VDSP Retreat 2024 - Using AI effectively and responsibly
This year, the VDSP retreat took place under the topic 'Using AI effectively and responsibly'. Our students spent three days in Steinschall-Tradigist in Lower Austria, where they were accommodated in the beautiful hotel Steinschalerhof.
The retreat started with a hands-on coding workshop led by two experts in the field of AI from the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) Budapest. The students learned about different Large-Language-Models (LLMs) and how they can be used properly and responsibly in a scientific context. The problem of copyrighted code was also discussed. On the first evening, after having had a barbecue, there was a bonfire, which fit the mountainous region of the 'Dirndltal' perfectly. The students were able to socialize and even made some music together.
The second day started with the last part of the coding workshop, where advanced insights of specific applications were provided. Afterwards a speaker from the ETH Zurich held a workshop about writing with the help of AI in the context of scientific research. The participants got a lot of insights about how writing AIs work and how to formulate prompts for better results. In the afternoon, the group went on a hike to the top of the surrounding mountains, where the thirsty students got rewarded with a 'Bierbrunnen' – a well where beer, other beverages and snacks are stored and kept cool. The day was rounded off with a fun pub quiz related to AI.
On the last day, another session was held about how to use AI in the scientific workflow in an effective and responsible way. Some tools were presented and compared by the participants. The retreat was concluded by discussions regarding various topics regarding AI and academia.
We cordially thank the speakers for the great workshops and a special thank you goes to Prof. Christoph Dellago for making this retreat happen!
By Patrick Harnisch
