REPORT: Spring International Week 2024
On May 20-24, 2024, Spring International Week was held at our Faculty - the second, after winter, this time spring edition of this new initiative in the field of international academic cooperation.
Although unfortunately not all announced participants were able to take part in this week's events, over 20 foreign guests came to the Faculty - lecturers, members of the university administration and students from universities from Chile, the Czech Republic, Ghana and Lithuania.
Spring International Week consisted of two main events - Staff Week with the participation of lecturers and administration from the University of Chile and the University of Ghana, and Blended Intensive Program (BIP) with the participation of students from Masaryk University and European Humanities University.
Staff Week guests held a number of meetings - training on mechanisms, manifestations of international academic cooperation and programs supporting them, and a panel discussion on the prospects for academic cooperation with African and South American countries. Thanks to the courtesy of the Gdańsk Museum, foreign guests could visit selected attractions of historic Gdańsk.
Blended Intensive Program (BIP) - a new European Union initiative in the field of academic international cooperation was the first event of this type in the history of our Faculty and one of three organized at the entire University of Gdańsk. After the first part online in March, the participants came to Gdańsk for a week to take part in the second part at our Faculty in the form of workshops and practical classes. The topic of the BIP was "LegalTech Fusion - Navigating in the Legal Lanscape of Artificial Intelligence".
Over the following days, law and graphic design students from foreign partner universities took part in workshops, training and lectures.
Various aspects and challenges related to the ethics and applications of AI were discussed, as well as the dark side of AI - its use to create deepfakes, cybersecurity violations and threats related to military technology. Working in groups, students created a set of rules regulating the use of artificial intelligence, taking into account aspects such as privacy, transparency, responsibility and justice. They had to present the created rules in a visual form without the use of letters, in a way that was understandable and accessible to the viewer, using their artistic skills. The next task was to translate the designed drawings into computer graphics using AI tools.
During the workshops, students used tools using Artificial Intelligence to design their own tax system, their own currency (including banknote patterns) and the rules for its issuance and circulation.
Mixed teams composed of students from both partner universities also took part in an Oxford style debate organized with the participation of the "Ars Bene Dicendi" Debate Club on the topic "This house believes that Artificial Intelligence poses a huge threat to humanity." In addition to students from Lithuania and the Czech Republic, students from Vietnam and Uzbekistan staying at the Faculty as part of the Erasmus+ program also actively participated in the debate.
After a strong clash of arguments, full of sharp retorts and a lot of good humor, the Opposition team finally won, convincing the audience that "Artificial Intelligence does NOT pose a huge threat to humanity."
By combining theory with practice, BIP participants had the opportunity to practically apply theory while developing their technical, artistic and rhetorical skills.
We are glad that the Faculty's international cooperation is constantly developing and the number of our foreign guests and international initiatives is growing.
We would like to thank the Dean of our Faculty, Assoc. Prof. Wojciech Zalewski for kindly supporting the initiative.
We would like to thank all people involved in organizing Spring International Week 2024 at our Faculty:
Assoc. Prof. Marcin M. Wiszowaty – Vice-Dean for international cooperation and development
Assoc. Prof. Edvardas Juchnevićius – Dean's Representative for international cooperation, Head of this year's BIP program
Assoc. Prof. Tomasz Widłak – Dean's Representative for international cooperation
Assoc. Prof. Prabhpreet Singh – Manipal University Jaipur, India
Dr. Damian Cyman – Department of Financial Law
Dr. Magdalena Glanc-Żabiełowicz – Dean's Plenipotentiary for international cooperation
Dr. Piotr Kitowski – Department of the History of Law
Dr. Agnieszka Tuszkowska – Dean's Office
Ms. Natalia Fiertek – Office of International Cooperation of the University of Gdańsk
Management of the Gdańsk Museum
Team of the Office of International Cooperation of the University of Gdańsk
See you at the next International Week at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Gdańsk!
