Research Seminar delivered by Professor Bela Stantic

On 28 Oct 2024, Prof. Bela Stantic, Professor in Computer Science and founder and Director of “Big Data and Smart Analytics” Lab at Griffith University, delivered a research seminar titled "Harnessing Advances in Pre-trained Transformers and Generative AI for Tourism Research" to faculty members and students from the SHTM and RCDTT.

During the seminar, Prof. Stantic discussed various funded projects at the Big Data and Smart Analytics lab at Griffith University. He highlighted how many of these initiatives utilize pre-trained transformers, large language models, and Generative AI,  and provided a brief overview of these technologies and their functionalities. The seminar also featured demonstrations of several pre-trained and fine-tuned large language models and Generative AI applications across different domains, all operating on the Griffith Big Data cluster.

A key highlight of the seminar was Prof. Stantic's introduction of DORIS (Digital Oracle for Research in Sciences), a Generative AI system he developed. DORIS is specifically trained on trusted data sources to carry out a range of tasks, including the review of scientific papers. This innovative tool showcases the potential of AI to significantly enhance research efficiency and accuracy within the tourism sector.

About Prof. Bela Stantic:

Prof. Bela Stantic is a Professor of Computer and Data Science, founder and Director of the “Big Data and Smart Analytics” Lab at Griffith University, Australia. He is at present a Visiting Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prof. Stantic is internationally recognized in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data analytics. He has proven expertise in predictions and forecasting, which on multiple occasions made headlines worldwide. He was invited to give many keynotes and invited talks at highly-ranked international conferences and prestigious institutions. He successfully applied his research interdisciplinary, most prominently applying Big Data analytics to tourism and the environment. He has published more than 180 journal and conference peer-reviewed publications, which in turn helped to attract competitive funding from different sources, and he was involved in the supervision of more than 25 PhD students. By harnessing AI and Big Data analysis and his bold and correct predictions, Prof. Stantic, in the worldwide media, was dubbed the “Nostradamus of the 21st century”.