30 years of AI and Cognitive Science in Ireland Celebrated at Annual Conference

18 January 2021
30 years of AI and Cognitive Science in Ireland Celebrated at Annual Conference

Posted: 06/12/18

In 1988 a group of students from UCD believed that Artificial Intelligence (AI) would change how we live our lives. Thirty years later, it is doubtful they predicted the impact it would have – from new products to politics, virtual agents to driverless cars – artificial intelligence has become the hottest topic in research. The event they established, the Irish Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science (AICS 2018), is celebrating thirty years of Irish research in field such as data analytics, information retrieval, and machine learning, all of which are now at the forefront of Irish computing research and industry. AICS 2018 is hosted by Trinity College Dublin’s School of Computer Science and Statistics, the School of Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience, and supported by the ADAPT Centre and Embassy of France in Ireland, and takes place in the Trinity Long Room Hub on the 6-7 th December 2018.

Two international scholars will give keynotes at the event. Professor Torsten Schaub of the University of Potsdam, Germany is a leading computer scientist and will speak about AI solutions to solving knowledge-intense combinatorial problems. Professor Monica Bucciarelli of the University of Turin, Italy is a leading cognitive scientist who will present new cognitive science discoveries about how adults and children reason algorithmically.
In addition, AICS 2018 will feature 29 presentations and 13 posters. The conference submissions had clear themes including the theme of reasoning applications, which incorporate AI applications for infectious disease epidemiology, traffic flow density, autonomous driving, and smart-home devices. The theme of Big Data and AI shows applications in stock forecasting, curriculum learning and bibliographic referencing.

On the theme of cognitive science, advances in understanding mathematical skills and visuospatial mapping will be discussed along with applications to cognitive functioning in multiple sclerosis patients.

This year, the organisers received almost double the number of submissions as last year from leading Irish-based researchers, students and companies. The sold out conference highlights the importance of AI and cognitive science research and applications for society.

The event promises to be action-packed and if the conference conforms to the mold of the previous three decades, attendees can expect to see research that charts the course for years to come.

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