Hi everyone, it’s been a while since our visit to Linköping University and Imagimob. We were so busy exploring Sweden that we didn’t get a chance to sit down and give you a recap of what happened so far. Linköping was a little town with “such a cute square” while Stockholm was much bigger and more city-like. Yet, somehow we kept ending up in the same place as the day before.
In our last blog we talked about how Volvo and Saab both decided against automating their processes. We questioned if it was part of Swedish business culture to lean towards more hands-on production. However, the following two businesses we visited had the complete opposite opinions. We were given presentations on AI and the benefits/challenges of data from Linköping University, as well as from Imagimob which is a company focusing on Edge AI. Nikki was a data analytics major and literally studied AI and ML for undergrad, so please excuse her as she nerds out over the presentations, especially the one at Linköping University.
Linköping University
The university’s campus itself was so cool. Although we didn’t get to explore much, the one building we did see was amazing. I will admit, when I first read the itinerary, I thought we were going to be given a tour of the dorms since it was called the “student house”. It gave Keck vibes (STEM Chapman students know what I mean) but had more floors that were all packed with students.
I think the general consensus among us was that the presentations given at the University were all pretty interesting, but that the first one regarding AI was everyone’s favorite. Their entire computer science department seems extremely impressive. They play a part in two deep tech programs, WASP and WISE, as well as serve as the nation’s center for supercomputing.
They explained that applying to the school’s PhD program is practically like applying to a job, especially since the school is very research oriented. One of the papers written at the university was on guidelines for trustworthy AI. Even though the entire idea of “trustworthy” is subjective, the paper defines that AI should meet all regulations and ethical standards in order to be considered trustworthy. However, it also depends on how the AI is implemented. Our presenter discussed that the most effective way to implement AI is as a combination with people. It’s not about replacing people, AI is meant to complement their abilities and give them an advantage. I was really excited by this because it really aligns with my thoughts on AI.
From a business perspective, we have been seeing a lot of jobs cut and tasks being outsourced to AI software. We also see an increase in the usage of data by different companies. In another one of these presentations we went over the different challenges revolving data. Other than the usual potential of bias when implementing data, there are other factors that could make the data collected useless. Not only is there the misconception that having customer data leads to a competitive advantage, focusing on the volume of data can actually have a negative effect.
Art Museum Mishaps
Of course we can’t leave out what went wrong on this leg of the trip. It would totally be against our nature for everything to go smoothly.
We really enjoyed our time at the Gothenburg Museum of Art, so we figured it would be a good idea to explore some of the art museums in Stockholm. We decided to visit Moderna Museet, the modern art museum. Boy was that a mistake. Although some pieces were cool, there were a couple exhibits that definitely could cause nightmares. Unless you are a fan of modern art, (which we learned we are not) this museum was, excuse my language, kinda ass. Literally, there was a piece that was just horse butts hanging from the wall.
I will admit, I did like the meaning behind most of these exhibits, like the horses, despite how bizarre they seemed at first. Thankfully we went to the National Museum afterwards which had art that was much more our taste. However, nothing could stop the nightmares Ritika had of some of the modern art exhibits.
