Scientific Networking Days 2024: A confluence of minds in intelligence research

By: Maria Ott

From 9-11 July 2024, Science of Intelligence (SCIoI) once again held its annual Scientific Networking Days bringing together its researchers, scientists, and experts from a wide range of disciplines. This event serves as a central meeting point for those invested in the cluster’s mission, providing a stage for assessing both new and ongoing projects, encouraging collaboration, and sparking innovative ideas that push the boundaries of intelligence research.

The event’s diverse agenda spanned three days, featuring an array of activities designed to showcase the full spectrum of research happening within SCIoI. At the heart of the event were the project presentations, each offering unique insights into cutting-edge developments. The various research areas, from visual information processing and neural systems for lifelong learning to predator-prey dynamics to parallels between observational learning in children and robots were presented. The interactive Q&A sessions that followed each presentation encouraged deep dives into the projects’ goals, methodologies, and implications, fostering discussions among participants.

The general assembly offered a forum for reflecting on the cluster’s achievements over the past year and setting the course for future initiatives. Highlights included reports from the Executive Board, updates from the Coordination Office, and contributions from various committees within the cluster.

Scientific Networking Days: Poster session

A key feature of this year’s event was an internal poster session with up to 30 posters presented by SCIoI researchers in a competition. Unlike oral presentations, posters allow for one-on-one or small group discussions, where presenters can have deeper discussions into their methodologies, findings, and implications with interested colleagues. This intimate exchange fostered an environment where ideas were explored in detail, feedback was directly obtained, and potential collaborations were sparked. The poster session acted as a microcosm of one of SCIoI’s missions: Fostering interdisciplinary collaborations.

The first-place winners of the poster session were Aravind Battaje and Nina M. Hanning. Their poster “A Study on Human and Robot Perception and the Architecture of Perceptual Information Processing”, demonstrated how they used a robotic information processing system to build models mimicking human vision. This deepened their understanding of the working principles behind human information processing.

They were closely followed by David Mezey and Dominik Deffner on the second place with “Weighing Personal and Social Information in Cooperative Problem Solving”, where the researchers presented their findings on group decision making and how this is influenced by observations of others.

The third winner was Vito Mengers with “Differentiable Interconnected Recursive Estimation as a Principle of Intelligence”, introducing a candidate principle of intelligence.

Fostering Networks

Networking was another cornerstone of the event, with numerous social activities designed to foster connections across disciplines. These informal gatherings created a ground for exchanging ideas, building relationships, and nurturing interdisciplinary collaborations. The event’s atmosphere was one of openness and creativity, where knowledge sharing naturally led to the cross-pollination of ideas and the inspiration of novel approaches to intelligence research.

This year marked a special guest at the SCIoI Networking Days: BIFOLD Co-director Volker Markl joined the Cluster for a presentation about the Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD). The Institute conducts foundational research in machine learning, big data management and their intersection and is also organizing the Summer School of Artificial Intelligence and Society 2024 together with SCIoI and the Weizenbaum Institute.

The 2024 Scientific Networking Days underscored the importance of community in driving scientific progress. By bringing together experts from diverse fields, the event highlighted SCIoI’s dedication to advancing intelligence research through collaboration and innovation. The blend of presentations, discussions, and networking opportunities catalyzed interdisciplinary dialogue, reinforcing the sense of shared purpose within the cluster.

As SCIoI continues to explore the complexities of intelligence, the annual Scientific Networking Days remain a vital platform for fostering collaboration, inspiring breakthroughs, and sustaining a vibrant, interdisciplinary scientific community. This event continues to be a cornerstone at SCIoI, ensuring that the cluster remains at the forefront of this fascinating field of research.

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