Meet our Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Mariacarmela Passarelli
Mariacarmela Passarelli is Associate Professor of Management and Innovation at the Management Department of University of Calabria, where she is also Coordinator of the Third Mission activities.
WebsiteMariacarmela Passarelli is Associate Professor of Management and
Innovation at the Management Department of University of Calabria, where
she is also Coordinator of the Third Mission activities. She plays an
active role in scientific committees, editorial boards, and
international associations (e.g European Academy of Management - EURAM
and Italian Academy of Management - SIMA).
Her academic and scientific work focuses on entrepreneurship,
innovation management,technology transfer, intellectual property, and
sustainability, with teaching and research experience at prestigious
international universities and institutions, including the Manhattan
Institute of Management (New York), Otto von Guericke University
(Magdeburg), ICSE (Grand Canary Islands), and ESSEC Business School
(Paris).
She coordinates several programs on entrepreneurship (e.g ENACTUS),
innovation, and Proof of Concept, collaborates with the European Patent
Academy and participates in numerous European and nationally funded
projects (PNRR, Horizon, PRIN).
The author of books and numerous scientific publications, she has
received also awards for her studies and teaching activities.
Her educational background includes a PhD in Economics and Management
from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa and a Master in Business
Administration with honors from the University of Calabria, as well as
study experience at the University of California, Berkeley.
Is now the time to reimagine entrepreneurs for Human-Centered AI?
This talk explores how Harmonic Entrepreneurship (HE) — which balances value creation with care for people, communities and the environment — can be paired with Human-Centered AI (HCAI) to build AI ventures that scale ethically. It proposes the profile of the harmonic entrepreneur as a steward leader who blends hard skills (data, operations, governance) with soft skills (empathy, ethics, collaboration) to tackle sustainability challenges. The talk also underscores the pivotal role of entrepreneurship education in the HCAI era, equipping the next generation of socially responsible leaders.
Philipp Rosendahl
Digital Project Manager at Merck KGaA.
Digital Project Manager at Merck KGaA. Specialist in human-centred AI applications, data-driven workflows, and the integration of expert feedback into enterprise systems. Expert in explainable AI, traceable RAG architectures, and multimodal data interpretation.
From tribal knowledge to trusted AI: designing feedback-centric systems at Merck
At Merck, we design AI systems that center on human expertise rather than automation alone. This talk presents our framework for incorporating tacit, domain-specific knowledge—often undocumented but essential—into enterprise AI applications. We describe mechanisms for structured user feedback that refine AI-generated proposals and enable bidirectional learning between humans and AI agents. Our approach emphasizes transparency through document-level traceability within RAG pipelines and highlights the importance of expert model specialization for processing diverse data types such as images, tables, and text. The result is a suite of trustworthy, defensible, and user-driven AI applications tailored to complex scientific and industrial environments.
Prof. Dr. Susanne Schmidt
Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. Roles and research overview.
WebsiteProfile at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. See her page for roles and research.
Leading Human-Centered AI adoption: The Leadership Capabilities Organizations Need for Responsible AI Adoption
Human-centered AI succeeds when leadership treats AI adoption as a socio-technical change, not just an IT rollout. In this talk, I outline an actionable capability set for leaders to enable responsible AI adoption.
Davide Picca
Professor and researcher in Digital Humanities and AI at the University of Lausanne; work at the intersection of language, semiotics, and AI.
WebsiteDavide Picca is a professor and researcher in Digital Humanities and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Lausanne. His work focuses on the intersection of language, semiotics, and AI, with the idea that linguistic models are not simple computing machines, but real tools for interpreting culture and thought. During his career, he has been a visiting professor at the University of Turin and the Sorbonne in Paris, and is currently a research fellow at Harvard University's metaLAB, where he studies the relationship between digital technologies and humanities. He is also a scientific member of the Umberto Eco Foundation, where he coordinates aspects related to technology and artificial intelligence, with the aim of enhancing archives, libraries, and collections through advanced digital tools. He recently published a popular monograph for Fandango Libri entitled ChatGPT e intelligenze artificiali. Una biografia intellettuale (ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence: An Intellectual Biography).
Not Minds, but Signs: Rethinking Large Language Models through Semiotics
The conference addresses the widespread tendency to interpret Large Language Models (LLMs) as cognitive systems, highlighting the limitations of this approach. An alternative, semiotic framework is proposed, which considers LLMs as sign machines capable of recombining linguistic forms and generating texts without intentionality or autonomous understanding. This perspective is based on concepts developed by Peirce, Eco, and Lotman and allows us to analyze the outputs of models as cultural artifacts that require interpretive work, produce semiotic debt, and reconfigure the ecologies of meaning. Examples from the literary, philosophical, and pedagogical fields will be presented to show how the textual overproduction of LLMs opens up creative and educational spaces on the one hand and raises epistemic and ideological questions on the other. The goal is to outline a theoretical and critical framework that allows linguistic models to be situated not as minds but as technological participants in the continuous dynamics of semiosis.
Knut Polkehn
Consultant at artop – Institut an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; specialist in UX and human-centered design.
WebsiteConsultant at artop – Institut an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Specialist in usability and user experience (UX), human-centered design, and UX training programs. Expert in user research, conceptual design, and usability evaluation.
Human-Centered Design in AI Systems
Exploring the integration of human-centered design principles into AI systems, emphasizing the importance of usability and user experience in developing effective and user-friendly AI applications.
Prof. Dr. Michael Bosnjak
Head of Psychological Research Methods at Trier University; research includes research synthesis, theory-driven ML, survey methodology.
WebsiteProf. Dr. Michael Bosnjak is head of the Department for Psychological Research Methods at Trier University (Germany) and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Social Informatics, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). His research interests include: Research synthesis methods, theory-driven machine learning, survey methodology, HEXACOD personality model, and consumer/business psychology.
Professor Bosnjak is Editor-in-Chief of Zeitschrift für Psychologie, the oldest Psychology journal in Europe (founded in 1890 by Hermann Ebbinghaus and Arthur König). From July 2017 until December 2021, he was Director of the Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID) in Trier, Germany. In 2022, he was delegated to Robert Koch Institute in Berlin (Germany) as Scientific Director and Department Head (Epidemiology and Health Monitoring).
Predicting Human Behavior and its Determinants Using the "Big Seven" Personality Constructs - A Meta-Analytical Evidence Gap Map
Imagine a map that shows all the scientific knowledge we have on a particular topic. That's what a research tool called a ´Meta-Analytical Evidence Gap Map´ (MetaEGM) does. It creates a simple, visual summary of many studies to highlight which areas are well-researched, and where there are still ´gaps´ in our knowledge. Beyond just showing what we know, MetaEGMs also estimate how well certain factors—like personality traits—can predict human behavior and its causes.
The goal of this talk is to present a recent study that used this MetaEGM mapping technique. We brought together findings from previous research to see how well the "Big Seven" personality model can predict outcomes in many different areas of a person's life. This study shows how useful and important it is to use personality variables in predicting human behavior and its antecedents in all life domains. Therefore, the Big Seven should be considered as features in all machine learning models focusing on behavior, decisions, preferences, and attitudes as outcomes.
Valentina Pepoli
DPO & Founder of IBICHAIN; Co-Founder of PROHMED; focuses on privacy, GDPR and consent digitalization.
WebsiteData Protection Officer & Founder of IBICHAIN (Information Business Intelligence Consent), a platform that enables users to control their data during company onboarding processes with consent tracking and data portability rights. Co-Founder of PROHMED (Medical Intelligence Prevention), an innovative healthcare startup. Expert in privacy, GDPR compliance, digitalization of consent, data valorization, and AI system development with a strong focus on security, compliance, and personal data control.
IBICHAIN & PROHMED: Empowering Data Sovereignty and Healthcare Innovation
This talk explores IBICHAIN, a consent management platform that gives users full control over their personal data during onboarding processes. The platform addresses key challenges in Security & Compliance (security testing, audit, regulation, training, patent protection), Digitalization of Consent (onboarding integration with IDP, consent tracking via QR code or app), Data Valorization (intuitive UI, proximity services, low cost, reduced waiting times), and Data Sovereignty (European Cloud Solution, innovation, personal data control). The presentation also covers PROHMED, a medical intelligence and prevention platform that leverages these privacy-first principles to advance personalized healthcare while maintaining the highest standards of data protection and patient autonomy.