What happens when some of the brightest minds in AI gather in Luleå to explore the future of large language models?
Over four days in August, WASP PhD students engaged with leading experts from academia and industry in Luleå during the Thematic Summer School, diving into topics from data annotation and AI ethics to robotics, education, and agent-based LLMs.
The program offered technical demos, interactive quizzes, a GitHub repository of implementations and student-led group project presentations with Q&A sessions. A boat cruise and dinner at Klubbviken added a memorable social touch.
“We received very positive feedback from the participants. Many highlighted the inspiring talks and the wide range of topics covered, said Marus Liwicki, WASP Professor at Luleå University of Technology. “This is a fantastic opportunity for us to connect with the students, understand their interests, and support their growth as future leaders in AI,” says Marcus Liwicki, WASP Professor at Luleå University of Technology.
WASP organizes at least one themed summer school each year, focusing on topics of interest to the community. Previous themes have included generative AI, resilience and regulation, embodied AI, and the synthesis of human communication.
Inspiring talks from leading experts
The summer school featured eight distinguished speakers who shared insights on the evolving landscape of LLMs:
- Shan Muhammad (DFKI) – LLM-based data annotation
- Salla Franzén (Navigare Ventures) – Real-world LLM use cases from IKEA and SEB
- Clara Rivera (IE University, ex-Google DeepMind) – Rethinking data
- Thomas Breuel (Nvidia) – Training and AI alignment
- Christoforos Kanellakis & Homam Mokayed (LTU) – Robotics and educational chatbots
- Lars Lindsköld (SFMI) – AI ethics
- Petter Ericson (Umeå University) – LLMs as agents
- Marcus Liwicki (LTU) – Project motivation and presentation prep
A big thanks to all participants and speakers!
Images from the Thematic Summer School 2025
Student presentations
Interested to know more about WASP’s summer school?
Published: September 8th, 2025
