STEAM team represented at Ars Electronica Festival
Laura Veart, our STEAM International Programme Manager, was recently invited to help accelerate international innovation efforts by speaking at a conference linked to the prestigious Ars Electronica festival. The annual festival is an enlightening cross-disciplinary exploration of the Digital Revolution and its possible consequences. The conference, organised in collaboration with the new IT:U Founding Lab, brought together leading researchers, academics, and practitioners. Experts from various universities and diverse disciplines provided valuable insights into their current approaches to AI and shared their strategies on how AI can be incorporate into transdisciplinary and practice-based learning. Laura has been involved in coordinating a number of large STEAM-led international projects and events in recent years, and so was a natural invitation to speak on the importance of using STEAM thought and practises when exploring how we can overcome new challenges.
As part of the Ars Electronica Festival, Laura spoke at the IT:U Founding Lab Conference, which explored the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence in higher education. Joining Laura were Joanna J. Bryson from Hertie University Berlin, Andreas Ingerl, Ken Nakagaki, Quian Ye, Nikoletta Karastathi, Georg Russegger, LaJune Mcmillan, Carla Barreiros and Daniela Jacob. The discussions around innovative approaches in project-oriented and interdisciplinary university teaching were fascinating and came away with some key insights we should keep in mind when incorporating AI into higher education:
- Work on “the whole” and not on individual pieces
- Respect what each discipline brings to the table
- Always build collectives, not hierarchies
- We should try to get from being “users” to “shapers”
- Do things now that will be normal in 5 years time!
- Be mission-driven
- Collaboration is fundamental for research
Laura highlighted how STEAMhouse has established itself as a hub of excellence for driving regional innovation through collaboration and interdisciplinarity, securing external investments, enhancing learning and career readiness for students, and developing STEAM practices and research through international projects. It was agreed that the journey of the STEAMhouse community highlights that true innovation often occurs at the intersection of disciplines. However, is an iterative process! We look forward to seeing this iterative process being driven further by collaborative innovation.
