Sweden: Amano Bayarsaikhan (Learning on Excursions)

Program: DIS – Study Abroad in Scandinavia, Spring

Three weeks into the spring semester, my machine learning class packed onto a train headed for Copenhagen to visit several startups implementing machine learning techniques and exhibitions showcasing the potential uses and dangers of technology.

Travelling by train, we arrived in Copenhagen on one of the coldest days of the winter, when the wind chills made it feel like it was 0 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Danish Royal Palace (pictured left) on the coldest day of the winter.

After lunch and in spite of the weather, we all decided to walk to the first startup, trading our comfort for a chance to get a feel for this old European city. Our destination was a newly set up and ambitious start up named Flare, housed in a charming old apartment building downtown. We had a great chat with one of the founders about their vision and future plans.

Flare aims to leverage machine learning and crowdsourcing to combat misinformation on the internet, drawing inspiration from Wikipedia while addressing its biggest weakness – speed. We learned that when Wikipedians have had the time to battle it out on their forums, the result is a surprisingly robust source of information, but for real time information, the website is hopeless. The result is a genuine gap in the market Flare aims to fill using machine learning, and they have already raised more than 4 million USD for this project.

We ended the night dining at a fantastic Palestinian restaurant and going mini golfing, with the rest of the excursion to look forward to, while already longing for Stockholm, the city that had become my home in Europe. While Copenhagen is a beautiful city, Stockholm occupies a special place in my heart, a place I dreamed of throughout my childhood, as it is where my childhood heroes reside, from Pippi Longstocking to Karlsson-on-the-roof.