Young Engineers Seminar in Brussels 2022

In this context, we were able to attract speakers from a wide range of industries and scientific disciplines. Young professionals and students from Germany and Poland took the opportunity this year to promote interdisciplinary exchange in Europe.

On Wednesday, June 15, 2022, the event started with a Get-Together in the City Hall, followed by a Guided City Tour. 
 
Thursday June 16, 2022 was composed of various presentations on the topic of artificial intelligence followed by guided panel discussions. 

Keynote speaker Laura Nurski, Research Fellow of Bruegel, presented the topic "How AI can impact the quality of work" and showed how artificial intelligence can improve but also worsen future work, provided that various factors such as autonomy, flexibility and challenge, among others, can be disturbed in their balance. 
 
Christophe Carugati affiliate fellow at Bruegel and expert on competition and digital policies followed up with a presentation on digital regulation, using artificial intelligence in the European Union as an example, highlighting the complexity of the resulting decision-making.

What about artificial intelligence with the consumer in mind? How has consumer protection been considered in the AI Act? 
Frederico Oliveira da Silva from the European Bureau of Consumer Associations AISBL highlighted in his presentation the role and importance of consumer protection and how it is applied in the legal framework of the European Union. 
 
The topics were discussed in the subsequent panel discussion. After a break, Zlatimira Colova Political candidate and a member of Volt Europa gave an insight into her political work in Europe and described the influence of digitalisation and artificial intelligence in direct political events from her perspective. 
 
Sebastian Hallensleben, Head of Digitalisation and AI at VDE, then presented various working groups within the EU that deal with artificial intelligence and its standardisation. The complexity and influence of the various stakeholders was explained in more detail. 
 
A final panel discussion concluded the official programme with exciting questions and answers. In the evening, Brussels and its surroundings, culture and cuisine were explored in more detail. 
 
On the last day, June 17, 2022, another special item was on the agenda. In a direct exchange with Axel Voss, the participants had the opportunity to ask questions about the AI Act, the digitization strategy of the EU and the influence and involvement of young professionals in the European framework of digitization. Problems, opportunities and risks were examined and explained in more detail. The event was concluded with a guided tour of the European Parliament.