My experience at CLEI 2024
Do you enjoy research and science, and are you always trying to improve yourself? Or are you just starting out? You’re at the correct place. Let’s dive into my CLEI 2024 experience.
Hey, man, take it slow. So, what’s CLEI?
What’s CLEI?
It’s the “Latin American Center for Informatics Studies” yes it’s an organization that basically in their words:
Brings together universities, research centers and professional associations, becoming the main point of contact in Latin America between numerous university professors, researchers, trade union leaders and professionals, facilitating the promotion and development of informatics in the region.
An institution that organizes the “Latin American Conference on Informatics” annually as its main activity. You can find more information about this year’s event at https://conferencia2024.clei.org/, which I attended.
In my opinion, this event was more shocking and incredible than I expected 🚀. The next section will provide a detailed breakdown.
Tell me more
Important details about this event: the venue this year was Bahía Blanca, Argentina. (This beautiful place has its own section in this post… be patient 😜).
I have attended multiple events and talks over the years, but I’ve never encountered the level of knowledge that the keynote speakers displayed in their presentations. Their presentations, which reflected years of study and dedication, were truly impressive.
- Yannis Ioannidis, the director of the ACM, gave a talk titled Open Science, providing a brief overview of Open Science as a new approach to conducting research. You can watch his video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qruf7Yk-55U?si=ZPDFeNEBdOCjzl4v. I had a short conversation with him, and despite his role and position, he is open to discussing education and science. He is also willing to help and collaborate. Additionally, I noticed that ACM is supporting our computer science conference here in Bolivia as a short talk with the Bolivian commission. Something that surprised me is ACM’s enthusiasm for including more women in the tech world. The organization is proud of the progress in Bolivia, where 3–4 out of 10 people working in this field are women, which is not the case in many countries.
- Ricardo Baeza, the Director of Research at the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University, in his talk titled Responsible AI, emphasizes not the faults of AI, but its usage and development. In the end, AI is a tool, but in the wrong hands and without a clear development path, it could be dangerous. The cultural impact and easy access to AI are ongoing challenges for those establishing its ethical foundations. His talk was excellent for at least changing some opinions and fostering critical thinking on the topic. Please check his video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hd2O9XjGMs, as Byung-Chul Han said, “The violence of positivity does not deprive; it saturates. It does not exclude; it exhausts.” We need more negativity in an ultra-positive postmodern world (i.e., critical thinking).
- ….. I wasn’t able to attend all the Keynote talks, but finally, we had the Q&A session with Donald Knuth, one of the pioneers of computer science. You can check out his video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u33VTR4mrIY.
About the UNS (Universidad Nacional del Sur)
It was an incredible university. It is public, but it feels like a private university (please don’t get me wrong, but in my country, public universities often lack the infrastructure needed to accommodate the enormous demand and large number of students.). The infrastructure is amazing, the space is clean, and it looks like an enjoyable place to learn and create knowledge. At first glance, I noticed that most of the professors have PhDs or other advanced academic degrees. I don’t know much, but it feels like research is a crucial pillar of the institution. In fact, that should be one of the most important subjects at a university.
Something curious I noted while walking around the Computer Science department was that the walls were filled with papers that you could read, even in the hallways near the classrooms, which is truly fantastic. It reminded me of my first experience with research, it was a professor at UMSS (my university) named Patricia in the “Research Methodologies” class who inspired me to learn LaTeX and begin my first research projects. Moments like that change a student’s mindset forever.
Last but not least and the most important, the students most of them curious and shy, just like in my old days. I made a few Argentinian and Peruvian friends who were warm and kind, sharing university stories, disagreements, longings, desires, aspirations, and its mate with me. In the end, the most admirable thing is the human connection, the interactions, and those short but unforgettable conversations. P.S.: Someday, even if I’m old, I’ll go back to that university.
Bahia Blanca, Argentina
Ohh, white and blue city! For some reason, I associated it with the clouds and the ocean. Well, it is a port city after all. I fell in love with it! It’s small but looks amazing, and it reminds me of my own city — just with sea access 😆 (Bolivia doesn’t have a sea) and a bit colder. It’s like a mix of my favorite cities in Bolivia. The people are so kind; whenever I needed help finding my way, someone from Bahía Blanca was always there to show me the path. The city is well-organized and is definitely a good place to stay, enjoy, and relax. Ironically, if you are a 1.5 person on YouTube, you will be a 0.5 guy in this city. Time passed slowly there, and I really loved it — or maybe I just love not working sometimes 😆. That’s another story. But yeah, I felt the truly freedom in Bahia Blanca.
A must-stop in Bahía Blanca for computer lovers is the “Espacio Tec” https://espaciotec.com.ar/ a museum of consoles, computers, calculators, and typewriters (informatics in general). It holds a great history and showcases the development of computer science in the region. You shouldn’t miss it!.
How can I be part of this event?
I want to thank my mentor and co-author of our paper, Jorge Orellana, for motivating me to continue until the end of this adventure. Sorry, I forgot to mention that I went to the CLEI conference to present our paper, CanSat picosatellite as a first approach to space technologies (design, construction of a CanSat picosatellite and its ground station). You can read it here https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10700336. Yeah! It was a challenging journey. If you want to conduct research and write an paper, don’t be shy or fearful about it. We engage in research every day in our lives, but we don’t structure and document anything. Research is not just a field for scientists; it’s part of a critical thinking mindset. It frees us from dogmatic and rigid thought.
This is a call for research: you don’t need anything other than the desire to pursue it. Every university has programs and mechanisms to help you make your first leap into the field of research. The first point of contact is your local scientific society at your university. Go there, build a community, and create a study group. Think about a problem, even if it’s small; we have many problems, and we create more every day, as you can see. Ironically, you could cause problems while trying to fix others.
The next lines are a quick guide to be part of this big event:
- Need to have a paper that is already created or, in some cases, one that is in development; you could also present partial papers.
- You can consult this website for future versions of CLEI: https://clei.org/. Usually, a new webpage is launched for every version, like this one: https://conferencia2024.clei.org/ for the 2024 conference (four months or more before the conference date).
- On that website, you can find complete information to participate in the event. For example, this page contains all the details: https://conferencia2024.clei.org/inicio/llamado/formato-y-envio/. You need to register on the Microsoft CMT platform and submit your paper.
- An important note: please adjust your paper to the IEEE format found here: https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html. There are templates available in Word and LaTeX; choose your favorite. As a suggestion, use the A4 version to modify and adapt your paper since it is the format used for the last version (IEEE Explore submission).
- Once you submit your paper draft to the CMT platform, you will receive an email confirmation of your submission.
- You need to know that if you are the author of a paper, the cost to publish it and present at the conference is about $280 (if you are not a CLEI partner).
- Near the conference date, you will receive an acceptance or denial response. Usually, the acceptance email contains valuable feedback from a scientific committee.
- Try to improve your document based on their feedback, and if possible, enhance what you think is the main focus.
- Then it’s time to submit your camera-ready version, incorporating the feedback, and get ready for travel!
- However, travel comes with costs. Some universities have programs to help in these situations, and the CLEI committee offers grants for universities that are CLEI partners. In Bolivia, the only universities that qualify are UMSA and USFX, but you can check if your university is included in the CLEI partnership here: https://clei.org/instituciones-miembro/. The idea is to request financial help if needed. In the end, travel for this conference cost me around $1180 (including the $280 it costs for me to be part of the conference as an author).
- If at any point you lose your way, feel free to email one of the organizers; they are attentive and happy to help.
Please ask me any questions if you need more information. If you, curious reader, need guidance with this, feel free to contact me on any social media at @cr0wg4n. I’ll enjoy to help others attend this great conference.
Thank you to the CLEI organizers for conducting a top-notch conference.
Finally, it was the most valuable trip of my life so far. I graduated from college a long time ago and surrendered myself to the industrial world, and during this trip, I was reminded of the amazing value of science in our lives, now I’m trying to create a balance. I felt like a university student again. Sometimes, I think of Bahía Blanca and Buenos Aires, accompanied by the rhythm of Pedro Suárez from Peru, thanks to my Peruvian friends (ironically) .I’ll appreciate those moments as a reminder of:
No matter your age, you will always be an eternal student. Pride and degrees are just ornaments; the most beautiful gift in the world is curiosity.
With that said, see you in one more year! 😆
