HTEC Highlights from DSC Europe 2023

In the span of a single year bookended by its two editions, the Data Science Conference (DSC) has already emerged as one of the preeminent AI and data events in Europe. From November 20 to 24, Belgrade was Europe’s epicenter of future-defining discussions on all things data and AI.??

As was the case with the inaugural edition of DSC, HTEC Group was once again proud to support an event of such weight and magnitude in collective data expertise. Across all five days of DSC, our domain experts from a wide range of industries being reshaped by big data and AI were actively involved in sharing their knowledge and perspectives, while our booth was a hive of activity and positive energy.??

Furthermore, as the event’s gold sponsor, we had the privilege of hosting a dinner for all conference speakers, bringing together more than 160 leading global authorities from frontier-pushing organizations for a memorable night of networking and knowledge exchange.??

Here are only a few of our personal highlights from what was a whirlwind week of activity.?

Speaker spotlight?

HTEC Group was represented by six expert speakers across different program tracks.??

Ivan Popovic , Director of Engineering & Delivery, served as one of the panelists in an illuminating discussion dedicated to the automotive industry, a domain with some of the most intriguing and promising potential applications of AI.??

Our duo of Senior Director of Engineering & Delivery Stefan Mr?i? and Director of Technology Goran Savi? took the DSC X stage by storm diving into the potential utilization of AI tools for the improvement of internal processes in tech companies. They provided a sneak peek into HTEC’s internal AI tool which we are already using and constantly improving. Judging by the number of camera flashes as each new slide was introduced, the audience very much took notice.?

Ognjen Mili?evi?, an assistant professor of medicine who also moonlights as HTEC Group’s ML Technology Lead, provided one of the best-received DSC talks. His exploration of the intersection of AI and digital health titled “Do Androids Dream of Human Doctors” sparked many a laughter while providing plenty of food for thought. We caught up with Ognjen afterwards to pick his brain about the thought process in developing this fascinating presentation.?

“Initially, the invite was a challenging one–I felt that generative AI simply must be the topic this year, as it is the focus of the community. Because of its novelty, much of it is theoretical and conceptual, and showcasing our work is simply not enough–we need to describe, consider and conclude something as well. So, this year I tried to create a story, and a story has to flow, engage, and ultimately impress. I used every tool I had–personal work, domain knowledge, philosophical and even biblical references. The conclusion I tried to emphasize is that generative AI in medicine should focus on the doctor space instead of the patient space, as the rewards from that are low-hanging and ethically pure.”?

Speaking of ethics, HTEC Group’s Head of AI Igor ?evo made a cross-disciplinary dissection of the ways we (could) engineer intelligence through agent interactions, focusing on the ethical and philosophical implications of developing a super-intelligence–a discussion that will greatly define the future course of AI’s development.???

Finally, on the closing day of the event, our Senior ML Technology Lead Ivan Petrovi? delivered a highly engaging talk on architecting generative AI solutions, with the audience’s interest spilling over into the event’s hallways long after the presentation’s end. Ivan was kind enough to share his impressions from his presentation and the event as a whole.??

“My topic was aimed towards people trying to ‘get their hands dirty’ and get into building solutions powered by generative AI. The feedback I received from the audience was that they liked the practicality and the hands-on aspect of the presentation, which I feel has been one of the main strengths of the entire event. The conference was a great place to hear other opinions on the emergence of generative AI technology and its impacts. It was also a good educational opportunity because many of the speakers were quite direct in their presentations and provided enough evidence and conclusions complementing my own thoughts on how the technology can be used and what are its limitations.”?

Big kudos to all our speakers for bringing their expertise and their unique flavor to the event and helping moderate and expand some of the most critical discussions of today.??

Focus on networking?

With DSC gathering some of the preeminent global voices in AI and data, we strived to use our position as the event’s gold sponsor to provide opportunities for these voices to connect, exchange ideas, and hopefully form impactful future partnerships.???

Our experts, Director of Business Growth Sally Barker and Head of HealthTech Sava Marinkovich, took part in a networking roundtable featuring distinguished multi-industry experts. They explored various business-oriented topics, aiming to exchange ideas and insights to shape the future of data innovation and foster collaborations.???

One of our absolute highlights of the event was hosting a dinner for all of DSC speakers. The sheer volume of smarts, expertise, and experience gathered in one place was both humbling and inspiring. Having the opportunity to “talk shop” with thought leaders from organizations shaping the future of AI was a rare privilege, and we were delighted with both the turnout and the enthusiasm of the esteemed invitees.??

Serious fun?

Finally, a five-day-long highlight of DSC was the constant buzz of fun, laughter, meeting and networking at the HTEC booth. Our team had prepared a little game that became a proper hit with the audience, where the visitors would try to guess whether a piece of text or an image was human-made or AI-generated. The results were occasionally hilarious and often revealing, but the key thing is that we have met so many smart, knowledgeable, and genuinely enthusiastic people all eager to find out what’s next for AI and big data.??

We wish to thank our event team for holding it all together and making DSC 2023 such a special and successful event for HTEC, as well as to the DSC organization for making such an epic event a smooth experience without any glitches.??

While it is still a long way away, we can already say that we are looking forward to the next edition of the Data Science Conference. We are sure we will have plenty more to talk about.???