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Empowering researchers using AI

07/06/2022 - 13:44

SageWrite (www.sagewrite.com) is an Icelandic startup developing the first text-generation and text-enhancement platform for academic writing. The platform works by taking in a rough draft of what researchers want to write and generates the corresponding text for them. SageWrite was co-founded by Elena Callegari, a postdoc at the University of Iceland, and Desara Xhura. The startup was created thanks to one of Rannís Tækniþróunarsjóður 2021 grant. Elena is a researcher at the Language & technology Lab, led by professor Anton Karl Ingason. This project marks yet another collaboration between Ingason’s lab and the private sector: just recently, the Lab signed on a collaboration with the company Mentis Cura for a project on cognitive decline. 

Understanding Progress and Progress in Understanding

28. June 2022 - 9:00 to 30. June 2022 - 19:00

Veröld - Hús Vigdísar

An international conference on “Understanding Progress and Progress in Understanding” will be held at the University of Iceland over three days this summer, from June 28th to June 30th, 2022. 

The event is hosted by the project “Understanding Progress, in Science and Beyond”, which is generously funded by the Icelandic Research Fund (Rannís). Please visit the project’s web page
or read the detailed project description, to find out more.

Exploring discourse on abortion

Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir, professor at the Faculty of Political Science

"The research is mainly about exploring the way conservatives talk about sexual and reproductive rights, in particular pregnancy termination,“ says Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir, professor at the University of Iceland Faculty of Political Science. Along with her PhD student, Gunnar Sigvaldason, she is looking at how Iceland and Ireland took steps towards expanding freedoms in this area in 2018 and 2019.

She mentions that different UN countries which have not previously worked together are now uniting to limit women's access to sexual and reproductive rights. "One example is the United States under Trump," says Silja Bára.

IRIS raises visibility of UI research and its impact

20/06/2022 - 13:39

A new information system for research at Icelandic universities and their institutes has been launched. This system opens up many new opportunities to draw attention to the diverse range of research taking place at the University of Iceland and the societal impact of that research.

The system is called IRIS (Icelandic Research Information System) and is designed to manage all research activity and the societal impact of research findings in Iceland. It also offers overviews of research activity by researcher, institution and subject as well as international collaboration by scientists and academics in Iceland. For example, here is an overview of research activity at the University of Iceland.

Afforestation has a negative impact on ground-nesting bird populations

22/06/2022 - 10:13

New research at the University of Iceland shows that although afforestation could play an important role in the fight against climate change, dramatic changes to Icelandic vegetation have a significant impact on the diversity and density of animals, especially wader species. 

An article that came out last week in the Journal of Applied Ecology, the flagship publication of the British Ecological Society, described research into seven common wader species. The research revealed that five of these species – golden plovers, whimbrels, oystercatchers, dunlins and black-tailed godwits – were almost half as dense within 200 m of a forest plantation as further away, up to 700 m. However, snipes were denser closer to plantations than further away, as were redwings, a passerine species.

Open Lecture: 3D magnetic textures in isotropic chiral magnets

23. November 2021 - 15:00 to 16:00

Oddi

O-101

The Institute of Physical Sciences invites you to an open lecture.

Nikolai S. Kiselev, researcher at the Institute for Advanced Simulation & Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich, in Germany gives the lecture: 3D magnetic textures in isotropic chiral magnets.

Abstract:

Magnetic crystals with competing interactions allow the existence of localized in space magnetic textures possessing a lot of similarities to ordinary particles meaning that they can move and interact with each other: attract, repel, or collide and annihilate.

UArctric Congress 2021 for a strong, sustainable circumpolar region

27/04/2021 - 15:23

Around 250 talks on issues concerning the Arctic are scheduled during the UArctic Congress 2021, taking place 15-18 May in Reykjavík. The confernce, taking primarily place online, is hosted by all UArctic higher education members in Iceland. There will be a live stream of the opening ceremony on 15 May at 1 PM.

The UArctic Congress aim is to bring together institutional leaders, indigenous representatives, academics, scientists and students from around the Circumpolar North and beyond to engage with each other and promote cooperation in circumpolar science and higher education.

Together with partners, policy makers and other actors, the UArctic Congress strives to take the Arctic agenda forward by creating and strengthening collaborations that produce new findings and solutions for the future of the Arctic.

Could eye measurements help diagnose Alzheimer's?

 "Alzheimer's disease and other related diseases are both common and serious. With the global median age rising, diagnoses of dementia conditions like Alzheimer's are becoming more frequent. It is therefore important to find ways to diagnose the disease early," says Sveinn Hákon Harðarson, senior lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine's Institute of Physiology, who along with his colleagues, is working on a fascinating study of this common disease.

Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease which usually leads to dementia. There is no cure to date and it is estimated that up to 50 million people worldwide are suffering from dementia.
It is not easy to diagnose the disease, since the symptoms can be subtle and complex, which is a problem that Sveinn and his colleagues want to solve. They are using technology developed at the University to explore whether measuring changes to the retina could help diagnose and assess the disease.

Midway evaluation in Industrial Engineering - Helga Guðrún Óskarsdóttir

27. May 2021 - 10:00 to 12:00

VR-II

Room 157

Title: Knowledge Worker Productivity

Doctoral candidate: Helga Guðrún Óskarsdóttir

Doctoral committee:

Guðmundur Valur Oddsson, Professor at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Iceland
Rögnvaldur J. Sæmundsson, Professor at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Iceland
Jón Þór Sturluson, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Business Administration, University of Iceland

Abstract

Nonni's image in Japan

"I find it a remarkable time in Icelandic history when we start forming relationships with faraway lands. We have a long, intimate and successful history with our neighbouring countries, but it is not given to have good interactions with countries on the other side of the world like Japan. The Icelandic foreign service is formed late, as in the past we were a part of Denmark and for a long time Icelandic foreign service was limited. It was a big step in  Icelandic foreign affairs when Iceland began to do business and culture exchange with Japan, which later turned into diplomatic relations with this distant country." 

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