Academic Lectures
We have invited several high-level experts and research leaders to give lectures and share knowledge with you. Here is a short overview of their background and abstracts.
NAME, kraadid - TEEMA
ASUTUS Homepage?,
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Andrea Stocco - (TBD: SE+AI)
Technical University of Munich Homepage, Google Scholar
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Pan Hui - (TBC)
University of Helsinki Homepage, Google Scholar
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Vaclav (Vashek) Matyas - (TBC)
Masaryk University Homepage, Google Scholar
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Michael Felderer - TEEMA
DLR Institute of Software Technology and Full Professor of Computer Science at the University of Cologne Homepage, Google Scholar
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Anastasija Nikiforova - Governing AI in Practice: Responsible Adoption, Human-AI Delegation, and Sustainable AI Lifecycle
University of Tartu Homepage, Google Scholar
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Artificial Intelligence is rapidly moving from experimentation into real organizational and societal settings. Yet successful AI adoption depends on far more than technical performance alone. As a fundamentally sociotechnical phenomenon, AI reshapes decision-making, organizational routines, accountability structures, and resource dependencies. Its adoption therefore requires governance mechanisms that address human oversight, responsibility, delegation of authority, and long-term sustainability. This talk examines how organizations can—and should—adopt AI responsibly across the full AI lifecycle. It explores the practical challenges of sharing and delegating tasks between humans and AI systems, i.e., when AI should augment decisions, when human control must remain central, and how effective delegation boundaries can be designed in practice. The talk further introduces emerging perspectives on Sustainable and Green AI, highlighting the environmental and material dimensions of AI as a sociomaterial phenomenon—from model training and infrastructure demands to semiconductor supply chains, raw material extraction, and end-of-life hardware. Building on this, it presents the concept of a supply-chain-aware AI lifecycle. By combining technical, organizational, and societal perspectives, the session offers a practical framework for understanding AI governance beyond abstract principles and toward responsible real-world implementation.
Bio:
Anastasija Nikiforova is an Associate Professor of Applied AI and Information Systems at the at University of Tartu (Faculty of Science and Technology, Institute of Computer Science, Chair of Software Engineering) (Estonia), where she also leads the Information Systems research group. Her research focuses on data and AI governance and digital transformation, with particular emphasis on the responsible adoption of emerging technologies, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI). She examines how (Gen)AI shapes organizational processes and data governance, including data quality, human–AI collaboration, and delegation mechanisms, as well as their ethical, societal, and environmental implications, such as responsible, sustainable, and Green AI within (public) data and digital ecosystems. By exploring the interplay between technology, society, and policy, her work contributes to the resilience, sustainability, and inclusiveness of complex socio-technical systems and informs AI governance and decision-making. In essence, she studies where AI ambitions collide with governance, legitimacy, and readiness, and how to design systems that remain robust under such pressures. Anastasija serves on the editorial boards of several leading journals, including International Journal of Information Management, Government Information Quarterly, IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society, and Data & Policy. She is a track chair for major conferences in information systems, AI, and public administration (e.g., IFIP EGOV-CEDEM-EPART, dg.o, AMCIS, HICSS) and contributes to workshops at ECAI, IJCAI, PRICAI, and CBI-EDOC. Her work involves close collaboration with the KNOW Center, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, the Digital Statecraft Academy, the European Open Science Cloud (“FAIR Metrics and Digital Objects” Task Force), and the Latvian Open Technology Association. She is actively engaged in international research and professional communities, including the International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 8.5 (IFIP WG 8.5 on ICT and Public Administration), the European Digital Skills Certificate (EDSC), the Association of Information Systems Women’s Network College, and Women in AI. She also serves as a mentor for the GovStack Women in GovTech Challenge 2026 and is a board member of the Digital Government Society.