ECIU International Challenge on Image Analysis with AI

Between 5 November 2025 and 30 January 2026, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona hosted the international challenge “Analysing images with Artificial Intelligence (A-EYE)”, developed within the framework of the ECIU University and coordinated by Adriana Monroy-Galindo and Òscar Coromina, professors in the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the UAB’s Faculty of Communication Studies.

The activity brought together students from Hamburg University of Technology, University of Toulouse, Linköping University, Kaunas University of Technology, Tampere University, Lodz University of Technology, Dublin City University and University of Trento, combining online work with an intensive week of Deep Scan at the UAB (26-30 January 2026). The challenge concluded with the presentation of AI image analysis prototypes developed by the participating teams, aimed at detecting, classifying and contextualising visual traces in historical archives.

The work was carried out in collaboration with the Communication Library and General Newspaper Archives and focused on the digitised collection of Radio Barcelona scripts (1925–1953), a key documentary resource for studying the early days of radio broadcasting in Spain. The challenge was how to apply artificial intelligence tools to identify visual marks of censorship—crossings-out, annotations, and handwritten interventions from the Franco period—which are often lost in the digitisation process.

The proposal took as its framework the current debate on archives in the age of artificial intelligence, addressing how these technologies can support work with large volumes of images and what cultural and ethical implications their use has in relation to memory and preservation criteria.

ECIU University is an alliance of 12 European universities that promotes practical challenges and international collaboration between students, specialists and institutions.

Text and photograph: Adriana Monroy-Galindo