by Vito D.P. Servedio

Abstract: Each sphere of knowledge and information could be depicted as a complex mesh of correlated items. By properly exploiting these connections, innovative and more efficient navigation strategies could be defined, possibly leading to a faster learning process and an enduring retention of information. In this work we investigate how the topological structure embedding the items to be learned can affect the efficiency of the learning dynamics. I’ll introduce a general class of algorithms that simulate the exploration of knowledge/information networks standing on well-established findings on educational scheduling. We focused both on synthetic and real-world graphs such as subsections of Wikipedia and word-association graphs. I’ll highlight the existence of optimal topological structures for the simulated learning dynamics whose efficiency is affected by the balance between hubs and the least connected items. Interestingly, the real-world graphs we considered lead naturally to almost optimal learning performances.

by Luc Steels 

Abstract: Creativity is inherently related to problem solving – more specifically,  to a process of handling an impasse in a novel way. I will use examples of creativity in language, music,  architecture, and product development to elaborate this point of view and examine its implications for  learning and innovation.

by Francesca Tria

Abstract: Innovation, the emergence and diffusion of something new (new technologies, new genes, new behaviors) drives the evolution of human society as well as of biological systems. A general concept that applies to innovation and the emergence of novelties, is what Kauffman called the expansion of the adjacent possible. By creating fresh opportunities, one novelty can pave the way for others, enlarging the space of possibilities in a self-consistent way.
I will present a recent work aimed at grounding the notion of adjacent possible on real data, by the definition of quantitative measures and the development of a suitable mathematical framework.

Ilan Chabay is Senior Fellow at Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam Germany, where he co-leads the Sustainable Modes of Arctic Resource-driven Transformations and global interdependencies  (SMART) project and collaborates in the Emerging Technologies and Social Transformations program.
He is honorary member of Swiss Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities, served on Scientific Committee of the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) and Science & Technical Committee of UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
He was Hasselblad Professor in the sociology and applied IT departments at University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University 2006-2011, consulting professor of chemistry at Stanford University 1984-1988. In Silicon Valley he founded and directed The New Curiosity Shop from 1983-2001, which designed and produced hands-on science exhibitions for over 200 science centers worldwide.
His Ph.D. is in chemical physics from University of Chicago.

Mirko Degli Esposti, degree in Physics, PhD in Mathematics, is a full Professor of Mathematical Physics and for the last seven years he has been the chairman of the Department of Mathematics of the University of Bologna.
Initially his researches addressed mathematical questions in: quantum chaos, semiclassical analysis, statistical mechanics, ergodic theory for strongly or weakly chaotic systems.
Few years ago he turned his attention to mathematical techniques for the analysis of literary texts, algorithms for authorship attribution and, more general, to mathematical models for textual data and information dynamics on non structured data. He collaborates with SONY Computer Science Laboratory in Paris, exploring the mathematical aspects of automatic generation of textual and musical contents.

Fink studied physics at Caltech, winning the Fisher Prize for top physicist, and did a PhD at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge with Robin Ball.
He was a Junior Fellow at Caius College, Cambridge, and a postdoc at Ecole Normale Superieure with Bernard Derrida.
He is currently a Charge de Recherche in physics in the French CNRS. Fink has written popular science books with sales of 1/3 million.
Outside of physics, Fink is interested in design, simplicity, adaptability, skiing and shooting.

François Pachet is director of the SONY Computer Science Laboratory Paris, where he leads the music research team.
Since its creation, the team developed several award winning technologies (constraint-based spatialisation, intelligent music scheduling using metadata) and systems MusicSpace, PathBuilder, Continuator for interactive music improvisation, etc.).
His current goal, funded by an ERC Advanced Grant, is to build computational representations of style from text and music corpora, that can be exploited for personalized content generation. He is also an accomplished musician (guitar, composition) and has published two music albums (in jazz and pop) as composer and performer.

Ph.D. is Professor, Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience and Department of Social Anthropology, Aarhus University / Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark.
As an anthropologist in neuroscience, Andreas tries to maintain a dual perspective.
He studies the workings of the brain, particularly at the levels of consciousness, cognition and communication.
He is equally interested in how brain imaging, as a field of knowledge production, relates to other scientific and public fields.

Vito D.P. Servedio (University “La Sapienza”, Rome) got his PhD at the Technical University of Dresden where he continued his research for other three years as Post-Doc. In this period he collaborated actively with the Max Plack Institute, and the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research in Dresden mainly dealing with the calculation of the electronic structure of metal surfaces. He moved to the University “La Sapienza” of Rome in November 2002 where he started dealing with the physics of complex systems, with particular attention to complex networks. He took part to the COSIN and DELIS european projects. His aptitude is mainly oriented toward computational physics.

Jacob Sherson, associate Prof. in experimental quantum physics and Director of the interdisciplinary Center for Community Driven Research, Aarhus University. Experimentally he is currently attempting to build a large scale quantum computer.
In his center he is currently making online citizen science games in physics, chemistry,
biology, and cognitive and social science. He explores individual and collective problem solving and attempts to combine solution strategies from humans and biological systems to make machine learning more intelligent.