[ITA] Il 9 Ottobre, due giorni dopo il ritorno dalla conferenza NeoLife SLSA 2015 a Perth, di cui ho scritto in un post precedente, ero a Trondheim, in Norvegia, per far parte di una Commissione di dottorato alla Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Facoltà di Information Technology, Mathematica e Ingegneria Elettrica, Dip. di Electronica e Telecomunicazioni).
[ENG] On October 9, two days after my journey back home from NeoLife SLSA 2015 conference in Perth (I write about it in a previous post), I was in Trondheim, Norway, as a member in a doctoral Commission at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Faculty of Information Technology, Mathematics and Electrical Engineering, Department of Electronics and Telecommunications).
Italiano [English below]
La tesi del candidato Jordi Puig Vilà si intitolava Art and Technology Perspectives on Brain Atlases. La Commissione era formata dal sottoscritto come First Opponent (l’Opponent, figura abbastanza diffusa in ambito accademico al di fuori del nostro Paese, deve mettere criticamente alla prova la ricerca del candidato, deve porre domande e individuarne i punti deboli e le eventuali contraddizioni), da Judith Redi (Dip. di Sistemi Intelligenti, Multimedia Computing, Delft University of Technology, Olanda) come Second Opponent, da Konstantinos Chorianopoulos (Dip. di Informatica, Università dello Ionio, Corfù, Grecia) come terzo membro, e da Magne Hallstein Johnsen (Dip. di Elettronica e telecomunicazioni, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim) come amministratore, l’unico membro interno, anche se non partecipava alla discussione. Il suo compito era quello di presentare il candidato, introdurre i membri della Commissione e aiutarli nella necessaria parte burocratica ufficiale prima e dopo la discussione. I supervisori della tesi erano Andrew Perkis e Aud Sissel Hoel (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), presenti tra il pubblico, al di fuori della discussione.
From left: me (1st Opponent), prof. Andrew Perkis (thesis Supervisor), Dr. Jordi Puig (the candidate), prof. Aud Sissel Hoel (thesis Co-supervisor), prof. Judith Redi (2nd Opponent), prof. Konstantinos Chorianopoulos (third Ph.D. Commission member)
La ricerca del candidato è stata molto interessante e stimolante, profondamente interdisciplinare, collegando tra loro diverse aree come informatica, interface design, networking, neuroscienze, sistemi di visualizzazione, ingegneria del software e arte. La ricerca prevedeva anche una parte pratica, un’installazione artistica interattiva in Realtà aumentata (che abbiamo potuto provare prima della discussione) sul tema della raccolta, registrazione e condivisione dei ricordi, e un’applicazione software per la registrazione, l’interconnessione, il commento e la condivisione online delle pubblicazioni scientifiche sul cervello in ambito internazionale, una sorta di social network per neuroscienziati. Il software di queste due applicazioni, realizzato dal candidato a partire da software libero, è stato a propria volta rilasciato come software libero sotto una MIT License.
E’ stata una bella esperienza, per le persone, per il cibo e per la città, in particolare la città vecchia, con case costruite su pali di legno, una sorta di Venezia del Nord.
In realtà ero già stato a Trondheim nel 2010, per partecipare, con il paper “The sensible reality between obviousness and uncertainty”, al convegno internazionale “Making Reality Really Real” (4 – 6 Novembre 2010). La conferenza è stata organizzata da TEKS (Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre) durante l’apertura di Meta.Morf 2010, Biennale for Art & Technology, e anche il Planetary Collegium, e i nostri candidati del Ph.D. T-Node, hanno partecipato all’evento. Gli atti di quel convegno sono stati pubblicati in Roy Ascott, Espen Gangvik, Margarete Jahrmann (eds.), Making Reality Really Real. Consciousness Reframed, Trondheim, TEKS Publishing, 2010. Si era agli inizi di novembre e ci fu una grande nevicata che rese tutto molto divertente!
The thesis of the candidate Jordi Puig Vilà was entitled Art and Technology Perspectives on Brain Atlases. The Commission members were myself as the First Opponent, Judith Redi (Dept. of Intelligent Systems, Multimedia Computing, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands) as the Second Opponent, Konstantinos Chorianopoulos (Dept. of Informatics, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece) as the third member, and Magne Hallstein Johnsen (Dept. of Electronics and telecommunications, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim) as the administrator, who was the only internal member although he could not participate to the discussion. His task was to present the candidate, to introduce the members of the Commission, and to help us in the necessary official bureaucratic work before and after the discussion. The thesis supervisors were Andrew Perkis and Aud Sissel Hoel (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), who were present but among the public, out of the discussion.
The candidate’s research was very interesting and stimulating, deeply interdisciplinary, linking different areas like informatics, interface design, networking, neurosciences, visualization systems, software engineering and art. The final, practical, results were an interactive art installation in augmented reality on the topic of memories’ collecting and sharing, that we could try before the discussion, and a software application for recording, connecting, commenting and online sharing the brain publications worldwide, a sort of social network for neuroscientists. The software of these two applications, coded by the candidate starting from free software, has been in turn released as free software, under a MIT License.
It was a nice experience, because of the people, of the food and of the city. In particular the old town was amazing, with houses built on wooden poles, a sort of northern Venice.
Indeed I already was in Trondheim in 2010, when I participated, with the paper “The sensible reality between obviousness and uncertainty”, to the International conference “Making Reality Really Real” (November 4 – 6, 2010). The conference was organized by TEKS (Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre) during the opening of Meta.Morf 2010, Biennale for Art & Technology, and also the Planetary Collegium, as well as our T-Node Ph.D. candidates, participated to the event. The conference proceedings are published in Roy Ascott, Espen Gangvik, Margarete Jahrmann (eds.), Making Reality Really Real. Consciousness Reframed, Trondheim, TEKS Publishing, 2010. It was at the beginning of November, and it was a big snowfall, which made all very funny!
