Has Artificial Intelligence really surpassed that of humans? How are Computational Intelligence and its applications modifying the world around us, our way of working, living, interacting with others? Crucial questions in the world of scientific research but also in all our lives. From 18 to 23 July the world’s leading researchers in the field of Computational Intelligence, from 73 different countries, met at Padova Congress for a preeminent global event that took place for the first time in Italy: the new congress center, a technological and contemporary space designed by Kengo Kuma and inaugurated in April, has in fact hosted the IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence – IEEE WCCI 2022, the most important meeting dedicated to research in this sector.
Over 1,600 attendees arrived from around the world, almost 1,500 scientific works were presented out of 2,600 submitted, 260 different sessions in six days including plenaries, workshops, vertical training (tutorials), 6 plenary sessions, 8 academic competitions, 21 keynote speeches with top global experts in Computational Intelligence, 600 hours of hybrid meetings, in the spaces of Padova Congress and the nearby pavilion 11, as well as online: these are the figures of an event that made a huge impact on both the field of research and the linked activities in the territory.
Two people chaired the event, responsible for its organization: Alessandro Sperduti, Professor at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Padua and Professor Marco Gori from the University of Siena, alongside the honorary chair Piero Bonissone.
A truly extraordinary event awarded to Padova Congress following an international selection won thanks to the amazing teamwork of the University, Padova Hall, the organizer Rembel Group and the Padova Convention and Visitor Bureau.
THE PROGRAM: FROM NEURAL NETWORKS TO THE HUMAN-MACHINE CROSSWORD CHALLENGE
The speakers in the rich program of the IEEE WCCI 2022 include names, just to mention a few, such as the two IEEE Frank Rosenblatt Award winners, Jim Keller from the University of Missouri and Paul Werbos, who presented their research on data streaming and neutral networks respectively, which Werbos has been a pioneer in, Michael Bronstein from the Oxford University with research on learning techniques on graphs, Bing Xue from Victoria University, also a protagonist on the panel “diversity, equality & inclusion”, with research into the field of evolutionary computation, that is the iterative, continuous and combinatorial optimization in problem-solving. Finally, Tinne Tuytelaars, from the University of Lueven, who spoke about how machines can learn without forgetting. Many meetings were dedicated to Deep Learning.
The congress, which was a huge success and satisfied participants, who greatly appreciated the technological value and flexibility of Padova Congress, was promoted by IEEE, the leading organization in the world for electrical and electronic engineering and information technologies, in collaboration with the University of Padua. The organization of the event was appointed to Rembel Group supported by the collaboration of Padova Hall and the Padova Convention & Visitors Bureau (Consorzio DMO Padova).
In even years, one event holds three different conferences while they are held separately in odd years. In addition, the AI Forum 2022 was held on 19 July alongside the global congress. This is the most important event about Artificial Intelligence for companies featuring workshops, innovation talks, meetings and an expo area dedicated to the most innovative solutions. Not only: on occasion of the IEEE WCCI 2022, a special day called #INNOAI was held on 21 July: dedicated to an innovative discussion among the main Italian competence centers, companies and professionals. Among the noteworthy appointments, on the evening of Tuesday 19 July, a unique machine-human crossword challenge that presented the new intelligent WebCrow machine developed by the University of Siena in collaboration with Expert.Ai, with its extremely powerful search module on the web that selects the correct answers keeping only the ones compatible with the limits set by the crossword solution scheme.
