Workshops and Tutorials

 

 

DAY 2 Thursday 18/09/2025 | 11:15 – 12:45

Diversity, equity and inclusion in our universities and in our teaching (Room: UI7)

Presenters: V. Vimarlund, E. E. İsler, H. Chaabi, R. Altin, S. Dedò
This workshop focuses on how to study and assess the different levels and shades of diversity, equity and inclusion in our universities and in our teaching. It engages participants with the description of a practical exercise where a maturity scale devised by one of the workshop organisers was used to guide the administration of a survey to capture a picture of the situation across countries. It outlines an engaging and interactive session that has a sound theoretical foundation and a practical application for the STEM areas. This workshop is particularly relevant for teachers, educators, managers, and decision makers, given its strategic importance in advancing the gender and equality objectives set out in the European Commission’s European Research Area (ERA) Policy Agenda 2022–2024.

Innovative Teaching with Social Robots: A Path to Interactive Learning (Room: UII3)

Presenters: Akshara Pande, Deepti Mishra, Shrabanti Kundu
This workshop explores the potential of AI-enabled social robots to enhance teaching and learning by improving student engagement, motivation, and communication. It examines how these robots, equipped with sensors and emotional intelligence, can support classroom interaction and adapt to students’ needs. Participants will discuss practical applications, such as using robots as teaching assistants, and consider challenges like speech recognition, classroom noise, and trustworthiness. Emphasizing the importance of human-in-the-loop design, the session offers a critical look at the integration of social robots in education from both technological and pedagogical perspectives.

The human side of tech for social good and the different hats of a designer (Room: UI5 – the great amphitheater)

Presenters: Alexandra Brinzaniuc, Miruna Muscan
This workshop explores how human-centered design supports the creation of meaningful technology, especially when addressing complex social challenges. Participants will examine the diverse roles designers play—from research and co-design to strategy and problem-solving—in shaping impactful digital products. Through guided reflection and group activities, attendees will map their own strengths and consider how these skills align with roles at the intersection of design, technology, and social good. The session highlights the value of non-technical contributions to tech teams and offers practical insights for women exploring careers in digital product design.

Generative AI as a Crutch or Catalyst? Exploring Responsible Use in Computer Science Education (Room: UI3)

Presenters: Laura Diana Cernau, Laura Dioșan
The disruptive impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly evident in all fields, especially in the software development industry. This context requires greater attention to how these tools are employed in computer science education, both by educators and students. One of the problems that may arise is students’ over-reliance on these tools, hindering critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The solution is not to prohibit the use of these tools but to guide and correctly inform students on a responsible and ethical way to use these resources. This workshop aims to brainstorm, share knowledge and co-create a set of guidelines and best practices for exploring GenAI tools in computer science education.

Filling the Gap: Addressing Machine Learning’s Environmental Footprint Through Memes (Room: UI2)

Presenters: Sinem Görücü, Elena Simperl, Georgia Panagiotidou
As adoption of Machine Learning (ML) research and applications has been growing, their impact on the environment has been increasing exponentially as well. Large amounts of energy have been needed for the training and inference of ML models, leading to significant carbon emissions. Despite the growing interest in the ML community regarding these environmental impacts and numerous tools being developed to track and estimate them, widespread adoption of sustainable practices and sustainable decision-making mechanisms remains limited due to various challenges across ML workflows. This workshop addresses this gap by facilitating a collaborative brainstorming and hands-on meme creation session. Utilizing the internet memes as an engaging and approachable communication medium, we will explore the key sustainability considerations in ML as well as shared experiences and challenges that ML practitioners face in addressing these considerations through memes as an entry point and ideate how can these considerations be addressed in existing Responsible AI workflows.

From Messy Data to Medical Insights: Creating Knowledge Graphs for Drug Repurposing (Room: UI6)

Presenters: Matilde Pato, Carolina Pereira, Nuno Datia
This workshop introduces participants to the fundamentals of constructing knowledge graphs for pharmaceutical data. Attendees will learn practical biomedical data wrangling techniques, including entity resolution and relationship extraction. The session offers hands-on experience with Neo4j for visualizing and querying drug-disease relationships. Participants will explore how knowledge graph approaches can transform healthcare education and drug discovery research. The workshop provides reusable templates and methodologies, empowering attendees to apply these skills in their own projects and advance data-driven healthcare solutions.

DAY 2 Thursday 18/09/2025 | 16:45 – 18:15

Working Together to Increase Visibility: ACM-WE Workshop on Wikipedia Editing (Room: UI7)

Presenters: ACM-W Europe
This workshop engages participants in improving the representation of European women in computing on Wikipedia. Attendees will gain practical experience in identifying and editing relevant articles, guided by data collected by the ACM-WE Wikipedia Group since late 2024. The session provides structured opportunities to contribute to public knowledge platforms, with the aim of increasing visibility for notable women in the field and building a sustained contributor community within ACM-W Europe. By focusing on real contributions to Wikipedia, the session may also encourage individuals to recognise the value of their input and develop confidence in making their voices heard. This could be a first step for someone toward broader involvement in computing, advocacy, or digital inclusion.

Digital Dynamics: Tech-Driven, Ethical, and Inclusive Paths to Digital Pedagogy and Foreign Language Acquisition. A Workshop for Language and Computing Educators (Room: UI2)

Presenters: Andreea Nechifor, Cristina Dimulescu
This workshop explores the purposeful integration of Generative AI (GenAI) in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and intercultural learning, as part of the Erasmus+ ELITE-AI initiative. It examines GenAI’s role in supporting specialized vocabulary, pragmatic communication, and inclusive, accessible language instruction across domains like tourism, law, and education. Through hands-on analysis of AI outputs and participatory discussions, participants will reflect on ethical use, digital pedagogy, and critical AI literacy. The session emphasizes responsible innovation, academic integrity, and GenAI’s potential to empower women educators and learners in STEM-adjacent fields.

Interactive Introduction to Human-computer Interaction: A Design Thinking Workshop (Room: UI5 – the great amphitheater)

Presenters: Carlota Vazquez Gonzalez
Human-computer interaction (HCI) is the study of how people interact with computers and other technological devices, and how such devices can be designed to be more usable, accessible, and effective at solving a particular problem. This interdisciplinary field draws upon computer science, psychology, design, and other disciplines to improve the interaction between humans and technology. This workshop focuses on introducing HCI through the five pillars of the design thinking process: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. The workshop is especially relevant for aspiring computer scientists and designers. This workshop supports the broader mission of using computer science as a catalyst for educational change by providing engaging, hands-on learning rooted in HCI.

Inclusion4EU: Co-Design Approaches for Inclusion by Design in Computer Science Education (Room: UI3)

Presenters: Dympna O’Sullivan, Claudia Rivera, Anna Becevel, Emma Murphy, Svetlana Hensman
This workshop presents key outcomes from the Inclusion4EU project, including a practical co-design toolkit to support inclusive software development. It explores co-design as a powerful methodology to promote diversity and inclusion in computing. Participants will learn how participatory methods can be embedded into Computer Science education through real-world examples and curriculum integration. The session includes an interactive, hands-on co-design activity that encourages experiential learning. Attendees will assess digital tools through an inclusivity lens and collaboratively explore more inclusive design practices. The workshop is ideal for educators, researchers, and curriculum developers committed to inclusive tech education.

Privacy and Security: Essential Practices for Responsible Computing (Room: UI6)

Presenters: Lili Nemec Zlatolas
Various practices can be implemented to ensure that technology is used in ways that promote gender equality and inclusivity. Among the important parts of this is also protecting the privacy and security of all users of ICT. We will present concepts and technologies that threaten and protect users online and try to increase awareness of how to improve online privacy and security among participants. We will present what is online privacy and anonymity as well as digital footprint. We will also focus on cybersecurity and online scams to ensure that participants will be able to identify and mitigate different cyber-attacks. These will include social engineering, identity theft, various forms of scams, malware etc. The tutorial teaches participants how to manage their personal information and protect their online privacy and security.

DAY 3 Friday 19/09/2025 | 14:00 – 15:30

Be a Leader in Your Community: ACM-WE Workshop on Chapters (Room: UI3)

Presenters: ACM-W Europe

Meaningfully Engaging Gender in Computing: Moving Beyond Inclusion Toward Structural Understanding (Room: UI2)

Presenters: Julia De Miguel Velázquez
This workshop addresses the urgent need to engage meaningfully with gender in both research and pedagogy. Rather than treating gender as an afterthought or an idealized abstraction, we propose an approach rooted in critical intersectional theory. Participants will be introduced to conceptual tools drawn from feminist philosophy, political theory, and sociology. Through the analysis of real-world case studies and collaborative discussion, we will codevelop a toolkit that participants can apply in their own teaching and research contexts. Our ultimate aim is to normalize gendered experiences within computing spaces—not as “other,” but as integral to understanding human experience.

Building for Impact: Lessons from the Civic Tech space (Room: UI6)

Presenters: Miruna Muscan
This workshop introduces the practical side of building digital products for civic impact, highlighting strategic thinking, cross-sector collaboration, and the personal value of mission-driven work. Attendees will gain behind-the-scenes insights into how civic tech products are developed and delivered. The session emphasizes how design and technology intersect to address complex social challenges. Through reflection and discussion, participants will explore their own strengths and roles in this space. Special focus will be given to supporting women interested in tech careers with purpose. The workshop offers encouragement, guidance, and practical tools for navigating civic tech pathways.

Explainable AI and Challenges in Education (Room: UII3)

Presenters: Claudia-Melania Chituc
This workshop focuses on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education, emphasizing the importance of explainable AI in teaching, learning and technology-based assessment activities. This workshop aims to analyze challenges and opportunities for explainable AI in education by bring together students, educators, researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas and discuss recent achievements and lessons learned by using AI in education and the importance of explainable AI in teaching, learning and technology-based assessment activities, in the development of information and communication technology infrastructure for digital education ecosystems. The role of explainable AI in the context of Education 4.0 and Education 5.0 is also tackled.

The GenieAI Workshop: Including Our Embodied Emotions and Testing Together (Room: UI7)

Presenters: Samantha Hookway, Jasmina Maric
This workshop introduces GenieAI, an intelligent digital companion designed to promote gender inclusion and equitable environments in academia. Combining emotional intelligence with collective intelligence, participants will engage in an embodied mapping exercise to explore and reflect on their experiences. The session includes hands-on interaction with GenieAI, a reflective survey, and group discussion to co-create insights for advancing inclusivity. Rooted in interdisciplinary research, the workshop fosters a supportive community aimed at driving positive change in higher education. Ideal for all participants, it offers practical tools and collaborative reflection to inspire fair and respectful academic environments.

Unlocking the Black Box: Model Explainability in Machine Learning (Room: UI5 – the great amphitheater)

Presenters: Oriana-Maria Onicescu
This workshop addresses the growing need for transparency and interpretability in machine learning by introducing core concepts and tools for model explainability. Participants will gain hands-on experience with techniques for explaining the decisions made by machine learning models, from feature importance to understanding local interpretable model-agnostic explanations (LIME). The workshop will cover both theoretical foundations and practical applications of these methods, with a focus on real-world case studies on medical data and computer vision. By the end, participants will be equipped to apply these techniques in their own research projects and develop more transparent and trustworthy machine learning models.