Brainstorm
Small brainstorm meetings on new horizons
2024
By Dr. Katrin BECKER (FHSE) and Dr. Réka MARKOVICH (FSTM)
The demise of the market for Non-Fungible-Tokens (NFTs) of digital art has shown that NFTs fail to capture some important aspects of ownership. Nevertheless, the conviction persists that Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), such as blockchains, hold the emancipatory promise of creating a more democratic and equitable version of ownership in the virtual space than the current commercialized model. Rightly so, we think. Here ‘we’ refers to BRIDGES, an interdisciplinary group of researchers at University of Luxembourg, which was formed in early 2022 and has, ever since, been studying blockchain-related topics from different perspectives: from law and computer science to economic, media and cultural studies. Central to these investigations is the problem of ownership in virtual space. What does it mean to be the owner of an asset, when the assets or the environment in which the transaction that establishes ownership takes place, are completely virtual? We are convinced that this topic will become increasingly important, especially in view of plans in Luxembourg and Europe to further develop the metaverse and other virtual environments. Given that the concept of virtual ownership is inextricably intertwined with existing technical, legal, social and cultural notions, an interdisciplinary view is indispensable. It will therefore be necessary to analyze:
- in which specific ways the notions of ownership and transfer of value are redefined in a digital or virtual environment, e.g. when recorded on a DLT,
- the impact of these redefinitions on cultural and social connotations and expectations that are crucially associated with ownership and value,
- the legal treatment of these concepts under EU law, with comparisons to US law if necessary, and to make specific policy recommendations to that effect, when and where needed.
Convinced that these analyses are an important and fruitful topic for an IAS AUDACITY or FNR CORE project, we are planning to use the BRAINSTORM event as an occasion to bring together leading researchers and representatives from FinTech companies with DLT-based services who will help us to further refine the question against the background of existing studies and projects and to validate our initial problem analysis. The goal of the BRAINSTORM event will thus be to formulate a white paper that will serve as a starting point for the preparation of an AUDACITY or CORE application. Furthermore, the aim of this event is to establish a stable consortium and make the research group visible in the uni.lu as well as in the Luxembourg crypto world and to create synergies with existing research areas – such as the Key Research Area Digital Societies (DHUM).
By Prof. Alexandre TKATCHENKO (FSTM), Prof. Stéphane BORDAS (FSTM) and Prof. Alexander SKUPIN (LCSB)
What have water waves, Bose-Einstein condensates, semiconductor polaritons and fibre optics in common with black holes and the expanding universe? They are all quantum analogues. An analogue is a physical system that mimics the physics of another system. For example, water going down the drain establishes the analogue of the event horizon for water waves if the flow velocity exceeds the wave velocity. Quantum analogues mimic not only the classical physics of another system, but the quantum physics. For example, Bose-Einstein condensates may produce the quantum Hawking radiation of black holes. The Hawking radiation of real black holes is all but obscured by the Cosmic Microwave Background (and even more so by accretion radiation) but not so in black hole analogues, and neither is particle creation and the Gibbons-Hawking radiation of the expanding universe. Laboratory analogues have given us a good, hands-on understanding of how these quantum processes work, that are critical to the connection between quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and gravity. Quantum analogues have also become a meeting place of different communities, from fluid mechanics to astronomy, where ideas are exchanged that would otherwise remain in their scholarly boundaries, and where young researchers are educated to be open-minded and curious beyond their immediate specialities. With this BRAINSTORM meeting we will put Luxembourg on the map of this lively research area and to educate our own young researchers to be as multidisciplinary and open-minded as this field, and to be ambitions to “boldly go where no-one has gone before”.
Assoc. Prof Alexander SKUPIN
LCSBAssociate professor/Chief scientist 2 in Modelling of Biomedical Data
By Prof. Adrian STANCIU (FHSE), Prof. Jochen KLUCKEN (LCSB) and Dr. Ana Carolina TEIXEIRA SANTOS (FHSE)
The Luxembourgish society will soon comprise a significant proportion of ageing and older migrants including older people with a migration history (ageing migrants in short; see Docquier et al., 2024). This unprecedented and rapidly evolving trend requires urgent attention in addressing the country’s transition to a digital society that prioritizes personalized healthcare that is inclusive, a national goal. Ageing migrants have a unique life experience and therefore exceptional healthcare needs whereas they face specific-to-them structural, psychological, and cultural obstacles in accessing adequate healthcare. Thus far, the individual processes of ageing and cultural adaptation following migration have been studied separately but, they intersect in populations of ageing migrants highlighting an insufficiently documented and highly complex phenomenon. Relative to young and adult locals, ageing migrants are a hard-to-reach population meaning that systematically studying their everyday experiences, health, and healthcare needs is highly effortful and costly, in addition to them wrongfully being seen as a homogeneous group. The novelty of this societal trend, coupled with a history of untargeted research, creates significant challenges for the research, science and development communities as well as for the policy making and health sectors primarily because of insufficient, unsystematic, and inadequate data. We contribute to addressing the experiences, health, and healthcare needs of ageing migrants in Luxembourg with a panel data infrastructure: The Panel Study of Older and Ageing Migrants in Luxembourg (PSOAMLux). PSOAMLux addresses from a multidisciplinary perspective involving social sciences, survey methodology, health, and digital health the infrastructure needed to establishing a panel of ageing migrants in Luxembourg. PSOAMLux aims to periodically collect self-reported, digital data, and secondary informant data on preestablished topics, for example, ageing, cultural adaptation following migration, health, and adoption and effectiveness of digital health technology. Fifteen experts from local institutions in Luxembourg and abroad convene to a) identify theoretically, methodologically, practically, and policy relevant topics, b) recognize possible obstacles and propose efficient and sustainable solutions in developing a panel study design, sample strategy and integrating self-reported data with digital and secondary informant data, and c) elaborate a coordinated plan as a follow-up strategy. Expected outcomes within fifteen months following the event are one white paper (peer reviewed study protocol or communication article), a mixed-method piloting strategy (focus groups and cross-sectional study) based on convenience sampling, and one grant application (IAS Audacity, FNR CORE or ERC Starting Grant). An outreach/communication strategy in collaboration with the UL Media Center is planned.
Assist. Prof Adrian STANCIU
FHSEAssistant professor Lifespan Developmental Psychology (adult development with a focus on technology and/or digitalization)
2023
By Prof. Pedro CARDOSO LEITE (FHSE), Prof. Sandra CAMARDA (C2DH) and Dr. Jean BOTEV (FSTM)
Gaming plays a significant role in society, serving not only as a source of entertainment but as a tool for education, work, or therapy. More than a third of the world population across all demographic strata is playing video games which, contrary to most other media, are inherently interactive and offer unique affordances. An interdisciplinary game research group combining expertise from cognitive and educational sciences, psychology, computer science, media studies, geography, music, and history, can assess the effectiveness of such applications, inform best practices, and explore their potential for positive social change by uncovering key factors influencing player behaviour, motivation, and enjoyment. The interactivity of video games uniquely enables the collection of large and rich data sets that can accelerate scientific progress.
The rapid pace at which technology, industry, and culture are advancing the development of video games, poses numerous theoretical and methodological challenges for researchers. Scholars must engage in continuous learning and adapt their approaches to keep up with evolving technologies, navigate the complexities of merging methodologies from different fields to establish common research frameworks, and employ culturally sensitive methodologies while developing new ethical and data management guidelines for video game research. The creation of an interdisciplinary group will allow us to tackle these challenges by combining our diverse expertise and perspectives. Our group of researchers aims to design, develop, and use video games for research and make game studies a pillar of excellence at the University of Luxembourg. The main objective of the IAS Brainstorm is to develop a concrete strategy for establishing world-class interdisciplinary video game research at the University of Luxembourg.
The IAS Brainstorm will have the following important outcomes and results: (1) the production of a comprehensive white paper, (2) the establishment of a transdisciplinary research group, (3) the formation of an international board of mentors consisting of renowned experts and experienced professionals, (4) the implementation of reciprocal research stays and exchanges in relevant institutions, and (5) the development of concrete plans to secure national and international research funding.
Assoc. Prof Pedro CARDOSO LEITE
FHSEAssociate professor in Cognitive Science and Assessment
2022
by Prof. Alexandre TKATCHENKO (FSTM), Prof. Adolfo DEL CAMPO ECHEVARRIA (FSTM) and Prof. Aurélia CHENU (FSTM)
Quantum chemistry and quantum field theory correspond to two disparate research fields, which for a long time have shown no practical intersections.
Quantum chemistry studies atomic and molecular/materials systems, from the standard quantum-mechanical point of view, based on the consideration of matter as consisting of different particles (electrons, protons, and neutrons). In contrast to such a particle-based description, quantum field theory deals with different quantum fields and describes particles as excited states of their underlying quantum fields, which are assumed to be more fundamental than the particles. Such a more general and unified consideration of nature delivers a complete description of all phenomena related to physical processes within material objects and quantum (vacuum) fields as well as all interactions between material objects and quantum fields.
For a long time, this complete description of nature within the research field of quantum field theory remained just a theoretical concept without real applications, due to its very demanding practical aspects. However, the state of the art in the biotech and pharma industries requires researchers to develop robust methods for efficient description of structural and dynamical properties of molecular systems, consisting of millions of atoms, with a high accuracy. Similar to crystals, for large (bio)molecules, the methods of quantum field theory (like the second-quantization formalism for collective excitations) become more attractive for practical applications than the conventional particle-based description commonly used in quantum chemistry. Thus, for further progress in this research field, quantum chemists inevitably need to employ quantum field theory.
The aim of the planned workshop is to bring together scientists from the two research fields and initiate their world-wide collaborative work on the solution of the aforementioned problems by developing robust methods for description of large (bio)molecules consisting of millions of atoms. As a result, a new strong and large interdisciplinary scientific community should be eventually established, which will significantly facilitate the progress in several areas of industrial applications, including hot topics such as nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, and pharmaceuticals.
Prof Adolfo DEL CAMPO ECHEVARRIA
FSTMFull professor in theoretical condensed matter physicsAssoc. Prof Aurélia CHENU
FSTMAssociate professor in Theoretical physics, with a focus on quantum systems
by Prof. Anja LEIST (FHSE), Prof. Skerdilajda ZANAJ (FDEF) and Prof. Ariane Bertogg – University of Konstanz (Germany)
Background. Policymakers increasingly recognize the importance of brain health, broadly defined as ‘preservation of optimal brain integrity and mental and cognitive function at a given age in the absence of overt brain diseases that affect normal brain function’ (Wang et al., 2020) for the capacity of societies’ functioning: (1) Individuals have to manage and navigate increasingly complex and digital environments in private life, political participation, and professional careers; (2) It is vital to delay later-life cognitive impairment, as it is a heavy burden for affected individuals and their families, as well as costly for welfare states and healthcare systems. Concurrently, population health research on risk factors for dementia and cognitive decline has identified a number of individual-level lifestyle and health behaviours, as well as contextual – i.e., policy-driven – determinants (related to human development, economic conditions, or educational opportunities) influencing brain health in the short, medium, and long run.
Research objectives and methods. We aim to convene a workshop to: (1) Build a conceptual framework and systematise hypothesised policy impacts on the under-researched links between policymaking and brain health, including a life-course and equity perspective; (2) Taking stock of the evidence with regard to relevant policy levels (regional, national, supranational) and policy fields – related to education, public health, work, retirement, possibly also migration, youth, environmental policies – and possible interdependencies that could, through different pathways, influence brain health; and (3) Set up a future research agenda to develop the (under-researched) evidence with regard to methods, relevant actual and future datasets, and specific areas of interest, e.g., equity, life course. These objectives will be achieved through preparation of the workshop via a concept note, moderated discussions and break-out groups, and post-workshop writing up of a framework paper on policy impacts on brain health.
Proposed outcomes. This interdisciplinary workshop, convening renowned and next-generation research leaders in population brain health, policy, neurology, life course, and gender, will open up new research avenues at the frontiers of knowledge to achieve research excellence through (1) advancing state of the art in brain health research and (2) educating the next generation of researchers.
by Dr. Jennifer DUSDAL (FHSE) and Prof. Jun PANG (FSTM)
The creation of scientific knowledge across disciplines grows and increasingly spreads globally. However, we know less about how scientific breakthroughs diffuse and reshape (multi)disciplinary fields, ultimately impacting society at large.
The goal of the proposed 2-day workshop is to create a research network of international experts and established and emerging UL researchers from different disciplines and faculties to generate knowledge in a novel field: the study of scientization––or how prior scientific knowledge influences subsequent patterns of diffusion, knowledge transfer, and new scientific subfields (Objective 1).
By uniquely combining theories from sociology of science, classic bibliometric key performance indicators, and big data to analyze scientific information (e.g. data mining and network analysis from computer science, statistical mechanics) we will lay the foundation for novel research on the underlying structure, dynamics, and consequences of scientization. Where they overlap is the intellectual, interdisciplinary space of the study of scientization. SEEDS will develop a study design able to test hypotheses about scientization and its consequences (Objective 2).
We will examine the impact of breakthrough findings, along with related major new instrumentation and unique collaborations, on subsequent scientization—measured through publications, citations, patents, and media accounts of societal applications and consequences. We aim to map such cross-disciplinary and fundamental lines of inquiry flowing from crucial scientific events, and will develop a novel set of criteria to operationalize growing scientization after a scientific breakthrough.
A major methodological innovation will be collaborations with experts in each of the selected fields––biology/medicine, chemistry, material sciences, computer science, neuroscience, education, physics––to stimulate debates on theoretical and methodological approaches, data acquisition, and analysis, long identified as an important research gap. We intend to facilitate the development of greater synergies across different areas to enhance the (inter)national visibility of this nascent field of research in Luxembourg.
Major short-, mid-, long-term outcomes of this workshop include submission of a “Perspective” in Science or Nature, a series of articles on disciplinary case studies, applications to high-impact (inter) national funding sources, and consequently the constitution of the new international research area SEEDS.