EIC Pathfinder grant for research in AI-driven data visualisation

A team of researchers from the University of Luxembourg, AEGIS IT Research GmbH (Germany), Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium), and Telefónica I+D (Spain) has received an EIC Pathfinder Challenge grant of 4 million euros for their research in AI-driven data visualisation systems. This is the first EIC Pathfinder grant that is coordinated by the University of Luxembourg.

The project: SYMBIOTIK

We live in an era of information overload that impairs our capacity to make objective decisions, especially in time-sensitive contexts: From emergency rooms and autonomous cars to operational command centres, a clear understanding and rapid assessment must take place based on the available information at our disposal.

While the use of data visualisation tools to mitigate this effect has been widely discussed as a possible countermeasure, the potential of these tools has not yet unlocked their true potential to best assist the user in critical decision-making tasks. The SYMBIOTIK project will lay the basis for an interaction dialogue between humans and Information Visualisation (InfoVis) systems to support decision making processes, inspired by known biological principles and guided by artificial intelligence (AI).

SYMBIOTIK proposes a novel framework where both the human and the machine cooperate towards a common goal and evolve together. Dr. Ioannis Arapakis from Telefonica Research said: “We are looking at a unique setting, where human and machine intelligence collaborate via cross-modal communication, towards a common goal and, over time, evolve together, improve, and learn from each other”.

The framework will allow us to engineer more sophisticated intelligent systems, making them more resilient and more human-centric. The results of the project will benefit a range of stakeholders, from computer scientists and citizens as well as research funding bodies and policy makers.

“The SYMBIOTIK project will pave the way for AEGIS to explore innovative and remarkable ways of visualising data, enabling the exploration process for adaptive systems that focus on users’ behaviour to support the information acquisition process. AEGIS is looking into the possibility of providing adaptive visualisation systems to reduce users' cognitive effort to understand, and get better insights from data in cybersecurity and other business-critical contexts,” said Mr. Michalis Vakalellis from AEGIS IT research, GmbH

The project is coordinated by Prof. Luis Leiva at the University of Luxembourg, along with Mr. Michalis Vakalellis from AEGIS IT Research GmbH, Prof. Jean Vanderdonckt from Université catholique de Louvain and Dr. Ioannis Arapakis from Telefónica I+D.

As stated by Prof. Leiva, “We propose an ambitious framework to create symbiotic self-adaptive InfoVis systems. Ultimately, the project will offer a principled framework to support decision making in situation and time-sensitive tasks.”

© University of Luxembourg