At the recently concluded IBM Think Singapore 2024, IBM (NYSE: IBM) and National University of Singapore (NUS) announced intent to establish a new AI research and innovation centre. This centre is a strategic collaboration that aims to accelerate scientific research leveraging IBM’s full-stack AI infrastructure and a selection of open-source models, including IBM’s flagship series of Granite models. This new new AI research and innovation centre would be based at the NUS School of Computing, IBM and NUS envision that the centre will feature the first such full-stack AI infrastructure system installed on a university campus in Asia-Pacific by IBM.
This intention to work together showcases a strong commitment by Singapore’s research and innovation ecosystem to collaborate with technology industry leaders, such as IBM, to realise Singapore’s National AI Strategy. This new AI research and innovation centre would be equipped with full AI infrastructure and supported by the strong research expertise of both NUS and IBM. This centre will aim to serve as an innovation platform for Singapore agencies, academic and research institutions, as well as companies to jointly conduct cutting-edge AI research with significant translational potential.
IBM and NUS both envision that a cornerstone of this new centre will be able to advance a sustainability focused “open innovation” approach to developing AI technologies across the stack, to have much broader potential to improve the quality and pace of adoption of new AI technologies. Additionally, IBM and NUS hope to work together to develop tools and methodologies that help build trust in AI.
Powering the future of AI research with IBM’s state-of-the-art AI accelerators and a full stack of open-source, cloud native, and end-to-end software
IBM and NUS propose to install a full-stack AI-optimised computing infrastructure that NUS will include IBM AIU accelerators that are optimised for the efficient inferencing of AI workloads. The AI-optimised computing infrastructure would operate on the IBM watsonx data and AI platform, and Red Hat hybrid cloud platform.
This proposed collaboration would leverage NUS’ expertise to drive technological progress inAI, enabling more powerful, efficient, and versatile AI systems that can tackle increasingly complex tasks.
Priya Nagpurkar, Vice President, Hybrid Cloud and AI Platform, IBM Research;
Professor Liu Bin, Deputy President (Research & Technology), NUS;
Catherine Lian, General Manager and Technology Leader, IBM ASEAN
Priya Nagpurkar, Vice President, Hybrid Cloud and AI Platform, IBM Research, said, “We are pleased to take this first step toward collaboration with NUS to power breakthrough AI research. IBM and NUS share a common goal to enable innovations in AI and sustainable computing, and we look forward to furthering this collaboration.”
Professor Liu Bin, NUS Deputy President (Research and Technology), said, “We are very excited about this opportunity to collaborate with IBM. We envision a future where an open ecosystem is most vital to harness the best of collective intelligence. Building on the new NUS AI Institute announced earlier this year and the University’s commitment to green computing and sustainability, we aim to be the leading force in addressing rising industry demand for AI intelligence, cultivating a robust talent pool and contributing to Singapore’s decarbonization efforts.”
Helping to grow local deep-tech startups
To provide a full stack solution, the proposed collaboration would enable the NUS Graduate Research Innovation Programme (GRIP), a deep tech entrepreneurship program, together with local startups as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, to gain access to the AI Innovation Platform with Red Hat OpenShift AI for management and runtime needs and IBM’s watsonx platform.
Insights from media panel session
At the media panel session on IBM and NUS announcing an intent to establish a new AI research and innovation centre, it was insightful to hear from two organisations that are leaders in their respective fields, academia research and technology industry leader coming together to work on research, innovation and development in AI technology.
I am interested in IBM and NUS direction on a “sustainability focused “open innovation” approach to developing AI technologies across the stack, to have much broader potential to improve the quality and pace of adoption of new AI technologies”, given that how we are adopting and using AI technology on both personal and business levels in the past one to two years, and how AI technology would evolve and develop in the years ahead. When the opportunity arises, I would share more stories and updates.
AI technology is going to play a bigger role in the coming years, it’s here to stay and become a part of our daily life, whether it’s on a personal/consumer or work/business/enterprises level. While there are still fears and concerns of using AI technology, they can help us to live and work better, when we embrace and apply it appropriately.
I am working on a new series of AI related topics and discussions, from both personal and business perspectives. Attending IBM Think Singapore 2024 gave me more insights, learning and understanding from technology and business industry leaders, that I would be writing and sharing more insights from my time at IBM Think Day 2024 in Singapore.
* Information and picture courtesy of IBM Singapore *