The 5th annual Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum (IEF2020) took place online on Friday December 18, 2020. With this year’s focus on “The Challenge of AI”, IEF2020 the Forum embarked an interdisciplinary dialogue on the challenges, implications and perspectives that emerge from recent developments in the field of AI and presented AI Capacities in Cyprus with this year’s Innovation Capacity Track. The opening of the Forum was dedicated to the finalists of the Cyprus Entrepreneurship Competition 2020.

IEF is organized every year from the Centre for Entrepreneurship (C4E) of the University of Cyprus with the support of PwC Cyprus.

Opening remarks and greetings to the event were addressed by the Forum’s Chair, Professor Marios D. Dikaiakos, the Minister of Energy, Commerce, and Industry, Ms Natasa Pileidou, and the Chief Scientist of the Republic of Cyprus, Dr. Nicholas Mastroyannopoulos. The first part of the Forum featured the pitches of the 9 finalists of the 2020 Cyprus Entrepreneurship Competition (CyEC) and the announcement of the winning teams. The 1st prize winner of the CyEC2020 competition was Malloc, a team of 3 three engineers that created an AI software that aims to provide real time solutions for individuals and businesses worldwide in the area of data and privacy protection, Maria Terzi, Liza Charalambous, Artemis Kontou. The 2nd prize went to the cosmopolitan team of the BeHive Consulting Academy that aims to goal to bridge the gap between learners and the resources and the 3rd prize to ActiveHub whose purpose is to bring transparency between public interest organizations and their citizens. CyEC2020 was organized by the Center of Entrepreneurship (C4E) with the support of the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry and with the valuable contribution of distinguished organizations and personalities from the Cypriot / Global business and research ecosystem. The competition was held under the Auspices of the Chief Scientist for Research & Innovation of Cyprus, Dr Nikolas Mastroyiannopoulos. Information about the competition, the teams, the winners and the business acceleration program are published on the competition website: https://www.cyec.org.cy/ Watch the CyEC2020 Winners presentations: https://bit.ly/3nYcKXP

The second part of the Forum focused on “The Challenge of AI”, featuring the PwC Distinguished Lecture by Professor Theodoros Evgeniou of INSEAD on “Navigating Data and AI Opportunities and Risks: New Challenges for Business and Regulators.” Professor Theodoros Evgeniou presented Data and AI as a promising new value in creating opportunity for business and society and debated the risks that come along. He provided some historic perspectives on where AI is coming from and why business and regulators need to think about it differently from other technologies. Watch the full lecture: https://bit.ly/3rJoJLh

The Distinguished Lecture was followed by a panel discussion “The Challenges of AI for Business and Policy Making” moderated by Mr. Evgenios Evgeniou, CEO of PwC Cyprus with Associated professor Jahna Otterbacher (Open University of Cyprus & RISE CoE), Professor Antonis C. Kakas from the Computer Science Department of the University of Cyprus, Dr. Christina Orphanidou, Data and Artificial Intelligence Lab Manager, PwC Cyprus and the Keynote Speaker professor Theodoros Evgeniou. Watch the discussion https://bit.ly/3rzxbMX

The 5^th Forum’s Innovation Capacity Track: Showcasing AI Capacities in Cyprus

dedicated to "The Challenge of AI" and brought together existing capacities in Cyprus regarding research activities, industrial expertise, and training initiatives in Artificial Intelligence. Contributors presented their work in a 4-minute pitch classified as Research Labs and Innovative start-ups working on AI, AI research results, AI-related innovative products and services and AI Training programs. The 5th Forum’s Innovation Capacity Track gathered participants from universities and research institutions, businesses and start-ups. During the Innovation Capacity Track event, representatives from the AI4EU project presented its main activities and its new open call funding possibilities for innovative problems and solutions in practical AI.

The abstracts and information of all contributors can be viewed in the Forum’s Agenda

Watch the Innovation Capacity Track presentations https://bit.ly/34UdKVc

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum is organized and hosted each year by the Centre for Entrepreneurship (C4E) of the University of Cyprus and seeks to bring together innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers and policy makers to discuss current themes on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, showcase entrepreneurial efforts as well as research results with a commercialization potential, present ongoing innovation activities, celebrate successful entrepreneurs and their ventures and deepen collaboration links between the research community, innovative entrepreneurs and potential investors.

For more information please visit www.c4e.org.cy/ief2020/ www.c4e.org.cy, Tel.: +357-22895110, or email at c4e@ucy.ac.cy