2023 Keynotes
Dr. Sven Schuett
CEO of IU Group,
IU International University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Biography: Sven joined the IU in Fall 2010 when IU has been a small campus-based university. Under Sven’s leadership IU has developed into the largest German university as well as the largest European EdTech player. During this time IU has developed the largest integrated digital education platform for university education to fulfill its vision to democratize education across the globe.
Previously, Sven was Managing Director of the Hertie School of Governance, a private University based in Berlin with over 50 % of international students and a very strong growth path.
From 2005 to 2008, Sven developed and implemented the reform of the German public employment service – one of the biggest and most successful reforms in the public sector in Europe. Amongst others, the German public employment service is the largest provider of further education with a yearly budget of ~ 10 billion € p.a..
Beforehand, Sven worked as a Consultant at McKinsey&Co focusing on engagements in the service sector.
He graduated in physics and philosophy and has completed his PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology on Learning, Development and Data Science in 2001
Speech Title: The Future of Education Unleashed: Harnessing the Power of AI-Driven Learning Buddies
This keynote speech presents an examination of the substantial shifts occurring in the educational landscape, spurred by the advancements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It delves into the implications of these transformations on work, learning methodologies, and the nature of educational content.
Central to this discourse is the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in catalyzing these shifts. A detailed overview of 'Synthea,' an AI-powered platform developed at IU International University, will be provided. Synthea encompasses a suite of AI tools - including a Q&A bot, pre-assessment systems, Socratic teaching methodologies, and integrated exams - contributing to an enhanced, personalized learning experience.
The presentation concludes with a prospective analysis of future educational content, hypothesizing an increased focus on fostering skills such as creativity, critical thinking, and adaptability in a rapidly evolving world. Attendees are invited to explore these fascinating developments and the scientific and pedagogical underpinnings of the future of education.
Prof. Edmundo Tovar
Technical University of Madrid, Spain
Biography: Edmundo Tovar, received the computer engineering degree and Ph.D. degree in informatics from the Madrid Technical University (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, UPM), Madrid, Spain, in 1986 and 1994, respectively. He is currently with the UPM as a Professor of information technology in enterprise. He has served as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the OpenCourseWare Consortium (2009–2013), Executive Director of the OCW Office of the UPM (2008–2012), and Executive Director of the Open Education Office at UPM (2013-2016).
President of IEEE Education Society (2021-2022) and junior past President (2023-2024). He leads the UPM Research Group REFERENT in technologies applied to Open Education. He has been awarded with the 2022 Research National Prize in Computer Engineering.
Speech Title: AI Implications in Satisfying Digital Skills Training Needs through OER
Open education is a catalyst for meeting the global demands for education. One of the current problems that affects a large part of the population and market is their shortage of digital skills.
Among the main challenges that Open Education aims to is facilitating the discovery of relevant educational resources, attending to the needs of the stakeholders affected. For this, the quality of the repositories of OER (Open Educational Resources) and the interoperability between them must be ensured.
The main solutions provided by AI in this context have as main obstacles the poor quality of the data, and how to deal with the ethical implications. Data quality is crucial in AI because it directly affects the performance, accuracy, and reliability of your models. In our context, high-quality OER metadata allows the models to make better predictions and produce more reliable results, fostering trust among learners.
This presentation will explore quality and ethical implications in a case of application of AI techniques to improve the accuracy of searches requested by educators and students.