More than 33 #ifip60 events are taking place across the globe over the next few months as Member Societies and IFIP Committees join IFIP to celebrate its founding under the auspices of UNESCO 60 years ago.

In April, IP3 (IFIP’s International Professional Practice Partnership) hosted a panel discussion on “Building Cyber Resilience with a Professional Workforce” as part of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum.

Cybersecurity is vital for all organisations, with recent statistics suggesting a global cybersecurity workforce shortage of 3.1 million. The session highlights the importance of initiatives to grow skilled cybersecurity workforce and on the sharing of best practices. The desire of various organisations and governments to create their own cybersecurity skills frameworks could reduce the mobility of cybersecurity workforce and global skills transfer. A recording of the session is available here. WSIS 2021 was organised by UN agencies including ITU and UNESCO.

IFIP Technical Committee 11 held its 36th International Conference on ICT Systems Security and Privacy Protection in June with special #ifip60 panel sessions on the “IFIP 60 years” and on “IFIP and National Computer Societies”. The conference proceedings are a timely reminder of the importance of security and data protection in the digital age.

IFIP Member BCS held the BCS Insights 2021 featuring a range of fantastic speakers including BCS President John Higgins and a session by Internet pioneer, Vint Cerf (@vgcerf), who discussed the scalability and security of IoT devices. If you miss the session watch it here.

BCS Insights was followed by the Korean Institute of Computer Scientists and Engineers (KIISE) event “Unimagined Futures: Healing and Recovery with K-SW” from Jeju Island, South Korea in June.

The Brazilian Computer Society joined the #ifip60 celebrations hosting #CSBC2021 “Innovation and Digital Transformation: Facing the Complexity and Uncertainties of the Contemporary World” in July, with a keynote featuring the IFIP President.

FIP Technical Committee 3 (Computers in Education) will be hosting OCCE 2021 in August to discuss topics from online classrooms, computational thinking in curricula to #computerscience education and, to celebrate 50 years of WG3.4.

From 17-20th August, CD-MAKE, a joint effort of IFIP Technical Committees 5 and 12, WG 8.4, WG 8.9 and WG 12.9 will bring together #datascientists, #AI researchers, and interdisciplinary experts to come up with fresh ideas and build cross-domain networks. Learn more here.

IFIP Technical Committee 12 (AI) will host the 9th AI4KM, invites AIES 2021 (Artificial Intelligence for Energy and sustainability) on August 21-22, with the specific objective of facing environmental challenges using AI approaches and techniques to support and improve the management of sustainable energy systems within smart cities, smart facilities, smart buildings, smart transportation and smart houses.

Also, on August 24th, join our young IT professionals, at the #ifip60 “World Blumar Youth IP Conclave”, as we discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by IP, IP protection and management in the digital age.

On August 25th, the #ifip60 panel session “AI Ethics and Governance”, moderated by Eunika Mercier-Laurent, Chair IFIP TC12 (AI), will take place at IJCAI 2021. The new generation of AI, Artificial General Intelligence fields, autonomous systems and humanoid robots raise fears and questions on the place and role of human beings in the nearest future. The panellists will debate and discuss some challenging questions demanding deep thinking, insight, knowledge, and experience:

  • Is it possible to regulate the research and applications of AI, especially for military purposes?
  • What are new challenges for humans to preserve their place in the new society? 
  • How to avoid the bugs in fully autonomous systems? 
  • Paradox in exploration of personal data
  • Will AI bring more opportunities or challenges to our current and future activities?

 

IFIP 60 Faces

Have you ever been curious about the various people involved in IFIP? Over the course of the #ifip60 celebrations in 2021, we will ask IFIP stakeholders and members what they think are essential to the future of information processing. We present some of the initial “60 Faces of IFIP”:

 

 

Information about more upcoming #ifip60 events is available here.

Anthony Wong, Chair of the #ifip60 Committee and IFIP Vice President conveys a big thank you to all Member Societies across the globe and IFIP Committees for their collaboration, contributions and for making #ifip60 possible. Stay tuned for more information as additional #ifip60 events become available over the remainder of 2021.

If you would like to host and organise #ifip60 events over the course of the year, please contact the Chair of the #ifip60 Committee at anthony.wong@acs.org.au or Kristina Hatas, International Relations at GI kristina.hatas@gi.de.[/fusion_text]