Adhera Health Seminar: AI as Family Media for Health and Wellbeing: Personalization, Context, and Biopsychosocial Perspectives
2026-01-21 12:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Oslo) | MediaFutures, Media Futures HQ, 3rd floor, Bergen, 5008
MediaFutures invites to Adhera Health’s seminar on AI as family media for health and wellbeing.
Adhera Health is a digital health company that creates AI-powered, personalized support platforms and programs to empower families and caregivers managing pediatric chronic conditions, improve treatment adherence and wellbeing, and enhance health outcomes through evidence-based digital interventions.
AI as Family Media for Health and Wellbeing: Personalization, Context, and Biopsychosocial Perspectives

Abstract
Families today must navigate a complex landscape of health and wellbeing information, often facing waves of misinformation and conflicting guidance. Artificial intelligence can act as a media and communication technology that supports families in interpreting information, building trust, and making informed decisions, while respecting individual and family-level differences.
Modern personalized health communication increasingly relies on context-aware systems that adapt content to family routines, beliefs, and emotional dynamics. Such systems must carefully balance challenges including reducing stigma, respecting the autonomy of different family members, and delivering sensitive content that addresses diverse needs and perspectives. These systems integrate clinical data, psychosocial factors, and personal preferences to generate adaptive, multimodal educational materials, behavioral guidance, and emotional support.
A biopsychosocial perspective is central, recognizing that effective AI-mediated interventions consider biological, psychological, and social dimensions of health. Pediatrics represents a prime testing ground for these approaches, given the need for sensitive, high-stakes communication and the limited research on AI-mediated personalized family support in this context.
Drawing on ongoing research with Adhera Health (USA and Spain) and the University of Bergen, we present examples of AI-mediated communication that complement human care, helping families navigate complex health information responsibly, foster trust, and support wellbeing in ethically and emotionally informed ways.
Speaker bio
Luis Fernández-Luque is Chief Scientific Officer at Adhera Health, where he leads R&D activities in Spain and the USA, including projects funded by the European Commission and NIH, as well as partnerships with healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies across Europe and the United States.
Since 2006, Luis has conducted pioneering research in mobile health, wearable devices, and AI-driven health applications, including deep learning and health recommender systems. His work sits at the intersection of computer science and behavioral change, combining human factors research with AI to deliver personalized, trustworthy, and effective digital health interventions. He has led and contributed to international research projects on diabetes and obesity in adult and pediatric populations across Europe, North America, and Asia. He earned his PhD at the University of Tromsø, exploring strategies to identify trustworthy content for people with chronic conditions, and collaborated during his PhD with GroupLens (University of Minnesota), the CDC, and Microsoft Research.
Luis has extensive experience in research management, including serving as PI and co-PI on large-scale projects and mentoring PhD students. He is a senior member of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society and has held leadership roles in top scientific societies. He has authored over 150 publications, many of which address the intersection of AI, behavioral science, and digital health in chronic disease management.

Linguistic representations and their role in the era of LLMs
2026-01-30 11:15 - 16:00 | Kristen Nygaards sal (5370), Ole-Johan Dahls hus, University of Oslo
We are pleased to invite you to the trial lecture and public defence of Huiling You, PhD candidate at SFI MediaFutures.
Date: 30 JanuaryVenue: Kristen Nygaards sal (5370), Ole-Johan Dahls hus, University of Oslo
Time:
11:15 Trial lecture
13:15 Disputation
PhD thesis:Event Extraction from News: Resources, Methods and Application
Trial lecture:Linguistic representations and their role in the era of LLMs
Main research findings:
In an era of information overload, transforming unstructured news into structured knowledge is a fundamental challenge for natural language processing. Event extraction, the process of identifying specific occurrences and the people or organizations involved, is essential for tracking global developments and detecting emerging crises. By automating these processes, we can significantly improve the efficiency of news analysis and the consistency of information tracking across diverse media landscapes.
This thesis advances both the methodologies and resources available for event extraction in the news domain. The research shifts from treating events as isolated labels toward representing them as unified semantic graphs that capture the full context of how entities and events interact. To address the gap in support for smaller languages, the work introduces new annotated datasets and investigates generative AI techniques that excel in settings where training data is limited.
The findings demonstrate that these sophisticated models produce more detailed and accurate representations of complex news narratives than traditional approaches. Additionally, the thesis shows how this structured analysis can be applied to evaluate and improve the factual consistency of automated news summaries. Ultimately, this research offers a robust framework for building more reliable and linguistically inclusive systems for global news monitoring.
Adjudication committee:

Professor Antske Fokkens, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Professor Marco Kuhlmann, Linköping University, Sweden
Professor Martin Giese, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway

Supervisors:

Professor Lilja Øvrelid, University of Oslo, Norway
Professor Erik Velldal, University of Oslo, Norway
Associate Professor Samia Touileb, University of Bergen, Norway

Chair of defence:

Associate Professor Ellen Munthe-Kaas, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo

Arctic Frontiers 2026 - Turn of the Tide
2026-02-02 08:00 - 2026-02-05 17:00 | Clarion The Edge Hotel, Tromsø
Arctic Frontiers is a catalyst for decision-making and network building by mobilizing key voices of science, policy, business, and local Arctic communities, to rapidly turn knowledge into actions.
The Arctic Frontiers Administration has, since 2007, organized the annual Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø, which gathers scientists, businesses, policymakers and representative of local and indigenous peoples for holistic discussions about the future of the Arctic region. Additionally, the organization hosts year-round activities, including Arctic Frontiers Abroad events, Arctic Frontiers Open events for the public and Arctic Frontiers Young events for the future generation of Arctic leaders between 5-35 years old.
Arctic Frontiers works closely with our partner network to provide knowledge-based and up-to-date perspectives on Arctic issues. The competence and interdisciplinarity of the partner network are unique in both national and international contexts.
Turn of the Tide 2026
In the Arctic, as across the globe, tides are shifting. Geopolitical landscapes are evolving, climate systems are accelerating, and economic structures are being reshaped. From rising temperatures and economic recalibration to cultural resurgence, the Arctic is both a witness to and a driver of transformation. This year’s theme underscores the ebb and flow of the world, and the time for change. In this moment of opportunity, we invite participants to reflect on the rhythms of global change and their implications for the pan-Arctic region. In 2026 we will bring together leading voices to examine the state of Arctic collaboration, economic transitions, infrastructure needs, technological frontiers, and the health of the ocean that unites the region. And as the world’s tide turns, we will explore how the Arctic can influence, adapt to, and help shape the global future.

Science SESSIONS

Arctic Frontiers 2026 will feature 7 different science and research themes. These are designed to be interdisciplinary and welcome submissions from natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, law, management, and more. All researchers are welcome to submit an abstract to the session that best suits their work.
The themes for 2026 are:

Monitoring, Modeling, and Mitigating the Consequences of Arctic Permafrost Change
Maritime Extremes: Communication, Uncertainty and Emerging Technologies
High Tide for Arctic Preparedness
Governance and Policy for Sustainable Space Activities
Ocean Observational Pyramid: From Seabed to Space Monitoring
Maintaining and Developing Arctic Observing Capabilities
Arctic Transformation: Climate Change and Cumulative Effects on Ecosystems

Centre leader Christoph Trattner will be part of the Science Committee for the session called High Tide for Arctic Preparedness.
2026 Conference Program will be launched in November.

Innovation Work in Academia: SFI MediaFutures' Approach and Experience.
2026-02-04 09:00 - 10:00 | SV-cafeteria (Lauritz Meltzers hus, 4th floor), Fosswinckels gate 6, Bergen, 5007, Norway
We are pleased to invite you to the Academic Morning Coffee, where Christoph Senf from MediaFutures will discuss innovation work in academia and the MediaFutures approach.
Date: 4 FebruaryVenue: SV-cafeteria (Lauritz Meltzers hus, 4th floor), Fosswinckels gate 6, 5007 Bergen
Time: 9:15-10:00 (coffee and tea served from 9:00)
Abstract:
What does innovation work look like at a university research center? This conversation explores how the SFI MediaFutures: Research Centre for Responsible Media Technology and Innovation has developed its distinctive industry-academic partnership model, and the opportunities and challenges that emerge when bridging academic research and media industry needs. We will discuss conceptual frameworks for understanding innovation, MediaFutures’ collaborative approach, and key strategic and practical lessons learned.
Dr. Christopher (‘Chris’) Senf is Innovation Coordinator at SFI MediaFutures, where he coordinates the Centre’s research-to-innovation projects with major Norwegian media companies. A political philosopher by training, Chris completed his PhD at UiB in 2023. He was a Fulbright Fellow at UMass Boston (2021) and Oxford Alumni from Saïd Business School’s Strategic Innovation Online Programme (2024).
The conversation will be in English.

Why should we consider ethical and societal aspects in the development of language models?
2026-03-04 09:00 - 10:00 | SV-cafeteria (Lauritz Meltzers hus, 4th floor), Fosswinckels gate 6, Bergen, 5007, Norway
On Wednesday, 4 March, Samia Touileb, Associate Professor at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, will join Academic Morning Coffee to talk about: Why should we consider ethical and societal aspects in the development of language models?
Date: 4 MarchVenue: SV-cafeteria (Lauritz Meltzers hus, 4th floor), Fosswinckels gate 6, 5007 Bergen
Time: 9:15-10:00 (coffee and tea served from 9:00)
Abstract:
As language models become increasingly integrated into everyday life, the need to understand and mitigate their ethical risks grows. These technologies influence various aspects of our lives, making it important to ask questions such as: How can we measure and reduce the social and cultural biases embedded in language models? What methods exist for evaluating the safety of these systems and preventing potential harm? Is it possible to adapt language models to our ethical, cultural, and societal values while ensuring transparency and accountability? And are we capable of developing robust evaluation mechanisms?
Samia Touileb is an Associate Professor in language technology (Natural Language Processing) with research interests in bias and fairness in models, information extraction, automatic summarisation, and applications of language technology and machine learning in social science research. She received the Faculty’s Award for Dissemination in 2025 and, in the same year, became a member of the Young Academy of Norway (AYF). In this conversation, Touileb will discuss some of the most pressing concerns related to the rapid development of large language models, both globally and in the Norwegian context.
The conversation will be in Norwegian.

Samia Touileb & Lilja Øvrelid at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
2026-03-11 18:00 - 20:00 | Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, Drammensveien 78, Oslo, Norway
Samia Touileb and Lilja Øvrelid from MediaFutures will participate as keynote speakers in a conversation at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, as part of the Forskning og KI (Research and AI) series. The event will focus on the themes of research sovereignty and artificial intelligence, discussing their implications for the future of media and technology. It will provide valuable insights into how AI intersects with academic research and the importance of sovereignty in the rapidly evolving technological landscape.
Speakers:Samia Touileb is an Associate Professor in Language Technology at the Department of Information and Media Studies at the University of Bergen. She is a member of the Academy of Young Researchers and was honored with the Communication Award by the Faculty of Social Sciences in November 2025.
Lilja Øvrelid is a Professor at the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo, where she leads the Language Technology Group. Her research focuses on text processing using machine learning techniques.
Date: 11th March 2026Location: Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
For more details, please visit the official event page.

Call for Participation: Workshop Tracking Eyes and Mind
2026-05-04 10:00 - 2026-05-06 14:30 | University of Bergen, venue TBA
From May 4th to 6th, the University of Bergen, in collaboration with MediaFutures, is organizing Workshop Tracking Eyes and Mind.
To view the updated program and register for the event, please visit the official organizer’s website.
Registration Deadline:
30.03.2026 – 23.55
Workshop Goals:
The workshop focus on demonstrations of eye tracking designs in Linguistics and Human Computer Interaction.
Introduction to Intermediate Level + Network building
Invited Poster presentations.
Target Audience:
Advanced MA students and Ph.D. Scholarship students
Researchers in Linguistics and/or Human Computer Interaction and/or
AI/NLP who want to use Eye Tracking in their Research.
Invited Lecturers:
Andrew Duchowski
Mauro Manassi
Agnieszka Konopka
Professor Andrew Duchowski is a world-leader in the field of eye tracking.
Local Team:
Christer Johansson
Morten Fjeld
Maki Kubota
Jade Sandstedt
Associate Member
Oana Geman (Chalmers)
Organizers:
Professor Christer Johansson, Department of Linguistic Literary and Aesthetic Studies (UiB)
Professor Morten Fjeld, Department of Information Science and Media Studies (UiB) and WP-leader in SFI MediaFutures
Sponsors:
the Bergen University Fund
HCI Infrastructure Grant, UiB
Accessibility Lab, UiB
SFI MediaFutures, UiB
To view the updated program and register for the event, please visit the official organizer’s website.

Nordic Media Days (Nordiske Mediedager)
2026-05-06 - 2026-05-08 | Grieghallen
Nordic Media Days (Nordiske Mediedager) is the biggest media conference in Northern Europe, bringing together journalists, editors, media leaders, researchers, and industry professionals to discuss key developments in journalism, media, and communication.
The event offers insights into both current challenges and emerging trends in the media landscape.
Nordic Media Days is relevant for media professionals, researchers, students, and others interested in the role of media in society and the future of journalism.
Date: 6-8 May 2026Location: Grieghallen, Edvard Griegs plass 1, 5015 Bergen
For more details, please visit the organisers’ website.
