AI4LAM
COMMUNITY CALL

May 19, 2026 (15:00 UTC)

Presenter 1: Dr. Shani Evenstein Sigalov (Digital Humanities Research Hub, University of London)

Presenter 2: Slava Tykhonov (Head of AI and Interoperability at CODATA)

Register here

PART 1: What happens when institutional knowledge, open data platforms, and advanced AI technologies finally start communicating?  

That’s the question at the heart of AI-BRIDGES, a research-driven initiative exploring how to responsibly bridge the silos between institutions, Linked Open Data (particularly Wikidata and Wikibase), and emerging AI systems.
Representatives of institutions are exactly the kind of people this project needs in the room: Whether you work with collections, curate data structures, build tools, or think critically about how knowledge circulates in an AI-driven world, there’s a place for you in this conversation.
During the meeting we’ll share more about the project, explore ways to collaborate, hear what’s on your minds, and finally share more about coming Symposium, taking place 28–29 May 2026 at Senate House, University of London (see full program here).

Presenter 1: Dr. Shani Evenstein Sigalov

is an educator specializing in Technology & Learning, researcher, lecturer and Open Knowledge advocate. Her research focuses on the intersection between Education, Technology, Innovation and Openness.  

Recently finishing serving for 6 years on the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, she currently serves as a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Digital Humanities Research Hub, University of London. 

Her project, AI-BRIDGES, explores harnessing GenAI and advanced technologies toward Cultural & Academic heritage preservation and accessibility, through Linked Open Data (LOD) platforms, like Wikidata and Wikibase. 

PART 2: Building sovereign AI for libraries and museums with Semantic Croissant and digital policies

This talk will introduce Semantic Croissant ecosystem created around Croissant for Machine Learning standard, with a focus on ontology alignment with ML and the linkage of metadata to external controlled vocabularies through the Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF). It will also highlight how these components support semantic consistency and interoperability across research domains. Join us to learn more, challenge, and help shape what comes next.

Presenter 2: Slava Tykhonov

is the Head of AI and Interoperability at CODATA. With over 25 years experience in software development, data science, and European research infrastructures, Slava is an innovator, IT architect, and mentor who has focused much of his career on research and education through experimentation, pilot projects, and inventive problem-solving methods. He is a Harvard Dataverse Ambassador (since June 2025) and co-author of the Google-initiated CroissantML standard for AI.

Slava has contributed to numerous open-source and interdisciplinary research initiatives, serving as technical lead and advisor in projects spanning semantic web technologies, cloud deployment, NLP and ML applications, digital humanities, and big-data infrastructure.