Unique mix at international symposium on digital transformations
For two full days, 21–23 August, researchers, doctoral students, and practitioners convened to discuss interdisciplinary societal challenges in digitalisation.
A comprehensive programme was conducted, featuring three distinct keynote speakers and a substantial number of research presentations spanning various disciplines, all centred around the theme of digital transformation. Topics covered in different sessions included business development, healthcare, AI, learning, and working life. Some current topics from the discussions:
- What does research say about the state of, for instance, digital maturity in our companies?
- What is the situation regarding knowledge of digital transformations and AI among teachers in Sweden, and what is being done in teacher education?
- Healthcare – how is the progress with digitalisation there?
- How are archives, museums, archaeology, etc. affected?
- How are digital platforms used in everyday life, from an international perspective?
Implementations with a human-centric focus
The symposium’s first keynote speaker was Dr. Dean Fixsen from the USA, who lectured on digital transformation and implementation, as well as their associated challenges – a theme that is common to all digitalisation processes, regardless of what field they apply to.
"If you’re going to implement something, you must place people at the centre. We are so close to each other; the interactivity among our guests, from both near and far, is fantastic. In the first discussion on Digital Business that I chaired on Tuesday, all the presenters were physically present for the panel discussion, and it’s, of course, also rewarding to listen to the dialogue that arises naturally among them”, says Professor Anita Mirijamdotter.
"We also have colleagues here from one of the international projects, namely the development of a national graduate school in Kosovo, and this is a great opportunity to meet international collaborative partners", she continues.
Facilitating new encounters across disciplines
Keynote presentations were also given by Professor Ola Henfridsson from the University of Miami, USA, on the topic “The Backend Revolution and the Digital Transformation of Institutions”, and by Professor Sarah Kenderdine from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, on the topic “Computational Museology: Interfaces to Cultural (Big) Data”.
”The uniqueness lies in the mix here – our representing many different fields and engaging in interdisciplinary listening. Normally, everyone tends to work within their own field, but it’s evident that the issues surrounding digital transformations are shared across disciplinary boundaries. Young and old, from different continents and disciplines – together we examine the issues that are so pertinent in today’s societal development. It’s rewarding to see how new contacts are being made" notes Evalill Nilsson, associate professor and responsible for the joint 10-year venture in eHealth between Linnaeus University and Region Kalmar.
As a break activity, participants had the opportunity to try chatting with one of our Misty robots, which can comprehend questions and engage in conversation using AI and text recognition. You can pose questions to Misty in various languages and have the robot respond as if it were a person or character. Misty will be used by both students and our researchers in contexts concerned with understanding and developing children’s learning about AI and computational thinking.
Further information:
Read more about the symposium on the conference webpage on the university web
Read more about Linnaeus Knowledge Environment: Digital Transformations
Read more about the project on a national graduate school in Kosovo