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Opening of the 23-24 academic year

The UPV requests a Multiannual Financing Plan (PPF) that differentiates the only technological university in the Valencian Community Region

[ 22/09/2023 ]

The Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) opened the academic year 2023-2024 on 15 September in an event attended by the Regional Minister of Education, Universities and Employment of the Generalitat Valenciana, José Antonio Rovira, and in which the UPV professor José Hernández Orallo gave the Keynote Opening Lecture, entitled "Artificial and natural intelligence: from diversity to generality".

New funding structure

In his speech, the Rector of the UPV, José E. Capilla, called for "a new funding structure" for Valencian public universities that allocates at least 40% of resources to recognise R&D&I results.

"The contribution of public resources cannot be justified only with quality teaching, but also requires effective results in terms of employability, lifelong learning, creation of relevant knowledge and contribution to innovation in the productive sectors," he said.

In addition, Capilla defended that "it is essential" to have a Multiannual Financing Plan (PPF). In this respect, the PPF is the "minimum guarantee, which the public universities themselves must give to society, that we are financed rationally and by what we contribute ".

Finally, Capilla advocated a "specific" Plan that differentiates the only technological university in the Valencian Community, "that adapts to the specific characteristics and objectives of the UPV in all plans: teaching, research and knowledge transfer".

"Stability and certainty”

For his part, the Valencian Regional Minister for Education, Universities and Employment highlighted in his speech "the commitment of the Valencian government to face what is currently the main challenge to guarantee the functioning and quality of the universities: A Multiannual Funding Plan that gives stability and financial certainty to the universities".

From diversity to generality

The Keynote Opening Lecture, given by Professor José Hernández-Orallo, addressed the question of how artificial intelligence, inspired by natural intelligence, has pivoted from diversity to generality, from specialised organisms and systems - with very particular and diverse cognitive systems - to general-purpose systems or systems endowed with general intelligence.

His speech referred to the past, present and future of intelligence, focusing on aspects that allow us to understand new types of intelligence from a less anthropomorphic point of view.

Hernández Orallo is a Professor and Researcher at the Valencian Institute for Research in Artificial Intelligence of the UPV (VRAIN) and the Valencian Graduate School and Research Network in Artificial Intelligence (ValgrAI). He is also a Senior Research Assistant at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge (UK).

Professor Hernández has published five books and more than two hundred journal articles and papers on artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science and intelligence measurement, addressing an in-depth analysis of the capabilities, progress, impact and risks of artificial intelligence throughout his work.

His contribution in all these fields has aroused the interest of the scientific community as a whole and the media such as The Economist, New Scientist and Nature, among others.

The UPV's annual report was also presented during the event, and the Academic Staff who obtained the fifth positive evaluation of their research activity were recognised.

For this academic year 2023-2024, 32,069 students have enrolled in one of the degrees or maters offered by the UPV: 48 undergraduate studies (22,055 people), 25 double degrees (1,474), more than 100 masters (6,141) or in one of the 32 PhD Student programs (2,399).

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