.
Special surprise during the discussion was a performance by musical band consisting of three robots playing specially composed ,musical piece together with Latvian musician Gundega Graudina. They provoked a discussion — if robots might also take over jobs from musicians and other artists? Conclusion was that creativity in any area of life yet can be done better by humans.
On the following day scientists Andrea Bisoffi and Alexandros Nikou, who both represent Royal Institute of Technology, presented their ERC funded research “Bottom-Up Hybrid Control and Planning Synthesis with Application to Multi-Robot Multi-Human Coordination” (BUCOPHSYS) to dozens of students at the Riga Technical University.
After the presentation both scientists visited the “Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology Department of Artificial Intelligence and Systems Engineering” and exchanged experiences. Staff and young researchers were particularly interested to know about work in ERC funded research. Scientist Alexandre Nikou of the BUCOPHSYS said that it is very interesting to work with the ERC, because it includes many tasks – theoretic work, work with a simulation and programming, there is a work with real robotics, international collaboration as well as outreach presentations.
On the last day of the ERC=Science² program, special workshops were hosted by ZINOO for three school groups. Almost 60 pupils took part in three quality robotics workshops where they had to create and program LEGO robots that could take over human tasks in the future.
Dace Ametere, teacher at Ziepniekkalna primary school said that, “This workshop of the ERC=Science² event is highly appreciated because it let pupils to look at the Artificial Intelligence and robots from the very different perspective, the one that will affect their lives as working adults in a very near future.”
During the whole ERC=Science² program in Latvia, any visitor of Curiosity centre ZINOO was given a chance to get familiar with ERC and their funded significant researches in the field of Artificial Intelligence in Europe. Thus during three days hundreds of people raised their awareness of the ERC and their scientific achievements.