NEC-TECH
Research ProgramsTechnology – Culture – Humanities
Technology – Culture – Humanities
Timeframe:
2023 – present
Coordinators:
Andreea EȘANU, PhD, NEC Alumna; (non-tenure) Assistant Professor at University of Bucharest, Faculty of Philosophy; Publications & Digitalization Coordinator at NEC
Răzvan NICOLESCU, PhD, NEC-AMEROPA Fellow; Editorial Assistant, University College London
Partners:
The Institute for Logic and Data Science (ILDS)
The Institute for Logic and Data Science (ILDS) is a non-profit independent research institute dedicated to the spread and advancement of logic-based and data-oriented scientific methods.
Members:
Alec BĂLĂȘESCU, PhD, Associate Faculty Royal Roads University, Head of Corporate Engagement at Casa Paleologu
Alexandru DINCOVICI, PhD, NEC Alumnus; Associate Lecturer in Anthropology, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest & National University of Political Studies and Public Administration
Cristian DUCU, PhD, General Manager of the Centre for Advanced Research in Management and Applied Ethics (CARMAE)
Florin GOGIANU, PhD Candidate in Deep Reinforcement Learning at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca; Researcher at Bitdefender
Laurențiu LEUȘTEAN, PhD, Full Professor in the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Bucharest; President of ILDS
Andrei SIPOȘ, PhD, Associate Professor at University of Bucharest, Department of Computer Science; Scientific Researcher at Simion Stoilow Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy; Member of the executive board of ILDS
Cătălin ȚĂRANU, PhD, NEC Scientific researcher, leader of the research project Grammars of Emotion: Shame and the Social Economy of Honour in Medieval Heroic Literatures (GRAMMOTION)
Doctoral Students:
Petrișor IVAN, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest
Larisa GOGIANU, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest
Photo generated by DALL·E 3
NEC-TECH is a multi-disciplinary research group hosted by New Europe College, established at the intersection of technology, society, and culture. The group is open to a large variety of perspectives from different disciplines (engineering, data science, anthropology, sociology, philosophy) with the aim to foster dialogue, reflection, and research on the fast-evolving technologies of our times, including social media, smart devices, and artificial intelligence. We evaluate aspects, perspectives, and impact(s) of such technologies in our lives, in our communities, and more generally in our world-views.
Currently, the group functions as a reading group with weekly or bimonthly meetings, in which the members of the group and guests discuss relevant texts (books, articles, and research papers).
The group also welcomes presentations of original research papers and work in progress from its members or from guests.
This work is supported by a grant of the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, CNCS/CCCDI – UEFISCDI, project number PN-IV-P8-8.1-PRE-HE-ORG-2023-0055, within PNCDI IV.
Events:
2025
– Discussion on the article: Peter L. Forberg, From the Fringe to the Fore: An Algorithmic Ethnography of the Far-Right Conspiracy Theory Group QAnon
Introduced by Răzvan NICOLESCU
19 March 2025, at NEC & via Zoom
– Discussion on the article: Imre Lakatos, Falsification and the methodology of scientific research programmes
Introduced by Andreea EȘANU & Petrișor IVAN
29 January 2025, at NEC & via Zoom
2024
– Etică și nanotehnologii în domeniul medical
Moderators: Cristian DUCU and Larisa GOGIANU
11 December 2024, at NEC & via Zoom
– Discussion on the article: Minna Ruckenstein, The feel of algorithms
Introduced by Răzvan NICOLESCU
27 November 2024, at NEC & via Zoom
– Despre tehnologia de recunoaștere facială
Presentation given by Cristian DUCU
13 November 2024
–Este cercetarea în Ai știință, știință experimentală sau ce este?
Moderator: Andreea EȘANU
30 October 2024, at NEC & via Zoom
–The Age of Algorithms
20 June 2024, at NEC & via Zoom
– NEC-TECH Weekly/ Bimonthly meetings: Events Calendar
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83060467713?pwd=UzhGL1lBQlVscjFZdUpQS3hzc0FPUT09
Meeting ID: 830 6046 7713
Passcode: 515170
2023
–A Whirlwind Tour of Deep Learning. Learning, Meta-learning and Interaction in the Context of Deep Learning
30 March 2023, at NEC & via Zoom
Florin GOGIANU, Researcher at Bitdefender; currently enrolled in a PhD in Deep Reinforcement Learning at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
Q&A session moderated by Andreea EȘANU, NEC Alumna
Publications:
– Andreea Eșanu, Scrutinizing the foundations: could large language models be solipsistic? in Synthese 203, 158 (Springer, 2024)