Next++ Workshop by Sofia Kitromili
I was fortunate enough to be in the lucky group of 8 students who were chosen to attend the Next++ workshop in Singapore on the 11th and 12th November. Aside from the long haul flight, which for many of us was a first, we had to dig out our summer clothes in preparation for the impending hot weather. I was very excited to go on this trip and very curious to attend the workshop.
The students I travelled with were a lovely group of people from three different Web Science Cohorts, meaning we were quite a varied group, and for some of us, would be attending this workshop for the very first time. Trying to make the most of our free time in Singapore, we squeezed in as much sleep as we could on the flight, and took advantage of every spare minute we had during our first free day, to go out and about in Singapore and do some sightseeing, foodtasting and in general exploring this new cultural environment.
Two of our days were dedicated to a most interesting workshop on AI, Web and Trust which we attended within the grounds of our hotel. With the company of students from NUS and Tsinghua University, we spent a day listening to a variety of topics on AI and Trust from students and academics related to the Next++ Centre. We teamed up with those students, brainstorming and producing methodologies on topics such as identifying fake news, fake multimedia and trust of recommendation agents. While we only met with the students on the same day we worked with them, I was amazed at how inviting they were to work with and how easy it was to communicate the topics when they mainly focused on the very technical side of things whereas we were coming from a range of academic backgrounds. Despite the difference in our background knowledge we managed to produce a set of interesting presentations on the day and showcased the work that we have been implementing throughout the day.
Over the 5 days, we had the chance to experience a variety of Singaporean and other Asian cuisines, some of it complimentary of the CDT. We walked around a beautiful city and took in the exciting buildings and sights spread all over, did some shopping, went on a sky car and explored a nearby island and witnessed a most breath-taking light show by the river.
The trip was certainly a once in a lifetime trip in its entirety and I would almost certainly apply for future workshops such as this one.