11th edition of the Lisbon Machine Learning Summer School (LxMLS 2021)

The 11th edition of the Lisbon Machine Learning Summer School (LxMLS 2021) took place on July 7- 15th. Over eight days, participants dive straight into a range of Machine Learning (ML) topics, from theory to practice, that are important in solving Natural Language Processing (NLP) problems that arise in the analysis and use of Web data.

LxMLS do no requires previous deep knowledge of ML or NLP. Still, the attendants are assumed to have some essential background in mathematics and programming. Organizers take the first day to review basic concepts and introduce the necessary tools for implementation exercises, while specialists in machine learning and natural language processing lead the following sessions. The next days are split into lectures in the morning and lab sessions and practical talks by experts in the afternoon.

LxMLS had a record number of 774 applications, 245 registered attendees (39% female) from 24 countries, 17 speakers, and 23 monitors. Participants were able to attend all the lectures and participate in the Q&As and labs remotely through Slack for communication about the school, Zoom for lectures and Q&A, Youtube for live and record talks and Gather. town for social interaction with the speakers and among participants. This year’s edition was entirely remote, similar to last year, due to current COVID-19 restrictions. However, organizers are expecting to welcome everyone in Lisbon for the 2022’s edition.

The virtual school results from a partnership between by Instituto Superior Técnico, Instituto de Telecomunicações, Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa, Lisbon Unit for Learning and Intelligent Systems, Unbabel, Priberam , Carnegie Mellon Portugal and sponsored by Google and Cleverly.

The complete list of LxMLS 2021 and LxMLX 2020  lectures are available on the school’s youtube channel.