The official start of the thematic platform "Machine Learning at the Austrain Academy of Sciences - MLA2S" was celebrated on Monday, June 24, with a special Kick-Off event at the main building of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Doktor-Ignaz-Seipel-Platz 2 in Vienna. Prof. Dr. Ulrike Diebold, Vice President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences opened the event in the Festive Hall with an address to an audience of more than 60 researchers from all over Austria, including various institutes of the Academy and national universities. The audience was captured by Prof. Dr. Philipp Grohs (RICAM and University of Vienna) evocative keynote speech on "Opportunities and Limitations of Deep Learning for Science", which was followed by a lively discussion with the audience. Finally, the coordinators of the thematic platform MLA2S, Dr. Claudius Krause (HEPHY, OeAW) and Dr. Nicki Holighaus (ARI, OeAW) provided a short overview over the scope of the platform and its networking activities, after which all attendants were invited to join the reception in the Aula, where extensive exchange and discussions in a relaxed atmosphere concluded the event.
Over the next months, MLA2S will already host several events to foster collaborations on Machine Learning topics across the OeAW. Specifically, the first one will be a networking seminar at which 2 institutes of the academy will present their AI research on September 2nd. In January 2025, we will host a graduate school for scientists at the OeAW and beyond. More information on these events and other activities can be found at the platform website https://www.oeaw.ac.at/mla2s. Besides devising and organizing events itself, MLA2S is already getting involved as co-organizer in hackathons, conferences and other events initiated by researchers at the OeAW, that foster inter-institute exchange on machine learning topics, some of which were conceived at the Kick-Off. To learn more, follow MLA2S on X, join the mailing list by sending an e-mail with the subject 'subscribe' to mla2s-request(at)lists.oeaw.ac.at, or visit the website. If you want to get involved, or you want to organize your own event supported by MLA2S, get in touch with the coordinators Claudius Krause and Nicki Holighaus.
