Citizen Science at Flanders Technology & Innovation
For three weeks in October and November, the Nekkerhal in Mechelen transformed into a discovery hub for the technologies and innovations shaping the Flanders of tomorrow. As part of the Flanders Technology & Innovation Festival (FTI), visitors could explore hundreds of ideas, experiments and technologies.
And among all that innovation, we were happy to spot plenty of citizen science!
Spotting citizen science at Flanders NEXT
From 20 October to 7 November, Flanders NEXT took over the Nekkerhal with more than 500 stories and installations showing how innovation can help shape the future of Flanders.
We took a look around to see how much citizen science we could find. Among the projects on display were:
- Scivil’s quiz ‘Which Citizen Scientist are you’ and our video explaining what citizen science is.
- Maarallee (in Dutch), a project inviting Flemish speakers to record their accent or dialect and help AI better understand Flemish.
- ObsIdentify, an app with which people can identify animals and plants
- Radio Meteor Zoo, a Zooniverse project in which citizen scientists help find meteors in radio observations.
- AstroSounds, where volunteers listen to and classify sounds from space data.
- Several citizen science projects supported by amai! (in Dutch), including CAIRE, an AI chatbot for cancer survivors; CamerAI, using smart cameras to spot nocturnal animals; ExplainMed, making medical language easier to understand; and bAIcycle, where cyclists gather information about cycling comfort and the condition of bike paths.
Take a look through the photo carousel below.
What do citizens think about AI innovations?
Citizen participation went a step further during Expeditie NEXT, the two-day innovation festival on 24 and 25 October.
The amai! team invited visitors to share their thoughts on seven AI innovations: Where do they see opportunities? What concerns them? And what potential do they think these technologies have?
In a series of small, interactive workshops, citizens could discuss the innovations directly with their creators and the amai! team. The input gathered during these conversations will be analysed and shared through the amai! website and social media channels (in Dutch).
Curious about the seven innovations? You can still explore them online and share your own opinion here (in Dutch).
