IMFD celebrates its 8th Workshop
With the participation of researchers and students of all levels, the Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data (IMFD) held its VIII Workshop at the Centro de Eventos Botánico in Peñalolén, Santiago.
The event featured presentations on the progress and projects carried out by the center’s research lines, with an emphasis on the results and short- and medium-term projections of the various initiatives, establishing itself as a key opportunity for the exchange of academic ideas. In addition, several initiatives from the Innovation and Technology Transfer Division were presented, as well as an update on the work being carried out by the new Digital Trust research line.
Given the institute’s interdisciplinary nature, IMFD director Juan Reutter highlighted that “this Workshop has been fundamental for sharing what we are doing, receiving feedback, and strengthening the work we carry out at IMFD”.
Along the same lines, Aidan Hogan, IMFD alternate director, noted that “a very enriching dialogue is generated here between IMFD’s different areas, which is key to our growth”.
Diversity of topics and interdisciplinarity
At the event, IMFD researchers delivered keynotes covering different topics: Sergio Toro presented the project “VOCES de la Araucanía”, which involves dense data management for the analysis of public issues. Gonzalo Navarro spoke about faster and larger compact queries on graph databases.
In the second block, Cristian Riveros gave a demonstration of data stream processing with the CORE project. Finally, Marcelo Mendoza presented the results of his study, “Disinformation, propaganda and polarization: the phenomenon in the age of AI”.
These keynotes were complemented by presentations from the privacy and data protection group, Matías Toro and Federico Olmedo, who discussed the scope of the new Data Protection Law and presented a current overview of data privacy in Chile.
Technology transfer: Concrete results at maqui.ai
Among the topics covered, IMFD Innovation director Hernán Sarmiento, in addition to reviewing the projects developed by this area, such as Vincula, the State Defense Public Challenge, the Waiting List Prioritization Model, among others, highlighted maqui.ai, a regulatory search engine that organizes and connects legal information in Chile’s urban planning sector.
“An important difference between IMFD and other centers is marked by our Technology Transfer area, through which we manage to effectively translate part of what our researchers work on at different universities into applied projects”, adds Sarmiento.
Wide participation of students
In parallel, a poster session was held featuring 30 research projects developed by IMFD members. Each project covered a range of topics, from data theory and methodology to their application in different disciplines such as computing, social sciences, and technological innovation.
“This space reflects the collaborative work driven by the institute and allows us to develop new ideas, discuss, and share, which strengthens the quality of our work”, highlighted Camila Díaz, IMFD executive director.
With this eighth edition, IMFD reaffirms its commitment to advancing cutting-edge data research, addressing it from its origin to its use and social impact.
