ELLIS Institute Finland Scientific Seminar

ELLIS Institute Finland will hold its celebratory scientific seminar marking the opening of the Institute. This event follows the official opening of the Institute, taking place during the AI Summit. 
 

Program

Master of Ceremonies: John Shawe-Taylor (UCL)

9:00–10:00 Registration and coffee

10:00–10:10 Opening remarks: Samuel Kaski (ELLIS Institute Finland)

10:10–12:00 Keynote talks and discussion:
- Giada Pistilli (Hugging Face): From Utility to Intimacy: Evaluating Companionship Behaviors in AI Systems
- Kyunghyun Cho (New York University): Learning to X
- Short talks from new ELLIS Institute faculty: Eric Malmi: Test-time scaling for mastering board games with LLMs, Qi Chen: Generalize to Discover, Jiancheng Yang: Scaling Spatial Intelligence for Healthcare: Towards Clinical World Models

12:00–13:00 Lunch

13:00–13:15 Fireside chat: Serge Belongie (University of Copenhagen) and Peter Sarlin (Foundation PS)

13:15–14:00 Panel discussion: Europe’s agenda for AI in science
Jessica Montgomery (University of Cambridge), Serge Belongie (University of Copenhagen), Mark Girolami (The Alan Turing Institute), Laura Ruotsalainen (University of Helsinki), Max Welling (University of Amsterdam) 

14:00–14:45: Keynote talks: 
- Florence d'Alché-Buc (Institut Polytechnique de Paris): Graph-valued Regression through the Lens of Optimal Transport
- Andrea Ganna (University of Helsinki): Disease prediction using nation-wide health data

14:45–15:15 Coffee break

15:15–16:00 Keynote and discussion
- Mark Girolami (The Alan Turing Institute): Autoencoders in Function Space

16:00–17:00 Closing cocktail reception

Registration

Reserve your spot by 9 November 2025 to join the event. Registration is now closed.

Venue and travel

How to get to Marsio, on the Aalto University campus (address: Otakaari 2, Espoo).

You can use the code “BELLIS25” to book a room with a special rate from one of the following hotels:

• Radisson Blu Hotel Espoo (500m from the campus)
• Heymo 1 by Sokos Hotels (850m from the campus)
• Original Sokos Hotel Tapiola Garden (2 km from the campus, one metro stop)

The code is valid for standard one- and two-person rooms for bookings between 16.–19.11.2025. Please note that there is a limited number of rooms available.

Participants are responsible for funding and arranging their own travel and accommodations.

Contact

Email contact at ellisinstitute dot fi with any questions.