What is affect and why is it important for humans? How can feelings be defined and what is their relation to emotions and consciousness? What might be used in making a soft robot? Professor Antonio Damasio (University of Southern California, USA) discussed these and other questions in his honorary lecture, entitled 'Feeling, Knowing, and Artificial Intelligence'.The talk was delivered on April 16 at the at the XXII April International Academic Conference held by HSE University jointly with Sberbank.

At the HSE’s XXII April International Academic Conference, Bart van Ark, Professor of Productivity Studies at the Alliance Manchester Business School and the Managing Director of the Productivity Institute (the University of Manchester), will deliver an honorary lecture ‘Perspectives on Productivity: Benefits to Economy, Business, Workers and Society’ on April 14. He will also be participating in the roundtable on Productivity, Diversification and Sustainable Economic Growth. The roundtable will be held on April 15 and will be chaired by Professor Jakobson.