Symposium Highlights the Role of Visualization in Human-Centric AI

The ELLIIT Focus Period Symposium brought together leading minds in visualization, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence to explore the theme: “Visualization-Empowered Human-in-the-Loop Artificial Intelligence.” Held at the Elite Grand Hotel in Norrköping, the symposium served as the culmination of a five-week focus period hosted by Linköping University.

The symposium held on May 13–15 explored the evolving relationship between AI systems and human users, emphasizing the importance of transparency, trust, and collaboration. As AI models become increasingly integrated into everyday life, the need for interpretable and user-centric systems has never been more critical – and visualization methods are key for facilitating these tasks.

Engagement and collaboration

The symposium fostered active engagement through panel discussions, poster sessions, and networking events. Participants had the opportunity to discuss challenges and opportunities in human-AI collaboration, share research findings, and explore potential collaborations.

The symposium dinner at Visualization Center C provided an informal setting for attendees to connect, featuring a dome show and exhibitions that showcased the intersection of art, science, and technology.

Looking ahead

As AI continues to permeate various aspects of society, the insights and discussions from the ELLIIT Focus Period Symposium 2025 underscore the importance of designing AI systems that are transparent, trustworthy, and centered around human needs. The symposium highlighted the critical role of visualization in achieving these goals, paving the way for future research and collaboration in human-in-the-loop AI.

From planning to execution

The organizing committee were pleased with the outcome of the symposium, as well as the ongoing focus period:

Kostiantyn Kucher, Senior Lecturer, Department of Science and Technology (ITN), Linköping University

– The symposium itself has been a great success, in my humble opinion, as we managed to gather a group of about 70 participants that consisted mainly of academic (but also some industrial) researchers with expertise in visual analytics, technical aspects of AI, and also human and societal aspects of AI, including multiple world-renowned experts from around the globe.

Andreas Kerren, Professor, Department of Science and Technology (ITN), Linköping University

– My main takeaway is that there are still very relevant open questions and research challenges when it comes to bring these things together, such as the definition and importance of trust in context of the symposium theme. More work needs to be done here. The attendees appreciated the discussions, and some of them even expressed the wish to have a second instance of the symposium sometime soon.

Katerina Vrotsou, Associate Professor, Department of Science and Technology (ITN), Linköping University

– The focus period so far and the symposium has exceeded all expectations! It’s been so exciting to follow the participants’ activities and engagement during this time, and to see how they have collaborated and developed ideas from concept to concrete initial results in this short time frame. It is both inspiring and educational to be part of this journey from planning to execution.