For the OpenWebSearch.EU project, Graz University of Technology represented by the Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science / CoDiS Lab has joined forces with 13 other renowned European research centers to develop an open European infrastructure for web search. The project will be contributing to Europe’s digital sovereignty as well as promoting an open human-centered search engine market. The European Commission has now approved the project's Horizon Europe funding of 8,5 million euros.
The strategy was presented on March 2021 by Rector Harald Kainz, Vice-rector Horst Bischof, moderated by the head of the STS Unit, Günter Getzinger in presence of Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler and Regional Research Councilor Barbara Eibinger-Miedl.
In December 2020, the Science, Technology, and Society Unit was presented by Armin Spök at the annual meeting of the Network Technology Assessment (NTA) and was accepted as an institutional member.
The network, which has existed since 2004, currently comprises 55 institutional members from Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as around 400 personal members.
The aim of the network is to promote cooperation among TA researchers and to promote TA in science, politics, and business. The network holds a scientific conference every two years and an annual membership meeting.
In addition, workshops are held by working groups of the NTA or in cooperation with the NTA.
Further information: https://www.openta.net
Günter Getzinger leads the project `climate neutral TU Graz 2030`. As deputy chairman of the sustainability advisory board he and Alexander Passer as chairman of that advisory board, played a leading role in creating a roadmap for the climate-neutral TU Graz (people TU Graz # 76, 2020-4, page 4-5).
Together with all employees TU Graz wants to achieve the climate goals. A roadmap with concrete measures paves the way for the climate-neutral Graz University of Technology in 2030.
Image (c) Lunghammer - TU Graz
Last October marked the beginning of the Computational Social Science Lab at the Graz University of Technology. We send great thanks to all of you for your support!
This year we want to start a new tradition: The CSS Lab Holiday Paper Series. You can find the first article here and a PDF version here.
We hope to see you and keep in touch with you during 2021.
In " Der Standard Forschung aktuell" Günter Getzinger explains how sustainability is ethically based and how it can find entrance in society and its institutions such as universities. Read More
Viktoria Pammer-Schindler, group leader of the research area ‘Data-driven Business’ at Know-Center and the Working, Learning & Technology group at the Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science (ISDS), is now heading as the Chair of this alliance formed by 10 independent societies, such as the ISLS (International Society of the Learning Sciences), AIED (International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society), ST&D (Society for Text and Discourse), among others.
Open Access initiatives promise to extend access to scholarly conversations. In this blog post, Tony Ross-Hellauer, Angela Fessl, and Thomas Klebel, ask whether open and responsible research practices could perpetuate existing inequalities resulting in a system where the rich get richer and researchers from the Global South and less privileged backgrounds lose out.
Stefanie Lindstaedt has been chosen as one of the ten most influential women in Technology 2020 by the renowned ‘Analytics Insight’ magazine in their November issue. The magazine did a special feature on the ten most influential women in Technology. The article highlights the need for women in Technology and throws light on how these women leaders have laid their paths and surged ahead towards their goals with perseverance.
Every year, Graz University of Technology honors employees and students who focus on diversity in their theses, research, or teaching. We are very proud that one of this year’s award went to our colleague Nicki Lisa Cole (working at the Science, Technology and Society Unit). Nicki examined global distribution (in)justice using the example of electronics supply chains.
ISDS welcomes Professor David Garcia, who will head the research group of Computational Social Science Lab (CSS Lab) at the Institute. David Garcia's work aims to understand human behavior and emergent technological phenomena in the digital society. He works at the intersection between Computer Science and the Social Sciences in the new field of Computational Social Science. His research applies computational methods and digital trace data to study human emotions, online polarization, inequality, and social privacy issues.
Four Styrian universities (TU Graz (represented by ISDS), Medical University Graz, Uni Graz and FH Joanneum) have developed a concept study - the "Regio Data Project" to make data usable for the economy and ultimately, to make Styria an attractive business location.
Recently, Stefanie Lindstaedt, Director of ISDS and CEO of Know-Center, Graz was interviewed by the Graz universities' podcast 'AIRCAMPUS'. Under the headline 'One roof for all data', the new building on the campus of Graz University of Technology is called the 'Data House', where a new hot spot for innovations in the field of digitalization is currently being created.
Viktoria Pammer-Schindler (heading a research group at both Know-Center and the ISDS) has been enthusiastically working in the field of ‘learning and technologies’ and her recently co-authored article looks at the same from an Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) perspective.
On 14.09., the official foundation stone for two innovative buildings was laid during a press conference on the TU Graz campus: in the Summer of 2022, Know-Center will move into a new ‘Data House’ together with ISDS ‘Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science’ – making it the new hot spot for future innovations in the field of digitalization.
CLAIRE strengthens European excellence in AI research and innovation and forms a huge alliance of an innovation and research network for AI in Europe. The network was launched in 2018 and now has already around 3518 supporters – consisting of AI experts and industry. This initiative not only supports the development of AI in Europe, but also helps Europe to be a decisive step ahead. For Styria, the initiative is another milestone in the development of the European AI innovation landscape.
CyVerse in Graz, Austria (CAT) is deployed as an independent instance based on the model CyVerse US (an initiative of the University of Arizona, US, supporting all processes from data generation, management, sharing and collaboration to analytics). It is formed and funded within the framework of the BioTechMed association.
From 26-28.05.2020 the 'first virtual trade fair and conference' on the subject of 'AI practice in companies' will take place. Know-Center will be present with two lectures among some AI experts and we are looking forward to welcome you at our virtual booth!
Know-Center CEO Stefanie Lindstaedt was recently interviewed by Kleine Zeitung for its pros & cons column on the topic 'Less privacy for more disease protection'. Was Stefanie Lindstaedt for or against this?
On Friday 17 April, the European Association of Technology-Enhanced Learning (EATEL) is conducting an international online-panel session on the European educational policy reactions for technology-enhanced learning (TEL) due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tony Ross-Hellauer, Senior Researcher (Open Science) at Know-Center, has co-authored two opinion articles that have been published in the renowned ‘Nature’ journal in recent weeks. The first, a commentary paper on creating an infrastructure to study peer review and, was even featured as the cover in February issue. The second a correspondence piece on predatory journals.
We are looking forward to welcoming curious young minds to our work place and exchange interesting ideas that could lead to their research work in the form of Bachelor or Master theses. Come join us at the Open Lab Day 2020 and discuss a world of opportunities and have engaging discussions over some pizza and chilled beer.
Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science
Sandgasse 36/III
8010 Graz
Tel. +43 (316) 873-5624
Fax +43 (316) 873-5699
office.isds@tugraz.at
www.isds.tugraz.at