Welcome Day 2026: INSIGHT sets sail

On 4 November 2026, INSIGHT officially set sail at ESTIN in Amizour, Béjaïa. The opening ceremony gathered students, faculty, and research enthusiasts to introduce the vision of the school’s dedicated scientific research club: an open, student-led environment designed to bridge the gap between undergraduate computer science studies and peer-reviewed scientific discovery.

Setting the Course

The Helm introduced the philosophy guiding INSIGHT — “Where curiosity meets clarity” — and outlined how the club’s seven operational departments collaborate to support students on their research journey:

• Research Programs & Training: The scientific core of the ship, coordinating project teams across our four specialized research poles and guiding students along the structured roadmap from Rookie to Captain.
• Communication, Design & Events: The creative and organizational backbone, turning complex scientific topics into accessible media, visually engaging publications, and community workshops.
• External Relations & Human Resources: Connecting our campus with international labs, guest lecturers, and industry mentors while fostering an inclusive community for every recruit.

Four Research Poles

The leads presented the initial research directions across the four specialized poles:

1. Artificial Intelligence & Data Science: Machine learning reliability, adversarial robustness, and interpretability.
2. Cybersecurity: Threat intelligence, applied cryptography, and systems security.
3. Software & Systems: Distributed computing, compiler architecture, and formal verification.
4. Networks & IoT: Protocol engineering, edge computing, and smart connected environments.

Distinguished Keynote: Dr. Pin-Yu Chen (IBM Research NYC)

A defining highlight of Welcome Day was an international keynote lecture delivered live from New York by Dr. Pin-Yu Chen, Principal Research Scientist at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center and IEEE Fellow.

Dr. Chen walked the audience through the frontier of Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, focusing on:

• Adversarial Robustness: How imperceptible perturbations can fool state-of-the-art neural networks, and how certified defenses protect critical decision systems.
• Safety of Large Language Models: Techniques for defending generative models against jailbreaks and prompt-injection attacks.
• Explainability & Mechanistic Interpretability: Open-source tools like vLLM Hook and IBM’s AI Explainability 360 to inspect internal representations and steer model behaviors safely.

During the interactive Q&A session, students engaged directly with Dr. Chen on academic research pathways, graduate research opportunities, and the daily reality of a research scientist.

Recruits, Challenges, and Induction

The afternoon concluded with interactive onboard challenges, team trivia, and scientific problem-solving games where recruits tested their analytical thinking. The top performers were recognized in an awards ceremony, officially welcoming the 2026/27 crew aboard the INSIGHT fleet.