ICA 4 - INTELLIGENCE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Online: June 2021 / Paris: October 2021 / Birmingham : May 2022 / Nagoya: June 2022 / Belo Horizonte: November 2022
This 4th edition of ICA explores fundamental interdisciplinary questions at the intersection of cognitive science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. Decisive advances have been made during the past decades in the analysis of brain activity and its behavioral counterparts, as well as in the information processing sciences. Complementarities between neuroscience/cognitive science and artificial intelligence provide grounds for exploring synergies and raising ethical questions between these disciplines that hold tremendous challenges and opportunities for societal progress.
ICA 3 - LAWS: RIGIDITY AND DYNAMICS
Singapore: March 19-27, 2018 / Munich: September 2018 / Princeton: October 2018 / Birmingham : March 19-27, 2019
The third edition of ICA was a joint venture of The Nanyang Technological University IAS in Singapore and The University of Birmingham IAS in Birmingham, UK. The goal of ICA3 was to look at laws in different fields of study (natural and physical, social and political...), encouraging researchers to find commonalities between seemingly distant disciplines and to open minds to new methods of investigation. Looking at laws and tensions that arise from them, participants questioned how laws originate, how and why they are broken, as well as the enforcement or manifestation thereof across various disciplines. Two years later, some participants are still in touch and working on joint projects with researchers they have met at ICA3.
ICA 2 - HUMAN DIGNITY
Jerusalem: March 6 - 18, 2016 / Bielefeld: August 1 - 12, 2016 / Johannesburg: January 21 - 25, 2019
The second edition of ICA was a collaboration between the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University Jerusalem (IIAS), and the Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung (ZiF) of Bielefeld University. ICA2 aimed to promote an unprecedented interdisciplinary dialogue on human dignity and to initiate further cooperation between participants with diverse scientific and cultural backgrounds. Discussing crucial ethical, practical, and historical debates of interdisciplinary nature and societal importance, this edition of ICA resulted in lasting cooperation between the parties involved. It culminated in a third colloquium hosted by the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS) at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2019.
ICA 1 - TIME
São Paulo: April 17 - 29, 2015 / Nagoya: March 6 - 18, 2016
The pilot project for the Intercontinental Academia operated as a joint venture of IEA-USP (Sao Paulo, Brasil) and the IAR (Institute for Advanced Research) of the Nagoya University (Nagoya, Japan). This edition was guided by three goals: to stimulate joint research among UBIAS members; to establish cooperation networks among the next generation’s scientific leaders; and to explore new forms of collective academic practices and new formats of scientific training, collaboration and dissemination. Cyclical or linear, measurable or incalculable, vast or microscopic, eternal or finite, relativist or absolute, time as a concept (or a reality) affects us all. From astrophysics to chronobiology, from philosophy to anthropology, participants have expanded on this issue in their varied disciplines exploring how time plays a pivotal role in shaping the world around us, and consequently shaping our understanding of it. The meetings led to the filming of a MOOC on Time and a documentary that sums up this first edition of ICA.
Documentary / MOOC
ICA was brought to life by the coalition of University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS). Initiated in 2010, UBIAS counts 47 member institutes which, next to being international environments for exceptional research, contribute to the academic achievements of their respective home universities. The conference is one of the many projects through which UBIAS connects outstanding researchers from across the globe, championing intercultural awareness, mutual exchange, and innovation.
During the Intercontinental Academia, participants get together in three sessions over the course of one year. The experience is expected to transform the scholar's’ own approach to research, enhance their awareness of the work, relevance and potential impact of other disciplines, and to inspire and facilitate new collaborations between distant disciplines. The aim is to make a real, yet volatile, intellectual cocktail leading to meaningful exchange and long-lasting outputs.
