Events
Excited events
March 27: Workshop on Learning, Critical Thinking, and Generative AI
NTNU’s community project FreeThought, in collaboration with Excited SFU, invites you to a workshop on learning, critical thinking, and generative AI.
The workshop is free and open to all, but there is a limited number of physical seats, so registration is necessary. Please register here:
https://nettskjema.no/a/496969
This workshop will include introductory talks and group collaboration on the theme of critical thinking and generative AI. Lunch will be served.
Details:
- Time: Thursday, March 27, 2025, from 12:15 to 14:30
- Location: Kjelhuset (KJL4) Gløshaugen
The workshop mainly targets in-person participation, but you are welcome to attend digitally. A link will be sent to registered participants before the workshop.
Agenda
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Lunch
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Introductory talks
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Group work
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Presentation of group work
About the Talks
Heine A. Holmen: "Critical and Normative Thinking as a Preparedness Package"
Democracy is far more complicated than voting mechanisms and tallies to eliminate opponents, à la Squid Game. At its core, democracy is a complex deliberative decision-making process for determining what a community wants to do politically. This system does not function in isolation from the values and attitudes of its participants. At the same time, it is undermined by the “bullshitting” that several authoritarian actors now consciously employ to disrupt and paralyze democracy. A critical and value-conscious culture is required to uphold democracy, where a sufficient number of participants have both the ability and the opportunity to argue in a factual and informed manner, with real scope for influencing decisions. To safeguard democracy, we therefore need to build a culture and practice that emphasizes critical and normative competence.
In other words, we need to assemble a philosophical preparedness package among the populace.
Birgit R. Krogstie: "Critical Thinking as a Sustainability Competence"
Critical thinking is considered one of the key competences for sustainability. What does this mean?
What kinds of learning activities are suitable for promoting critical thinking related to sustainability?
Adrian Stoica: “AI use in IT1901 Informatics Project 1 - a practical SE course”
This workshop segment presents more recent insights relevant to the use of AI tools in a practical software engineering course. The course is an intermediate-level course that aims at improving and expanding the students’ core skills, which are required in software development. The course design and structure will be introduced, followed by a brief presentation of the AI tools usage insights gained in the last run of the course
Oddveig Storstad: "Knowledge for Critical Thinking and Democratic Preparedness"
Schools are responsible for educating the next generation of citizens, and in an era where democracy can no longer be taken for granted in many countries, awareness of the importance of education for democratic preparedness has been renewed. At the same time, the importance of editorially managed media as sources of information and knowledge is declining. In many ways, the media have shifted from being democratic actors to becoming a threat to democracy. This is exacerbated by the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence, and we are increasingly dependent on a capable human intelligence to counteract forces that undermine democratic society. What are schools doing, and what can they do?
About the Speakers
Heine A. Holmen is Head of the Department at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies (IFR) at NTNU and an Associate Professor of Philosophy at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway. Holmen has a background as a doctoral fellow with a Ph.D. from the University of Oslo and its Centre of Excellence, the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature (CSMN), and has, among other positions, been a visiting researcher at Birkbeck College in London and Rutgers Centre for Cognitive Science (RuCCS) in New Jersey. He has special interests in the philosophy of death, epistemology, and ethics, as well as the role of rationality and critical-normative thinking, both in society as a whole and in an individual’s life.
Birgit R. Krogstie is an Associate Professor at NTNU’s Department of Computer Science. She is the Center Director for Excited, the Centre for Excellent IT Education. She has a background in computer science and general didactics and conducts research at the intersection of these areas. Krogstie has particular interests in project-based learning, user-centered development, reflection, IT education, and integrating sustainability into IT education.
George Adrian Stoica is an associate professor at the Department of Computer Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. Adrian’s experience spans over two decades. He worked both in academia and industry, and he was involved in several European and national level research projects and in industrial projects regarding educational software, response technology, mobile applications, and services, web solutions, CMS, e-commerce and ERP, and other types of software and services. Adrian has been leading the Information Systems and Software Engineering unit within the Computer Science Department for the past three and a half years, managing 70+ employees in line with the department's strategy for research and education. A significant share of the work involved practical software design and development. For over half a decade, Adrian has been teaching IT1901, a practical, intermediate-level, software engineering course that focuses on practical skills required for software development.
Oddveig Storstad holds a Dr.polit. degree in sociology and has extensive experience as a researcher and research leader at the Norwegian Centre for Rural Research (now Ruralis) and the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO). She has also served as head of the fact-checking department at the newspaper Adresseavisen and taught at the journalism program at Kristiania University College. She is currently a Professor of Social Sciences at the Department of Teacher Education, where she primarily teaches social science research methods and themes related to democracy and citizenship. Storstad is the national coordinator for ICCS 2022 and ICCS 2027 (International Civic and Citizenship Education Study), an international study on lower secondary school students’ knowledge and understanding of democracy and citizenship. In addition, the study collects data on students’ interests and views regarding democracy and citizenship issues, their participation and engagement in society and politics, and their perceptions of various aspects of democracy and citizenship education. Storstad also leads the DEMOKOMP project – “Young People’s Democratic Competence” – which has many similarities with the ICCS study but is carried out among upper secondary school students. In addition, she heads the project “How to Understand Generation Z,” funded by NTNU Fellesskap, whose aim is to develop new, valid measurement tools for research on youth, community, and democracy.
SFU Excited open webinars for teaching staff Spring 2025
Curious about current issues, new tools and methods in IT education?
Join the SFU Excited Spring 2025 webinar series!
Centre for Excellent IT Education, Excited, aims at bringing Norway in the forefront of innovative IT education and making IT an increasingly more attractive study choice for young people. These webinars aim at creating arenas for discussions and reflection among the teaching staff. Each webinar will be held in Zoom and include a presentation and a Q&A session.
The main audience are the academic personnel from NTNU and NORD University involved in teaching, IT education and related research. At the beginning, there is a short introduction, the main slot is for the presentation on the topic below, and after that there is time for questions from the audience.
2024
Sustainability in software engineering education
Curious about current issues, new tools and methods in IT education?
Join this open seminar from the SFU Excited Autumn 2024 seminar series for the teaching staff!
Title: Sustainability in software engineering education
Date and time: Friday, 13 December, 09:30-10:15 CET
Place: Teams (all registered participants will receive a link prior to the seminar)
Target group: Teachers in computing in higher education
Language: English
Abstract: The ongoing information age has led to the proliferation of software products and services to an extent that barely any facet of human activity is left untouched. Consequently, the footprint of software is on the rise, and the pace of this rise is escalating with each iteration of software – for example, the advent and widespread adoption of LLMs further magnifies the emissions associated with clouds, both data as well as computing. In the face of this reality and the stressed planetary boundaries, due thought and effort must be put in to ensure that software is built, used, and phased out in the most sustainable manner possible.
While there is adequate emphasis and effort in teaching technological skills, there is barely any visible effort in teaching the skills and competencies needed to do software engineering in a sustainable manner, keeping the earth’s ecosystems (the planetary boundaries) in mind. This presentation and discourse are about our experience at LUT University, focusing on integrating the teaching of sustainability skills and competencies in mainstream software engineering education, presenting the SE4GD master’s program and a sub-set of the sustainability-focused software engineering course(s) in SE4GD.
About the speaker: Dr. Shola Oyedeji is a Post-doctoral Researcher in the Software Engineering Department at LUT University. He specializes in software product sustainability design and impact assessment, with a research focus on raising awareness, developing measurement frameworks, and sustainability assessment of software products and services. Dr. Oyedeji supervises master's and doctoral students on various topics related to sustainability in software engineering and is actively involved in teaching courses addressing sustainability issues in software engineering. As the deputy coordinator of the Software Engineers for Green Deal (SE4GD) master’s program, he plays a pivotal role in training future software developers to embrace sustainability as a core principle. He is also a member of the Sustainability Design Alliance, an initiative committed to advancing knowledge and fostering awareness about sustainable practices in software design.
Welcome to the AI Seminar Series from NorwAI – Norwegian research center for AI Innovation, & NAIL – Norwegian Open AI Lab, this time co-organized with SFU Excited.
The seminar is free and open for all. Please forward this invite to interested colleagues.
About the speaker
Loïs Vanhée (docent, recognized teacher) is an Associate Professor in Artificial Intelligence at the Umeå University. His core research interests revolve around the development of psychologically-grounded AI systems, for which he implemented a variety of psychological aspects (e.g. norms, values, needs, emotions, cognitive workload) within an array of AI methods (e.g. LLM, automated planning, social robotics, social simulation) and he coordinates the Special Interest Group on Models of Human Decision.
His recent research focus revolves around the development of Anxiety-Sensitive AI systems (AnxSAI) for which he has developed spearheading research in top-ranking venues and received multiple grants, including from the Swedish Research Council. As an educator, Loïs is particuarly active in the field of transdisciplinary and responsible AI education; both in research and practice, and is involvedin leading education-research alignment initiatives. In his functions of co-director of TAIGA, Umeå's center for Transdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence for the Good of All, he organizes a university-wide network dedicated to the development and application of Socially-Aware Artificial Intelligence (i.e. designing AI systems sensitive andadaptive to the social context they are part of) and is currently setting up a transdisciplinary AI recearch platform for covering a university-wide interests.
Abstract
This event consists of two related parts, beginning by a presentation of some key research activities (45 minutes) followed up a coffee break and a workshop-like encounter in the second part. While connected, both parts can be attended independently.
Large language models, deep learning, neural networks, agents, expert systems... Each new Artificial Intelligence (AI) breakthrough follow a hype cycle, with an overexcitement that raises as quickly as it fades when another variant arise. What if, instead of racing after every last technique, we were to focus on the fundamental questions raised by AI, i.e. how to design systems that have intelligent proprties? This is the approach and question at the core of my activity, which I address by extracting insights from cognitive sciences and psychology on the various facets of intelligence and translate as models and design principles for AI systems. I am honored to be given an opportunity to share with you this passion through this seminar, which I will split in the following parts as to address the interests of the various invited attendees:
- A general introduction on psychology-grounded AI development and its relevance to address the everchanging landscape of AI research and education
- A focus on a specific research activity, namley Anxiety-Sensitive AI (AnxSAI), connecting psychological theory, fundamental AI research, operational models, and practical applications
- An example of how this approach has been and can be articulated as a platform for transdisciplinary research and education collaborations
This last item will act as a starting point for the second part, which is organized as an arena for creating new collaborations. This part is organized as a short version of a transdisciplinary AI workshop, allowing participants to get to know each other and the establishment of a mapping of collaboration potentials. This workshop is also an opportunity, if you are interested in international and/or transdsciplinary collaborations, to have your researchinterests promoted within our university-wide collaborator networks within TAIGA, Umeå's center for Transdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence.
Details
Time: Friday, November 15th, 09:30-11:30
Place: IT Building South, 1st floor, Room 119 Drivhuset, Gløshaugen (Entrance at Sem Sælandsv. 7)
Competency level of the talks: Popular Scientific (with some technical details)
NordICHI2024 Workshop
Sustainability analysis of AI-based tools in higher education
NTNU, UiO and UiO Library organise together a workshop during the Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 2024, at Uppsala, Sweden.
Conference dates: October 13 – 16, 2024
Workshop date: Sunday, October 13 (afternoon)
Read more about the workshop at the conference website
The workshop aims to present the Sustainability Awareness Framework (SusAF) for sustainability analysis of AI-based digital tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Dall-E) applied in higher education. It will explore sustainability issues and challenges associated with the use of such tools.
If you have experience with sustainability and teaching, or you are interested in introducing this theme in your class, this workshop fits for you. However, experience in using AI-based tools in education is not a requirement for participation in the workshop.
This workshop aims to bring together researchers in the fields of HCI, CSCW, interaction design, software engineering, social science, and philosophy, as well as policymakers who are interested in the topic of sustainability analysis and/or AI-based tools.
Call for participation:
Please submit a short reflection paper (1-2 pages) on the use of AI-based digital tools in higher education and/or the sustainability of those tools.
The workshop provides an opportunity to:
- Reflect on sustainability issues in teaching and AI-based digital tools and
- Address concerns on sustainability and AI-based digital tools
Submission deadline: 30.08.2024
Organizers:
John Krogstie, Professor, Department of Computer Science, NTNU
Birgit Rognebakke Krogstie, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, NTNU
Maja van der Velden, Professor, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo
Andrea Gasparini, Senior Librarian and Senior Lecturer, Collection and Digital Services, University of Oslo Library
Dimitra Chasanidou, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Computer Science, NTNU
Contact:
dimitra.chasanidou@ntnu.no
a.a.gasparini@ub.uio.no
Learningfestival 2024
Join the AI Day 26 January 2024!
– Reposted from NTNU Innsida, Arrangement for studenter og ansatte. Written by: Kristina Uldahl
AI undoubtedly holds great opportunities – but also great challenges.
The NTNU University Library invites you to an exciting themed day about artificial intelligence, where researchers and others from NTNU present their perspectives on AI technology.
Date and time: Friday 26. January, from 10.00 – 15.00
The event is open for everyone.
You can participate physically at the Natural Science Library in Trondheim, or digitally via s.ntnu.no/ki-dagen
For those who participate physically, we offer coffee, tea and popcorn.
Extract from the program:
- The Norwegian language model
- AI and ethical challenges
- AI in student projects
- AI and the green shift
See also the event's Facebook page
The AI Day is initiated by the University Library, and created in a cooperation with Open AI Lab, NorwAI and SFU Exited.
