SciLux podcast – Jordi Cabot, Software Engineering Head of Unit

14 November 2023

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Software Engineering and Chatbots

Low-code, chatbots, generative AI, open source, front-end, and back-end: these buzzwords collectively belong to the dynamic realm of software, an area in which Prof. Jordi Cabot has extensive knowledge, particularly within the realm of chatbot research.

Prof. Jordi Cabot is head of the Software Engineering RDI Unit at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and Affiliate Professor in Computer Science at the University of Luxembourg. In 2023, Prof. Cabot was awarded the PEARL Chair by Luxembourg’s National Research Fund (FNR) to set up and coordinate the BESSER (BEtter Smart Software fastER) project in collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT).

Building better software faster

A significant digital transformation is underway, disrupting all organisational activities and processes. Software is the infrastructure that powers this transformation, making the ability to produce high quality software a strategic economic capability. It is thus essential to build better software faster.

At LIST, Prof. Jordi Cabot and his group are working to develop secure, reliable and trustworthy complex systems (including Digital Twins and their associated data spaces) in a shorter time to market, even by non-technical experts. And, more often than not, such software systems need to be intelligent and have AI-based components embedded (for example, to communicate with users using voice or text, or to predict future user behaviours based on the analysis of historical data). This is why Jordi Cabot’s unit want to provide a set of methods, platforms and services to help companies carry out their digital transformation by empowering them to build better software faster.


Listen to Prof. Jordi Cabot to learn more about the fantastic realm of software engineering and chatbot research.

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Smart software

Launched on 1 April, BESSER (BEtter Smart Software fastER) will be the world’s first open source intelligent low-code platform. BESSER aims to enable professional software engineers but also ordinary citizens and developers to model, generate, personalise and deploy the smart and complex software systems demanded by our society, industry and public administration. The project has received a funding of €3 million via the FNR PEARL programme, which offers competitive grants to attract leading researchers in strategic research fields to Luxembourg.

With the PEARL programme, the FNR offers Luxembourg research institutions attractive funding to enable them to draw established and internationally recognised researchers to Luxembourg.

Through the recruitment of outstanding scientists in strategically important areas, the FNR aims to accelerate the development and strengthening of Luxembourg’s national research priorities.

BESSER is created with this context in mind. A low-code platform for generating smart software, it will empower developers and non-tech people alike to create better and smart software faster, ultimately resulting in greater societal value. The BESSER platform will also integrate the latest advancements in Generative AI technologies to provide virtual assistants that will be able to help them in all phases of the software lifecycle.

Learn more about the BESSER project
Learn more about the BESSER project

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Research Luxembourg, RTL Today and SciLux have teamed up to launch a new series of podcasts showcasing science in Luxembourg and beyond.

With a new episode every 2 weeks published on RTL Play, ‘SciLux powered by Research Luxembourg’ will showcase research activities and scientific cooperation in the Grand Duchy.

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