From 7 to 11 September, Université Rennes 2 hosted the Master LEA International Week, bringing together students, academics and international partners around this year’s theme, “Digital transition: what stakes for organisations?”
The week opened with remarks from Dr Valeria Pansini, Vice-President for International Affairs at Rennes 2, and a keynote from Dr Bruno Chaudet on continuity and transformation in organisational processes. Across the week, participants examined how digital transformation and artificial intelligence are reshaping organisations, professional practice and the future of work.
EMERGE was represented through two partner universities. Dr Avgousta Kyriakidou-Zacharoudiou, representing Neapolis University Pafos, delivered “Human-Centred AI in the Age of Digital Transformation: The Technology Worked. Then What? Five Stories,” drawing on real organisational cases to explore what she calls “a central paradox of our time: technology can work extremely well, and the end result can still fail.” The real question, she argued, is “which human and organisational choices shape how it is ultimately used, how we redesign work, what limits we place on automation, who retains the right to challenge a system’s decision, and how we ensure trust, accountability and meaningful human oversight.” As she put it: “AI may be the easy part; transformation is the human part.” Dr Martin Mullins from the University of Limerick presented “AI Adoption in Police,” bringing a sector-specific view of AI adoption’s opportunities and challenges.
The programme also drew on Rennes 2’s wider Master LEA partner network: Rodolfo Giro, co-founder of Interbrain in Argentina, on solutions for the future of work; Dr Ofer Mintz of the University of Technology Sydney, on AI in marketing; and Dr Giovanny Benavides of UTADEO in Colombia, on demand management in the Colombian pharmaceutical industry.
Students engaged directly with the business side of digital transformation too: a round table with Breton companies MXFrance and Dalgis Kest, and a forum on Master LEA internships led by Audrey Verret of SUIOP.
From Tuesday afternoon, students took over the programme, developing research questions, gathering data and building presentations in groups, before presenting to four juries on Friday, 11 September.
“EMERGE’s value,” Dr Kyriakidou-Zacharoudiou said, “lies precisely in its ability to turn institutional cooperation between universities into meaningful academic exchange, bringing together different academic perspectives, experiences and educational environments, and creating space for new ideas, substantive dialogue and future collaborations. Activities like the International Week give the alliance real substance, beyond its formal structures.” Contributions from Rennes 2, Neapolis University Pafos and the University of Limerick connected perspectives from across Europe within a wider international programme built around technology, organisations and the changing nature of work.