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Tag: Spatial Data Analytics

Webinar – Generative KI für SPARQL und SQL – Stand der Forschung und Einsatz in der Lehre am Beispiel von QLever

Die generative KI (GenAI) zur Umsetzung natürlich-sprachlicher Fragen in SPARQL- und SQL-Abfragen zeigt bereits erstaunliche Ergebnisse. In der Lehre bietet sie den Studierenden einen niederschwelligen Zugang zu diesen deklarativen Datenbankabfragesprachen. Am Beispiel von QLever und anderen Werkzeugen werden der Stand der Forschung und der Einsatz in der Lehre vorgestellt. Auch Anwendungen wie die Konvertierung und Abfrage von Daten aus OpenStreetMap (OSM) werden behandelt. Dabei werden auch Probleme aufgezeigt. Beispielsweise hat GenAI die Schwäche, dass falsche Entity Identifier generiert werden, was zu unbrauchbaren Abfragen führt. Ein anderes Problem ist das Matching von Entitäten zwischen OSM und anderen Datenquellen. Seien Sie bei diesem Databooster Webinar dabei, wir erwarten eine interessante Diskussion mit einer namhaften Referentin.

Dieses Webinar wird auf Deutsch gehalten.

Prof. Dr. Hannah Bast (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg) ist im Bereich der angewandten Algorithmik aktiv und ihre Forschungsinteressen umfassen unter anderem Algorithmen für die Routenplanung, Aspekte des Information Retrieval (Indexerstellung, Abfrageverarbeitung, Benutzerschnittstellen, ganze Informationssysteme) und die Verarbeitung natürlicher Sprache, mit und ohne Deep Learning

Programm

  • 16:00 Begrüssung und Vorstellung der Hauptreferentin
  • 16:10 Inputvortrag (Prof. Dr. Hannah Bast)
  • 16:55 Ergänzende Inputs (Prof. Stefan Keller)
  • 17:05 offene Diskussion und Ausblick
  • 17:30 Schluss des offiziellen Programms

Expert Group Meeting – Natural Language Processing in Action

Our next Expert Meeting on Thursday, 30 November 2023, 17:00-18:30, will focus on various aspects and applications of NLP & Health

It will take place at the ZHAW premises in Lagerstrasse 45, 8004 Zurich in room ZL O6.12 (6th floor). The meeting will be followed by an apéro.

Online participation is also possible.

Please use the following form to confirm your attendance by October 30https://forms.gle/eEYLWjpGNKLauGmF8
We will then send you a calendar invitation which includes online participation details.

In the form, you also have the opportunity to let us know which topics you are interested in for our meetings in 2024 and to suggest speakers!

The following presentations are confirmed for the meeting on 30 November:

  • Elif Ozkirimli, Head of Computational Science Products at Roche
    Title: Adoption of NLP in Healthcare: a Strategic Perspective Across the Pharma Value Chain.
  • Matteo Manica, Senior Research Scientist at IBM
    Title: Harnessing the Power of Language Models to Accelerate Material Design
  • Ahmad Aghaebrahimian, Associate Researcher at ZHAWTitle: Medical Informatics Powered by Large Language Models and the Semantic Web; A work in progress
  • Nicolas Löffler-Perez, Data Scientist at SwissmedicTitle: Medicrawl: a ML-based Application for Finding Illegal Products in Online Markets.

GEOSummit – Open Data Value Creation

We would like to invite you to the GEOSummit open innovation workshop on “Open Data Value Creation”, hosted by ERNI in Zurich.

Creating value based on open data is difficult, as topics such as harmonization of data formats, automatic data lineages or the standardization of data linkage processes are technically challenging and also not unproblematic from a regulatory point of view. But even supposedly simpler steps such as contextualized data search and raising awareness of the availability of open data in general have only been implemented to a very limited extent.

In this workshop, we would like to invite stakeholders from research, industry, NGOs and the public sector to work on solutions and to define concrete steps on how to improve value creation through open data. Dr. Jürg Meierhofer (ZHAW) will be our moderator and guarantees a result-oriented, structured approach to the workshop.

As thematic use-case we will focus on the energy sector. This includes, for example, the analysis of consumption data collected by sensors and smart meters – or, more generally, exploiting the potential of energy management systems due to the increasing electrification. Especially with regard to energy savings (e.g. usage-specific lighting scenarios), these so-called IoT recommender systems have the potential to deliver great added value. These areas are not detached from the building shell, which brings us back to the various smart building & construction technologies and of course to the electricity providers (e.g. with regard to dynamic tariffs). in this context, we discuss topics such as data protection, data infrastructure and data management, open platform ideas for data sharing and trading and the smart services that could be built on them. 

The workshop is co-organized by the data innovation alliance and the SGPF.

Free participation, but registration is necessary: Link­

Wir möchten Sie zum GEOSummit Open Innovation Workshop “Open Data Value Creation” einladen, der von ERNI in Zürich veranstaltet wird.

Die Wertschöpfung auf der Basis offener Daten ist schwierig, denn Themen wie die Harmonisierung von Datenformaten, automatische Datenabgleiche oder die Standardisierung von Datenverknüpfungsprozessen sind technisch anspruchsvoll und auch aus regulatorischer Sicht nicht unproblematisch. Aber auch vermeintlich einfachere Schritte wie die kontextualisierte Datensuche und die Sensibilisierung für die Verfügbarkeit offener Daten im Allgemeinen wurden bisher nur in sehr geringem Umfang umgesetzt.

In diesem Workshop möchten wir Akteure aus Forschung, Industrie, Nichtregierungsorganisationen und dem öffentlichen Sektor einladen, an Lösungen zu arbeiten und konkrete Schritte zu definieren, wie die Wertschöpfung durch offene Daten verbessert werden kann. Dr. Jürg Meierhofer (ZHAW) ist unser Moderator und garantiert einen ergebnisorientierten, strukturierten Ansatz für den Workshop.

Als ein mögliches Anwendungsgebiet steht hierbei der Energiesektor im Fokus. Dazu gehört z.B. die Analyse von Verbrauchsdaten, die durch Sensoren und Smart Meter gesammelt werden – oder ganz allgemein die Nutzung des Potenzials von Energiemanagementsystemen aufgrund der zunehmenden Elektrifizierung. Gerade im Hinblick auf Energieeinsparungen (z.B. nutzungsspezifische Beleuchtungsszenarien) haben diese sogenannten IoT-Recommender-Systeme das Potenzial, einen großen Mehrwert zu liefern. Diese Bereiche sind nicht losgelöst von der Gebäudehülle, womit wir wieder bei den verschiedenen intelligenten Gebäude- und Bautechnologien und natürlich bei den Stromanbietenden Organisationen sind (z. B. im Hinblick auf dynamische Tarife) sind. In diesem Zusammenhang diskutieren wir Themen wie Datenschutz, Dateninfrastruktur und Datenmanagement, Ideen für offene Plattformen zum Datenaustausch und -handel und mögliche, darauf aufbauende “intelligente” Dienste.

Der Workshop wird gemeinsam von der Data Innovation Alliance und der SGPF organisiert.

Die Teilnahme ist kostenlos, aber eine Anmeldung ist erforderlich: Link

Experts, Experts, Experts…

The Data Innovation Alliance’s second Expert Day in March 2023 was a hub of activity as experts from four key areas – Smart Maintenance, NLP & AI Technology, Spatial Data, and Smart Services – gathered to share their insights and mingle with researchers and industry professionals. The event kicked off with leaders from each Expert Group pre-discussing their plans for 2023, generating a wealth of innovative ideas for joint events and initiatives, and paving the way for exciting collaborations in the (near) future.

But that’s not all! The NLP and Digital Health groups are teaming up to bring you joint events that will revolutionize the way we approach data. And with the next Expert Day set for August 2023, featuring four expert groups once again, get ready for even more ground-breaking discussions and initiatives, organized jointly with other Innovation Boosters. Keep an eye on our events calendar for more information.

While the keynote speech may not have met expectations in terms of insights, it set the stage for what was to come – dynamic discussions and collaborations in the expert group break sessions. To ensure everyone had access to the wealth of information shared, short summaries of the discussions were written by participants in each room.

In short, the second Expert Day was a superb success, bringing together a diverse group of experts to debate their ideas and shape the future of data innovation.

Smart Services for Sustainability – Circular Servitization by Jürg Meierhofer

The Smart Services for Sustainability – Circular Servitization discussion was a dynamic conversation among highly experienced individuals from different industries. They explored how value is created in business ecosystems, focusing on both individual and organizational perspectives.

It was inspiring to have diverse industry representatives in the same room and to create a common understanding. Departing from economic value creation, the group extended its scope to ecological factors. An intense discussion arose about how environmental value can be created without negatively impacting economic value. Statements that economic value creation is still the predominant requirement were made, meaning that in many cases, even a slight reduction of economic value for the sake of ecological value would be treated with suspicion. As sustainability becomes increasingly relevant and regulations loom, the balance between economic and ecological value may shift in the near future.

Overall, the Smart Services for Sustainability – Circular Servitization discussion was thought-provoking and left participants eager to continue exploring the intersection of business and sustainability.

Spatial Data by Reik Leiterer

In a room buzzing with ideas, each data expert chimed into the discussion about the creation of a platform that would benefit cantons, individuals, and service providers. There was a shared understanding that it might not be possible to cater to everyone’s needs and that a simpler visualization and analytics approach may be the way forward. However, some uncertainties still remained, such as identifying where the necessary data is available and how it can be integrated, setting limits, and ensuring that data is not misinterpreted. Despite these challenges, the group remained enthusiastic about the potential benefits of the platform and is looking forward to overcoming these obstacles.

NLP & AI Technology by Lina Scarborough

The group opened the floor with how chatbots are great to answer questions, but what happens when users don’t know where to begin asking questions? This is a common issue in legal situations where the average client may not have the necessary background to understand what information is needed. Retrieval augmented language models like KATIE have emerged as a solution to this problem. These models use grounded reasoning and promote a chain of thought to handle complex queries and create a context for users who may not know what subset of questions to ask.

With the rise of machine-generated text, it’s becoming more difficult to distinguish between human and machine-generated content. While probabilistic token selection and frameworks like SCARECROW can help scrutinize machine-generated text, it can still be difficult, to nigh impossible, to identify. However, ChatGPTZero, an app that uses watermarking to create a statistical fingerprint in the sampling method, claims to be able to detect whether an essay is written by ChatGPT or a human – for instance, ChatGPT generally makes redundancy errors whereas humans make grammatical mistakes. This approach hopes to maintain the integrity of human-generated content in the face of increased machine-generated text.

The discussion then flowed into a lively and engaging presentation on how AI technology can make the tricky SQL “minefield” as easy to navigate as a soccer player scoring a goal – literally, by demonstrating SQL prompts on the soccer World Cup!

Smart Maintenance by Melanie Geiger

The five use case presentations highlighted the versatility of data technology in different applications, showcasing how it can be adapted to meet various needs. With input data ranging from domain knowledge to error log data, these use cases demonstrated how AI models can process and analyze complex data sets to provide valuable insights and decision support.

One of the key themes that emerged was the use of AI for diverse condition-based maintenance, specifically anomaly detection and fault diagnosis. By leveraging ML algorithms, these use cases were able to detect potential issues and predict equipment failures for timely maintenance and preventing downtime.

The highlight of the event was not only the apèro treats, but the opportunity to engage with the 60 participants and learn about their projects, challenges, solutions, and ideas for collaboration. Many attendees seemed to share this sentiment, as numerous participants were still engrossed in conversation at the end of the event, and some discussions had to be continued elsewhere. Those who wish to follow up on these conversations have the option to do so at SDS2023. On a more lowkey note, maybe you wanted to add someone on LinkedIn and send them a message. Here you go, this is your reminder!

Our conclusion of the event: the Alliance has many experts in various subtopics of data-driven value creation, but only together we can move faster.

Expert Day

We invite you to the second iteration of the Expert Day. Join us in an exchange of expertise and find inspiration. These following groups will participate:

  • Natural Language Processing & Big Data Technologies
  • Smart Maintenance
  • Smart Services
  • Spatial Data Analytics

Detailed Program:

15:00 – Welcome
15:30 – Keynote by Prof. Pierre Dersin
16:10 – Expert Group Meetings in breakout rooms (see below)
17:40 – Apéro

Natural Language Processing & Big Data Technologies

Everyone is talking about ChatGPT these days and some of its output is truly impressive! We will discuss how the most recent wave of text generation algorithms can transform business, science and teaching. The meeting will feature the following expert talks (click to see more details):


We are looking forward to exchanging opinions, experiences and questions, and to exploring this exciting field together!

Smart Maintenance

The value of condition monitoring data: 5 use cases.

In this meeting of the Smart Maintenance Expert Group we will hear about successful student projects conducted together with industry partners from various fields. The focus points of the projects are very diverse, ranging from prediction of energy losses, through anomaly detection, fault diagnostics, prediction of the remaining useful life and optimal maintenance scheduling.  We will have 5 short pitch presentations, followed by an interactive discussion of future interest topics of our expert group, including active feedback of all participants.

  • Anomaly Detection in Marine Engines with Convolutional Neural Networks (Company: WinGD)
  • Aircraft Scheduling Optimization based on Prognostics Degradation Models (Company: Swiss International Airlines)
  • Modeling Wake Energy Losses in Wind Farms using Graph Neural Networks (Company: Fluence Energy)
  • Using Error Code Patterns to Predict Service Requests on Production Machines with Machine Learning (Company: Zünd Systemtechnik)
  • Fault Detection in Solar Power Plants using Physics Informed Deep Learning (Company: Fluence Energy)

Smart services for sustainability – circular servitization

With data-driven services, industrial companies can create quantifiable value for their customers, partners and themselves. At the same time, these services also have the potential for ecological benefits, e.g., through optimized processes in operations or logistics. To make this possible, economic and ecological goals must be captured in a targeted and combined manner when designing the services.

The 1.5-hour workshop will discuss how specific problems from everyday business can be systematically addressed to create relevant added value for business and ecology. Participants will bring their own business issue and leave the workshop with a first approach on how to create economic and environmental value through smart services. The workshop will run through typical phases of a project in a compressed time format to give an impression of what such a project might look like on a larger scale.

Spatial Data Analytics

High-quality spatial data is increasingly available for free use. However, with the large amount of data and the sometimes very specific data types and formats, it is challenging to find the appropriate data sources. In addition, some of the data access platforms are only partially intuitive and can be used without expert knowledge. Accordingly, the question arises whether the full potential of the available data base could not be better exploited if data access and data sharing were simplified. In this co-creation workshop, concepts and approaches will be reflected and discussed with representatives from research and industry as well as from cantonal and federal agencies, with the aim of developing possible approaches for joint implementation.

Expert Group: Spatial Data Analytics

Geospatial insights for all – from unique applications to future trends
The Power of Where – this frequently used statement underscores the importance of spatial data and spatial data analytics. All people interested in spatial data are invited to actively participate and/or get an entertaining insight into the world of geospatial data.  Take the opportunity to make new contacts and exchange ideas with experts from industry and research.
In this open event, we will take a tour of your favourite datasets, look at the most unusual and fun applications, and discuss together trends in geospatial data and future challenges. Of course, current infrastructure topics such as low code platforms (GEE & friends), new machine learning concepts and applications (image segmentation, tiny ML & Co) and data creation/access developments (Open Data & GDPR) will not be missed. Intellectual nourishment is guaranteed.

This Expert Group meeting is part of the Expert Day. Please register here.

Expert Day & General Assembly

Immerse in one of four expert groups

  • Spatial Data Analytics
  • Big Data and AI Technologies
  • Blockchain Technology in Interorganisational Collaboration
  • Data-Driven Business Models

and exchange expertise. Get inspired by the keynote and network during the coffee break. For data innovation alliance members the event is followed by the General Assembly and an apero. Let’s foster the community for Applied Data Science in this event.

Agenda

  • 13:15 Welcome
  • 13:15 – 14:45 Expert Groups in 4 Breakout Rooms
  • 14:45 – 15:30 Coffee break
  • 15:30 – 16:00 Keynote – Erika Meins,  La Mobilière «Using the Force of Analytics for Responsible Digital Interactions»
  • 16:00 – 16:15 Break
  • 16:15 – 17:15 General Assembly (formal part)
  • 17:15 Apero

Detailed Program

13:15 – 14:45 Expert Groups (running in parallel):

Expert Group: Spatial Data Analytics – Geospatial insights for all – from unique applications to future trends
The Power of Where – this frequently used statement underscores the importance of spatial data and spatial data analytics. All people interested in spatial data are invited to actively participate and/or get an entertaining insight into the world of geospatial data.  Take the opportunity to make new contacts and exchange ideas with experts from industry and research.
In this open event, we will take a tour of your favourite datasets, look at the most unusual and fun applications, and discuss together trends in geospatial data and future challenges. Of course, current infrastructure topics such as low code platforms (GEE & friends), new machine learning concepts and applications (image segmentation, tiny ML & Co) and data creation/access developments (Open Data & GDPR) will not be missed. Intellectual nourishment is guaranteed.

Expert Group: Big Data and AI Technologies
De-buzz AI, Thierry Bücheler, Oracle
«AI» is discussed as the solution for many problems on almost all levels – from exec boards down to the deepest and darkest hacker hide-outs. But what is it, really?
This short impulse will try to de-buzz AI to a certain extent by using real-world examples across industries, supporting the following theses:
– AI is not really about “intelligence” today
– Only rarely it is about developing algorithms
– And it is also not about bringing together data from different sources technically
So what’s the focus in real-world applications right now? What are some examples where «AI» makes a difference?
Talking to Data: Building Natural Language Interfaces for Databases, Kurt Stockinger, ZHAW
Information systems are the core of modern enterprises and scientific exploration. They are often based on fundamental research developed in the database community. While enterprise data is typically stored in relational databases, data-intensive scientific disciplines such as bioinformatics often store their data in graph databases. To query these databases, end-users need to know the formal query languages SQL or SPARQL as well as the logical structure of the databases. However, even for technology experts it is very challenging to write the right queries to retrieve the desired data. Hence, a large part of the end-users is basically not able to effectively query their databases. In this talk we discuss how to build intelligent information systems that enable end-users to talk to their data similar to humans. The major goal is to combine artificial intelligence with human intelligence for novel ways of data exploration. In particular, we will show how we have built various natural language interfaces for databases using pattern-based and machine learning-based approaches to significantly increase the productivity of scientists and knowledge workers when interacting with data. We demonstrate that our system INODE (Intelligent Open Data Exploration), which we have been building as part of a European Union project with 9 partners across Europe, is uniquely accessible to a wide range of users from large scientific communities to the public. Finally, we elaborate on the lessons learned when developing such a system and discuss how the technology can be enhanced by researchers or knowledge workers for exploring their own databases in natural language.

Expert Group: Blockchain Technology in Interorganisational Collaboration
Zurich has a new blockchain-based local currency: the “LEU”, which has already been discussed in the press.
The LEU is a currency and at the same time also a basic income that one receives by actively participating in the community. Although the LEU is based on blockchain technology, it has little to do with speculative cryptocurrencies: to receive the LEU, you have to meet regularly with members of the community. You can spend the LEU in local businesses in Zurich to promote the local economy.
The association Encointer will present the exciting LEU project and talk about the current developments and possibilities of such an alternative currency.
After a short introduction, we will cover the following topics. 
 – Introduction of Polkadot and Kusama Ecosystem.
 – Parachains and their advantages
 – Proof of personhood and sybill attacks 
 – Encointer vision, protocols and global communities
 – Status quo and field report Leu in Zurich
At the end we have some time to install the Encointer wallet and interact with it.

Expert Group: Data-Driven Business Models
Data-driven business models have become relevant to companies and organizations. According to Gartner back in 2018, 85% of AI use cases were not successful or did not live up to expectations. Where do we stand today? – What is the potential in data driven business models we still haven’t addressed – and why not? 
In this workshop, we will discuss success factors & challenges of AI projects. Among experts and practitioners we will exchange our experiences and share insights. As a take away, we will be equipped with a set of hands-on best practices, ready to be applied in our environments.

15:30 – 16:00 – Keynote Speech
Erika Meins, La Mobilière, Head of Mobiliar Lab for Analytics at ETH Zurich“Using the Force of Analytics for Responsible Digital Interactions”

Virtual Reality to reduce stress, telematics to prevent road accidents or augmented reality to improve collaboration? Erika Meins illustrates some of the opportunities of advanced analytics and new digital technologies for society – and provides a brief look at the dark side.

GEOSummit 2022: Webinar Geo Data Science

Werte GEO-Interessierte

Es freut uns, das dritte Webinar im Jahr 2022 ankündigen zu können. 

Das Wichtigste in Kürze:  

  • Thema: GEO DATA SCIENCE 
  • Detailbeschreibung: siehe → Webinare 2022 
  • Datum: 29. November 2022 
  • Zeit: 15.30 – 17.00 Uhr 
  • Form: online (Link wird mit Bestätigungsmail zur Registrierung verschickt) 
  • Organisator: Raphael Rollier und Roxane Pott  

Das Registrierungsportal ist eröffnet, wir freuen uns über Ihre Anmeldung. 

In Erinnerung rufen wir hiermit noch das Webinar OPEN DATA UND CROWD SOURCING vom 21. September 2022 (Detailbeschreibung siehe -> Webinare 2022)

GEOSummit 2022: Webinar Open Data und Crowd Sourcing

Werte GEO-Interessierte

Es freut uns, das zweite Webinar im Jahr 2022 ankündigen zu können.

Das Wichtigste:

  • Thema: OPEN DATA UND CROWD SOURCING, Detailbeschreibung siehe -> Webinare 2022
  • Datum: 21. September 2022
  • Zeit: 15.30 – 17.00 Uhr
  • Form: online (Link wird mit Bestätigungsmail zur Registrierung verschickt)
  • Organisator: data innovation alliance, Nicolas Lenz

Das Registrierungsportal ist eröffnet, wir freuen uns über Ihre Anmeldung.

Expert Group Meeting – Spatial Data Analytics

Geospatial Synthetic Data

We are pleased to invite you to the next meeting of the Expert Group Spatial Data Analytics. This expert group talk will be around the topic of geospatial synthetic data. The host will present 3 guest speakers who are involved in synthetic data and its specific use cases.

If you cannot be present in person, the meeting will also be live-streamed. You won’t be able participate in the meeting directly, but you are welcome to send us your questions which we will then take up into our discussion.

Aldo Lamberti from Syntheticus.ai will talk about “How to securely collaborate and compute on synthetic geo data”
Jakob Dambon from SwissRe will talk about “Gaussian Processes and Spatial Statistics: A Gentle Introduction”.
Josef Boesze from Itopia AG will talk about “Developing and Testing without any Risks or Side Effects using iSynth”

Program (tentative):
16:30-16:50   Kick-off and Introduction: Stefan Keller (OST Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, Rapperswil)
16:50-17:10   Guest speaker Aldo Lamberti (Syntheticus.ai, Zürich)
17:15-17:35   Guest speaker Jakob Dambon (SwissRe)
17:40-18:00   Guest speaker Josef Boesze (itopia AG, Zürich)
18:00- open   Apéro & Networking

Guests are welcome. Feel free to contact us here.