How JTS Workshops can Improve your Results

After our tech-tasting, we're excited to offer you the full course! Spend a day, morning or afternoon, diving into what happens when technology and research creativity come together. Explore innovative digital tools, learn from experts, and find out how JTS workshops can help you enhance your research impact.

Whether you're a digital novice or a tech-savvy researcher, this event is designed to inspire, connect, and empower you to take the next step in your research journey.

Morning Programme

Options masterclass round 1

Choose one of the parallel sessions:

Storymapping for Science – Enhance Your Impact
By Peter Merx

Do you want to learn how to use mapping to present your research in a proper and creative way? With Storymapping you learn how to visualise your research to create a stronger narrative or simply clarify your research. You can use this function of ESRI to reach a wider audience for your research using interactive maps and other multi-media. Storymapping is an easy starting point to incorporating maps in your research, learning how to visualise and crafting engaging stories. So do you want to showcase your research in a new engaging way? Explore it using this workshop! More information about this workshop can be found here.

Introduction to AI Tools for General Purpose
By Theo van Mourik

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly, with thousands of new tools emerging each month to support tasks ranging from text generation to image creation and video editing. This introductory workshop offers a broad overview of the AI tooling landscape and is designed for a general audience, no technical background required. Across a mix of presentation, discussion, and hands-on exploration, participants will learn what AI tools are, how they can boost productivity, and how to use them effectively and responsibly within UG policy, security, and privacy guidelines. You'll experiment with tools for text, images, video, and audio, receive practical tips for finding and applying them to your own work, and gain insight into both their potential and their pitfalls. No preparation is needed; just bring a laptop (or request one from Theo van Mourik). By the end, you'll have a clear understanding of how AI tools can be integrated into your daily workflow and the confidence to start using them productively.

AI for Non-Experts
by Muhamed Amin

Curious about how Artificial Intelligence is transforming our world and how you can be part of it? This beginner-friendly workshop offers a hands-on introduction to AI, starting with what AI really is, how it differs from machine learning, and the skills needed to pursue a path in AI science or engineering. You'll explore how intelligent systems are reshaping industries and jobs, then build a practical foundation in Python programming — no prior experience required. With step-by-step guidance, you'll apply your new skills by creating a simple model for classifying breast cancer as malignant or benign, followed by a mini-project in which you develop your own AI model to predict apartment prices in Groningen. Through this project-based approach, you'll experience the full AI workflow, from data collection to model training and evaluation. Whether you're a student, a professional, or simply curious, this workshop will equip you with the knowledge, confidence, and motivation to begin your journey into the world of AI.

AI Sustainability Education Workshop (JTS & RAS)
by Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn, Marco Zulllich, Juan Diego Cardenas Cartagena, and Stefanie Kunkel

The increasing scale, popularity, and widespread adoption of AI systems in the last few years stimulates urgent questions about sustainability. The energy footprint of the (hyper-scale) data centers powering AI systems is consuming a growing share of the overall energy consumption of countries and communities around the world, including in Europe and The Netherlands. Environmentally sustainable AI refers to AI that is optimized to address (1) direct environmental effects, related to the AI systems’ life cycle energy and material requirements, such as greenhouse gas emissions in training, or hardware requirements, as well as (2) indirect environmental effects that arise when AI systems are applied in other application domains, such as industrial companies or private households. The workshop begins by examining why sustainability matters in AI, followed by an introduction to its technical and socio-economic dimensions. Participants will then work in groups on a hands-on "Rebound Archetype" exercise, analyzing stakeholder scenarios to identify and address direct and indirect socio-environmental effects of AI. By the end, you will understand key sustainability challenges in AI, explore multiple perspectives, collaborate across disciplines, and learn a method for assessing the broader impacts of AI-related decisions.This workshop is open to both university staff and students. It is part of a larger, wider discussion group on how to bring environmental sustainability into AI education.

Afternoon Programme

Options masterclass round 2

Choose one of the parallel sessions:

Responsible Use of AI Tools for Research
by Theo van Mourik

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing research with innovative tools to streamline processes and boost productivity. This workshop explores how AI can enhance the seven stages of research: Discovery, Implementation, Analysis, Writing, Publication, Outreach, and Evaluation. Participants will experience how AI can save time and improve quality by using the right tools to identify research gaps, analyze data, draft manuscripts, and improve their work's visibility and impact. This course is for academic staff who want to learn how AI tools can help in research. No prior knowledge is required, but a dream of what you’d like to do with AI tools would be nice. It is recommended that you bring your own laptop. If you don't have a laptop, please contact t.j.van.mourik@rug.nl so we can arrange one for you. By the end of this workshop, you will understand the potential and limitations of AI tools and be equipped with practical skills to use them in research. This workshop is designed to engage participants actively, with opportunities for collaborative exploration and plenty of time to ask questions and get feedback.

Where the h#ck can I find that data?! Do you want to use socio-economic or geodata in your research but don’t know where to start?
by Peter Merx

This workshop has your back. You'll learn how to track down reliable, up-to-date datasets, figure out what's missing, and confidently ask for the information you actually need. Then we jump into QGIS: organizing and transforming data for spatial analysis, managing and collecting geo-data, running analytical tools, and turning everything into eye-catching maps and visuals. GIS experts will guide you step-by-step whether you're a total beginner or already mapping your way through academia and you'll even get opportunities for extra support afterward. By the end, you'll not only know where the h#ck to find that data, but also how to make it work for your research.

Special: Geti™ by Intel
by Britt van Akker & Radwan Ibrahim

Start building computer vision AI today with this hands-on workshop designed for anyone curious about visual analysis but unsure where to begin. You'll be introduced to Geti™, Intel's open-source computer vision software that lets you train pattern-recognition models using your own visual data, no AI expertise required. With its intuitive interface and human-in-the-loop approach, Geti makes computer vision accessible and practical for beginners. During the workshop, you'll experiment with multiple AI techniques, including zero-shot learning with Vision Language Models, anomaly detection for visual inspection, and Vision-Language-Action models for robotics applications. If you're ready to explore how accessible modern computer vision has become, sign up and start building your first AI models. Resources such as the Geti documentation and GitHub repository are available for further learning.

Please note that, if you wish, it's also possible to attend just one session. If case you have any questions, contact us at jtschool@rug.nl.