JYU graduate Juho Reivo wins EU-wide essay contest on ICT
Juho Reivo, who graduated from the Ģֱ in November, won the essay contest in an event hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).
The essay contest is organised annually by the European DIGITAL SME Alliance, and it offers an opportunity for students and recent graduates to deal with ICT issues in essay form from the perspective of issues such as new technologies, cyber security, and standardisation.
The General Secretary of the organising body Sebastiano Toffaletti states that the Alliance brings together Europe’s most innovative and ambitious technology start-ups and small and medium enterprises in order to promote European digital sovereignty.
“The DIGITAL SME essay writing contest supports this vision by inspiring and shaping the next generations of digital leadership,” Toffaletti says
“It’s great to make it to the finals in this kind of European-wide contest and get attention for the work you have done and also its ideas,” Reivo says while encouraging others to participate in such contests.
Reivo’s essay also highlights the participation of small operators in the development of AI standards
Reivo’s essay was based on his master’s thesis in the Faculty of Information Technology, which addressed different AI-related security perspectives and especially the various structures and standards used to guide and regulate AI.
The event that included the essay contest as well dealt with the EU-wide shortage of experts to participate in standardisation work. Standardisation refers to preparing jointly agreed policies on artificial intelligence, for example.
Juho Reivo’s winning essay was based on his master’s thesis at the Ģֱ. Photo: European DIGITAL SME Alliance
“A central point in my essay is that we need jointly agreed standards, laws and other guidelines,” Reivo says. “That way, we can avoid the worst risks related to technology and AI, while also alleviating the fears associated with these and helping us seize the opportunities to try new things.”
Reivo points out that although we are talking about large entities, the threshold composed of these should not be an insurmountable obstacle for the engagement of small and individual operators in the utilization of AI.
“This is significant in Finland where most of public and private organisations are small and have scarce resources,” Reivo says. “It is important that also small operators can participate in the discussion about safe and ethical AI.”
Reivo thinks that the development of AI and related policy research are issues which universities should be pay more attention to.
“In my opinion, people in Finland do not sufficiently realise how significantly standards direct even broader development,” Reivo says. “Hence, the development of standardisation should be followed and studied more extensively.”
Further information
Juho Reivo
juho.2.reivo@student.jyu.fi