CyCAT Webinar: Recommender Systems as the Lens of Life

Webinar – Recommender Systems as the Lens of Life

About the topic

Cyprus Center for Algorithmic Transparency – CyCAT inaugurates its online seminar series, with a presentation by Dr. Frank Hopfgartner, Senior Lecturer in Data Science at Sheffield University, UK.   and Partner of the CyCAT project coordinated by the  Open University of Cyprus.

The webinar will be held on Friday, May 24, 2019 at 15:00 (GMT +3) and is intended to engage researchers, academics and students. The 45-minute presentation will be followed by a 15-minute open discussion.

Presentation abstract:

Increasingly, algorithms have a strong impact on how we experience the world around us. For example, recommendation algorithms are used to point us to products we might want to buy online, restaurants we should try, or even news articles we might be interested in. As convenient as such recommendations can be, the required automated filtering of content comes with consequences. In this talk, Dr. Hopfgartner will first briefly introduce the most common algorithms used by modern recommender systems. Moreover, he will discuss current limitations and pitfalls of recommender systems. Finally, he will outline a vision on recommendations as the Lens of Life.

About CyCAT and the series:

The Cyprus Center for Algorithmic Transparency (CyCAT) is hosted at the Open University of Cyprus, the second public university in Cyprus and the only one dedicated to open and distance education. We collaborate with other researchers internationally and have recently teamed up with four leading universities across Europe and Israel through an H2020 Twinning grant. Our team holds key expertise in the algorithmic processes involved in information access, user interactions with algorithmic systems, user-system interaction, as well as the social and cultural implications of algorithmic processes.

The CyCAT research seminar series is open to participants worldwide. Its goal is to promote the understanding of algorithmic transparency and accountability, and to network with other professionals and researchers working in the area.

CyCAT has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon
2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant
Agreement No. 810105.