The guest program within ELLIIT has the goal to unite high-level international researchers and inspire young ELLIIT researchers through personal contacts with top international researchers. The most important instrument for the ELLIIT guest program is the 5-week focus period, organized twice a year at one of the ELLIIT universities. We strive to create an environment where ELLIIT researchers can work under optimal circumstances in collaboration with other internationally established scientists around a specific research topic. Researchers within ELLIIT are always welcome to contact us to discuss topics for upcoming focus periods.

Anders Rantzer
anders.rantzer@control.lth.se
Phone: +46 46 222 87 78

Fredrik Heintz
fredrik.heintz@liu.se
Phone: +46 13 28 24 28
Fall 2023 – Linköping
Networks Dynamics and Control
A central task in Network Science is to understand how to extrapolate emerging collective dynamical behaviors out of a large number of interacting elementary entities. An even more challenging task is to move from a passive observation of the behavior of a network to an active way of controlling its dynamics. Both tasks require a system-level thinking, and can have profound repercussions across the many different domains of science in which networks are of relevance, such as biology, ecology, social sciences, economical sciences, and engineering.
The aim of this 5-week focus period is to stimulate the interaction between scientists working on network dynamics and control from different perspectives, and to favour cross-talk by promoting awareness of what is available “next door”.
The focus period will run in Linköping between September 4th and October 6th. A number of young international scholars interested in these research challenges will be invited to participate, and to interact with leading scientists as well as ELLIIT researchers. In the third week (September 20-22) we will have a 3-day symposium, with several invited top-level researchers.
Fall 2023 – Lund
6G – forming a better future
Research related to the 6th Generation Wireless Systems (6G) comprises a wide range of topics. This focus period takes a broad perspective on the possibilities and limitations of technology available and what services and applications can be proivided by a future 6G system. Topics range from communication theory and fundamental limits via practical implementations to novel services and applications.The goal is to close the gaps between different research disciplines, increase synergy effects and, together, identify the most critical inter/intra-disciplinary research challenges, from a 6G perspective. What are the technical issues we have to address, from that perspective? What are the possible solutions, from a technical perspective? How should 6G be designed to, in the best way, contribute to solving of the global challenges?
The focus period will run in Lund between October 23rd and November 24th. A number of international scholars interested in these research challenges will be invited to participate, and to interact with leading scientists as well as ELLIIT researchers. In the third week (November 8-10) we will have a 3-day symposium, with several invited top-level researchers.
Fall 2022 – Linköping
Hybrid AI – Where data-driven and model-based methods meet
Data-driven machine learning presents many challenges such as how to deal abstract and causal aspects, how to make learning work with significantly less data like humans can do, and how to achieve robust systems which provides formal guarantees and interpretability. Traditional model- or knowledge-based methods are designed to deal with many of these issues: They deal effectively with generality, abstraction, and causality with strong formal guarantees. A current trend in AI and machine learning today is therefore how to combine these different approaches in a principled and effective way. This is often called Hybrid AI.
The full focus period spanned October 18 – November 18, 2022.
Spring 2022 – Lund
Data-driven modelling and learning for cancer immunotherapy
Checkpoint inhibitor therapy is a form of cancer treatment that works tremendously well in approximately 30 % of subjects, while being largely ineffective in others. Understanding when and why the therapy works has large implications on the treatment of cancer. In spring 2022, the first ELLIIT focus period will look deeper into this challenge.
For 5 weeks, in the prestigious university town Lund, the focus period united young international scholars, ELLIIT researchers and other top international academics active in domains such as:
- Systems biology
- Cancer treatment
- Checkpoint inhibitor therapy
- Machine learning
- Dynamical systems
- Deep learning
During this period, the researchers worked together on jointly defined research topics. In addition to seminars and joint research challenges using unique data sets, a larger workshop with invited top-level scientists provided knowledge exchange and networking opportunities. The aim of the focus period was to forge new, long lasting, collaborations based on life science research that use and drive the development of novel machine learning techniques.
The full focus period spaned April 19 – May 20, 2022.