IT:U Summer School 2025: A Global Gathering of AI and NLP Experts in Linz

On July 25–26, 2025, IT:U will host its annual Summer School in Linz — and this year’s focus is right at the forefront of artificial intelligence: Natural Language Processing (NLP).

Bringing the World of AI to Linz

This two-day event will bring together some of the world’s leading experts, researchers, and practitioners in Artificial Intelligence and Language Technologies, along with a new generation of students and early-career professionals. Attendees can expect a packed program featuring expert talks, interactive panel discussions, and hands-on tutorials, all centered around the future of language and AI.

“Our goal is to equip the next generation of researchers and professionals with a strong foundation in modern language technologies — from core AI models to real-world applications. We’re proud to offer a platform for international exchange and innovation.”
Yufang Hou, Founding Professor at IT:U and Lead Organizer of the Summer School.

Prof. Hou is one of the few NLP experts from Upper Austria affiliated with ELLIS, the European Lab for Learning and Intelligent Systems — a prestigious network formed to keep Europe at the forefront of AI research.

From Regional Roots to Global Reach

The Summer School also features key regional contributions, including a tutorial on xLSTM (Extended Long Short-Term Memory) — a new AI model developed at the Institute for Machine Learning at JKU Linz. It builds on the foundational LSTM technology originally developed by Prof. Sepp Hochreiter, which allows computers to understand temporal patterns like speech.

As a network university, IT:U maintains close partnerships not only with academic institutions, but also with the industry sector. For this year’s Summer School, IT:U is proud to be supported by KEBA Group and Sparkasse OÖ as key industry partners.

“With this Summer School, we’re entering our third year as a university and reaffirming IT:U’s role in shaping the digital future. We actively work with universities, research institutions, and companies across the globe to strengthen the connection between science and practice — and this event is a great example of that mission in action.”
Stefanie Lindstaedt, Founding President of IT:U

Meet the Speakers: World-Renowned Names in NLP

This year’s Summer School will welcome internationally acclaimed researchers, including:

Ido Dagan – Professor of Computer Science at Bar-Ilan University (Israel) and Visiting Scientist at Google
Iryna Gurevych – Professor and Director of the UKP Lab at TU Darmstadt (Germany)
Preslav Nakov – Professor and NLP Program Director at MBZUAI (UAE)
Michael Strube – Group Leader at Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (Germany)
Yulan He – Professor of NLP at King’s College London (UK)
Saif M. Mohammad – Senior Scientist at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC)

Who Can Join?

The Summer School is open to students, early-career researchers, and professionals from around the world.

:register here