I will be keynote at the

International Conference on Intelligent Technologies and Applications
INTAP 2018

From Software through Art to Social Entrepreneurship 
Preparing this keynote will be my “free time” activity for the next week. I will set up a trial provided there is somebody interested to listen and help. I am looking forward to this trip and experience.

Abstract: Software engineering has been in contact with new media art for years, although the connections between these fields have rarely been explicit. In our studies we have identified software engineering issues that appear at the intersection between art and software. Artistic software is often built in small multidisciplinary teams, including collaboration between artists and software developers, as the artworks are heavily dependent on software. Artistic software projects have often a social goal and are highly innovative. Our studies in art and software have given the ground for two research directions:
The first is maker movement for education. The maker culture can be described as a philosophy in which individuals or groups of individuals create artifacts that are recreated and assembled using software and/or physical  objects. Typical topics of interest in maker culture include engineering-oriented pursuits such as electronics, robotics, 3D printing, and computer numerical control tools, as well as more traditional activities such as sewing or arts and crafts. Scholars and educators have  reported a variety of outcomes from the Maker Movement as an instructional process. The advent of programming languages for children (ie, Scratch) combined with accessible programmable hardware platforms (ie, Arduino) makes it possible for teenagers to engage in creative development of digital enriched artifacts, like robots and interactive installations. Together with a group of researchers and artists we have designed, implemented, and evaluated workshop programs. In our studies we have identified the important factors that characterize these development activities and more specifically, what motivates children to participate in such software and hardware intensive  activities?
The second is to harness the power of big data, increase collective and individual awareness about societal problems, existing in multiple levels of society, and ultimately create the needed intelligence that will lead to innovative solutions for societal challenges, such as, frameworks for organizing workshops on entrepreneurship and innovation for immigrants. This will empower the stakeholders that try to solve societal problems to follow data driven decision making process towards a sustainable society. Social Innovation is a great way for understanding and producing social good and change. It may be defined as “A novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals”. Social Innovation is a priority in EU’s strategic framework and is promoted through the Innovation Union Flagship Initiative. Structures like the Social Innovation Europe have been created to foster Social Innovation, and various EU funded projects are working on SI.