The 1st industry-academia conference on Edge Intelligence by HETiA and the UoPatras paves the way for establishing it as an annual event
On the 26th and 27th of October, HETiA in collaboration with the University of Patras organized the Edge Intelligence conference (ETCEI 2022) marking the start of the first of a kind in Greece industry-academia conference on emerging technology domains.
The aim of the ETCEI 2022 was to highlight the synergies and results of academic and research institutions and their researchers with entrepreneurial entities in cutting-edge technology fields. Key emphasis was placed on the presentation of mature developments from the Greek ecosystem of emerging technologies. The conference’s program included speeches, presentation of submitted reports and discussion panels. In parallel, a career day was organized for the university students to facilitate the connection and the transition to the labor market.
The event was supported by sponsors that had the opportunity besides presenting research results, to demonstrate product and services in dedicated booths, as well as to present their corporate culture and open positions in the career day and attract new talents.
ETCEI 2022 was opened by Prof. Panagiotis DIMOPOULOS (Vice Rector for Research and Development, University of Patras), Prof. Dimitris MOURTZIS (Vice President for Research and Development, University of Patras) and Dr. Manolis ZERVAKIS (HETiA president).
The day included a special session for innovation in smart-grids and keynote speeches on industry 4.0, edge computing and applications. The day ended with a networking cocktail in the foyer where participants discussed their research efforts and explored new opportunities for synergies and collaborations.
ETCEI 2022’s second day opened with the Career Day’s scheduled activities to be followed by the HR pitches of sponsor companies – their representatives could be met in the conference’s foyer in dedicated desks and answer questions of interested students.
Mr. Michalis DRITSAS from the Ministry of Development and Investments was invited to present the “Recent Science and Innovation Policies in Greece” that endorse collaborations such as the ETCEI 2022.
The second day included more invited talks and concluded with a roundtable titled “connecting industry to academia” with participants from ANSYS (Dr. Babis Bakolias), RENESAS (Mr. John Kikidis), HETIA (Dr. Manolis Zervakis) and UoPatras (Prof. Dimitris MOURTZIS) that sparkled a very interactive discussion on short and medium to long term measures that can bridge the skills gap towards a rapidly evolving technological labor market.
Dr. Manolis Zervakis – HETiA president made the following statement:
“We are very happy to see that the effort we put in organizing this conference attracted the interest both of the academic and industrial community to participate and that our vision for establishing such a collaboration between these two communities is appealing enough to continue towards establishing it as an annual event. I want to thank the UoPatras for their knowledge sharing, tremendous effort and offer to support the next versions of the conference as well as our sponsors. I am happy to announce that ETCEI’s 2023 version will take place in Thessaloniki on the 19th and 20th of October in collaboration with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.”.