Founded in 1885, Chuo University, with its six campuses and eight faculties located in Tokyo, is currently one of the largest and most prestigious private institutions of higher education in Japan, with more than 700 faculty members and close to 27,000 students. The three-day 2024 15th CogInfoCom conference, held on the institution's Tama Campus, investigated how cognitive processes and info-communication tools can co-evolve, how the human brain's capabilities can be extended by these tools, and what new human cognitive capabilities can be developed. It was also explored how much more effective humans can become as a result of these collaborations, and what individual, social and economic impacts can be expected as a consequence.
The principal focus of CoginfoCom was on technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, cognitive networks, human-machine interfaces and their various applications in areas such as smart cities, transport systems and digital reality.
At the conference, which was attended by academics from universities located on several continents, András Hajdu, Dean of the Faculty of Informatics (IK), Géza Husi, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering (MK) and Péter Korondi, Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Mechatronics of the Faculty of Engineering, representing the University of Debrecen, delivered immensely successful plenary lectures. The faculty members of IK also gave as many as five individual session presentations.
Between the hosting institution, Chuo University, and our Faculty of Engineering at UD, there has been a close relationship and cooperation going on for almost 15 years.
“This event was important both for the Faculty of Informatics and for the Faculty of Engineering because, in addition to opening up new contacts with new perspectives, we could also inform our Japanese partners of the research projects currently carried out at the University of Debrecen, thanks to the posters put on display. As a result of this, research cooperation is going to start with several Japanese researchers in the fields of R&D and business projects related to artificial intelligence,” said Dean of DE MK Géza Husi.
The Japanese-Hungarian session on organic human-robot interaction for social robotics was chaired by Csilla Csukonyi, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Humanities of UD, and Almusawi Husam Abdulkareem, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of UD.
“Relations with the Far Eastern countries are of particular importance for the future of artificial intelligence, as this field is being developed very dynamically in this region by implementing fairly significant investments in the relevant sector. Based on the example of the exemplary relationship with Chuo University, our Faculty of Informatics is developing further educational as well as research and development cooperation with universities and research centers located in Taiwan, China and India,” said András Hajdu, Dean of DE IK.
After the official closing of the conference, the delegation from the University of Debrecen also discussed further opportunities for the development of university and faculty-level cooperation with representatives of Chuo University.
“The primary objective of CogInfoCom is to ensure that human interaction with machines should not be just about switching them on and off or pressing buttons on them. Instead, we should try to communicate with machines the same way as with another human being or, more precisely, as with an artificial creature with a high level of intelligence in a field. In order to be able to do this, we need to create synergies between distant fields, such as engineering and psychology,” said Professor Péter Korondi.
The list of scientific partners and sponsors of the conference included Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Corvinus University of Budapest, the Japanese KDDI Foundation, HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network and the Hungarian Academy of Engineering.
Closely connected to the conference, there was also an innovation exhibition on display with an artificial intelligence focus, where the University of Debrecen and Enjoy Robotics, the industrial member of our research group, presented a total of 14 innovation posters presenting AI applications. During the course of the event, our university's researchers were also negotiating with potential investors for their projects using AI.
The conference website is available by clicking here.
Press Centre - OCs
