Why should you join the Battle of NLP Ideas?

In order to advance NLP in Switzerland and foster collaboration, it’s crucial to bring together

practitioners from different backgrounds and offer a setting in which they can come up with innovative ideas. The NLP Expert Group of the data+innovation alliance along with a desso, SwissNLP and the Centre for Artificial Intelligence at ZHAW are proudly hosting the Battle of NLP Ideas, which has been sparking lively discussions and coming up with exciting new ideas in the past.

The main goal of this workshop is to get people with different skills and perspectives to brainstorm about innovative ideas that advance NLP. These ideas should ideally then lead to real projects, whether in research, industry, or open-source work.

The past three editions have shown that participants enjoy the Battle of NLP Ideas and come up with great ideas. Many ideas have been pursued further to ideation workshops and joint project proposals.

Outline

1. Introduction

At the start of the event, all participants will be welcomed, and the structure and the flow of the Battle of NLP Ideas workshop will be outlined.

2. Round 1

Participants are divided into smaller groups between two and four people, ensuring the best environment where people can freely express their ideas and where a discussion can be held efficiently, where everyone can listen and be heard.Participants engage in a brainstorming session to generate NLP-related ideas. Each person proposes up to two ideas within their group. Group members vote on the most promising ideas and the best idea(s) are then chosen to be presented in Round 2.

3. Round 2

About three to four groups are joined together (the number of joining groups can be adjusted based on the total number of participants).

Each group from the first round presents their one (or two) best ideas to the members of other groups. Discussion follows, after which another round of voting happens. One or two best ideas are chosen to be presented in the final round. We will provide a Google Slides template where the groups can sketch the ideas for the final round.

4. Final round

Representatives from each group pitch their selected ideas to the entire workshop audience using the slide created in the previous round. Attendees collectively evaluate and vote on the most innovative and impactful ideas.

5. Follow-Up and Implementation

Participants will have the opportunity to express interest in specific ideas for follow-up activities. Follow-up activities may include further meetings, collaborative grant proposal writing, or hands-on implementation of selected ideas. Further development of ideas can also be supported by the Artificial Intelligence booster funding managed by the data+innovation alliance.

Participants are encouraged to continue collaborating beyond the workshop to bring promising ideas to fruition.

Instructors

Manuela Hürlimann, Academic Associate at ZHAW Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Vice President of SwissNLP, Academic Co-Lead of NLP in Action Expert Group.
Katsiaryna Mlynchyk, Scientific Assistant at ZHAW Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Active Member and Marketing Wizard of SwissNLP, Academic Co-Lead of NLP in Action Expert Group.
Philipp Kuntschik, Expert Consultant & AI Lead at adesso Schweiz AG and Lecturer at FHGR (Fachhochschule Graubünden) , Industrial Lead of NLP in Action Expert Group