About the organizers
The Faculty of Computer and Information Science of the University of Ljubljana is Slovenia’s leading educational and research institution for computer and information science. It was founded in 1996, when the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science split into two separate faculties. The study of computer has been an independent study programme since 1982. The Faculty has about 250 personnel and enrols more than 1600 students. Artificial intelligence is by far its strongest research field with 5 active laboratories employing about 100 researchers. The Faculty is a full member of the the University of Ljubljana. The University was founded in 1919 and is the oldest and largest higher education and scientific research institution in Slovenia.
SMASH is a Marie Sklodowska Curie COFUND project for postdoctoral researchers centered on developing cutting-edge machine learning/AI applications for science and humanities. It is co-funded by Slovenian Government and coordinated by the University of Nova Gorica.
SMASH offers postdoctoral fellowships to 50 talented individuals in the period 2023 - 2028, to work on projects that link scientific applications of cutting-edge machine learning/AI to some of the world’s most challenging research problems. These include predictions related to the impacts of climate change, the development of next-generation precision medicine development, answering essential questions about our Universe, and digging deep into the fundamentals of language and how we communicate. It involves top 5 Slovenian academic institutions and 41 international and non academic partners.
The Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI), is the leading Slovenian scientific research institute, covering a broad spectrum of basic and applied research. It was founded in 1949 and it boasts a rich tradition of fundamental and applied research in the fields of natural sciences and technology. The Institute successfully collaborates with universities, schools, the public and the economy, as well as with top research institutions around the world. The staff of more than 1200 specializes in natural sciences, life sciences and engineering. Artificial intelligence is represented by three departments with more than 150 researchers between them. These departments have played a major role in organizing many scientific and educational events in AI. JSI is also home to VideoLectures.NET.
Slovenian Artificial Intelligence Society is an association of researchers and practitioners in the field of Artificial Intelligence in Slovenia. Most of them come from universities and research institutes, but there are members from industrial and commercial organizations as well. The society promotes theoretical and applied research as well as the transfer of AI technology to industrial and commercial environments. SLAIS was founded in 1992 and is a member society of EurAI, The European Association for Artificial Intelligence. Currently, SLAIS has more than 170 members. To put this number in context, note that Slovenia has a population of about 2.1 million.