VU Faculty of Law invites interdisciplinary student teams to take part in the competition, where you will have the opportunity to jointly solve real problems in Lithuania and the academic community, to make new acquaintances, to develop your teamwork skills, and, in case of success, to receive a cash prize.
During the rest of the semester and during the summer break, teams are invited to try to fi nd the answers to one of two problem questions:
- How to encourage participation in elections?
Active participation in elections can be considered an indicator of a mature civil society. According to data provided by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, the Scandinavian countries are leading in this respect, with a turnout rate of over 70% in recent parliamentary elections. Unfortunately, this indicator has only been exceeded twice in Lithuania: in the 1990 Supreme Council-Seimas elections and the 1992 Seimas elections. These dates show that turnout in Lithuania correlates with civic respect: the elections of the Restoration of the Seimas were the fi rst free and democratic elections in the 50 years of occupation, and the fi rst Seimas elections on 25 October 1992 were accompanied by a referendum on the entry into force of the Lithuanian Constitution. Unfortunately, apart from these cases, we have nothing to be proud of: for the last 20 years, the turnout has barely crossed the 50% threshold, or even below it.
It seems that the Lithuanian nation has "fallen asleep" and no longer feels the civic duty to participate in the governance of the state as defi ned in the Constitution. This is especially true for the youngest voters (under 24), whose turnout in the 2020 Seimas elections was only 38.6%. This problem should be tackled from a multidisciplinary perspective, which would allow fi nding the most appropriate solutions to encourage greater participation of voters, and especially young people.
The Faculty of Law of Vilnius University invites a multidisciplinary team to propose a solution to this problem. Please see below for the team composition requirements, expected work plan and registration.
- How can the University benefi t from AI?
Just a few years ago, various generative models of artifi cial intelligence (AI) appeared, and quite quickly transformed our daily lives with the images, videos and text-based solutions they generate. Unfortunately, the academic community is still very suspicious and sceptical about AI. However, even this sometimes very inert part of society understands that it will have to adapt to change. This understanding is refl ected in the recently adopted Guidelines for the Use of Artifi cial Intelligence at Vilnius University, which describe both the main opportunities and the major risks of using AI in higher education.
However, in order to maximise the potential of AI, proactive solutions and proposals need to be taken to ensure that the VU community understands the benefi ts of AI to the greatest extent possible. Therefore, the Faculty of Law of VU invites an interdisciplinary team to make proposals on how the Academic Community could benefi t from the use of AI in both research and studies. VU Faculty of Law will also give teams the opportunity to take part in a summer school on artifi cial intelligence.
Requirements for participating teams:
- A team of 3-6 people;
- All participants must be VU students;
- Students from all three levels are eligible:
- Teams must have participants from AT LEAST THREE different fi elds of study;
- Individual participants can also register: they will be assigned to a team by the organisers.
Final result:
- A draft in the form of a written paper setting out clear proposals to solve one of the two problems. Part of the deliverable may be presented in other forms (e.g. visuals, software solutions, etc.).
Prizes for the teams with the best solution to one of the two problem questions:
- 1st prize: €3000 per team;
- 2nd prize: €1500 per team;
- 3rd prize: €1000 per team.
Registration: https://forms.office.com/e/egEx0jB2ai