The RISE Workshop 9.0 on “The Creation and Communication of Novelty: How Entrepreneurs and Managers Establish New Perspectives in Scientific Research” takes place on June 7th 2006 at the Artificial Intelligence Lab (AILab) in Zurich Oerlikon. The workshop will look at the role of entrepreneurial scientists and science managers in establishing and making others adopt novel perspectives on the key concepts of an academic or business field.

First, Rolf Pfeifer, Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Zurich will talk about the establishment of a revised view of intelligence calling for a new paradigm in the field of Artificial Intelligence. More specifically, he will elaborate on the question: “how the body shapes the way we think”. Rolf Pfeifer will present this new theory of intelligence which is based on a set of fundamental “design principles” for intelligence, and also reflect on the challenges he has been facing as a researcher and manager in establishing this innovative and unconventional perspective over the last 20 years.

Second, Kathrin Sele, Research Associate of RISE will offer her views on how new perspectives and research paradigms unfold in a scientific context, thereby elaborating on the empirical findings derived from a running case study on the AILab, as well as discussing current insights in management research on those issues. In her presentation on “Agenda Setting for Innovative Research: Managerial Communication in Practice”, she will especially focus on the ability of manager and entrepreneurs for “agenda-setting” – as a tool and communicative practice they employ to spread new perspectives on central concepts in academic and business fields.

To wrap up the workshop Simon Grand will talk about “Building Intelligent Companies”, a recent joint project with Rolf Pfeifer on the implications of the design principles for intelligence and of related leading-edge research in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science for the creation and development of innovative companies, and in particular for entrepreneurial and managerial agency in this context. The presentation will contribute and connect to one of the areas that have been discussed in the Workshop 8.0 as fundamental for strategic entrepreneurship and management, in fact our understanding of agency under uncertainty and of situational flexibility in contexts of changing priorities.

Participation in the workshop is on invitation only.

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Website AILab University of Zurich
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Restaurant “Die Giesserei”