In this new episode of Snoek op zolder host Hennie Huijgens speaks with Marlou Snelders and Saskia Lensink about research into language and speech technology at the NAIN. They discuss who pays for such a research lab and how you organize such a complex collaboration. They talk about the growth fund of the Dutch AI Coalition and about why and how you should involve citizens in the development of AI. There is also some gossip about Bert, Robbert, Bertje, Roberta and Camembert. (This podcast is in Dutch.)

Marlou Snelders is innovation liaison at HSD Security Delta and coordinator of the Security, Peace and Justice working group of the Dutch AI Coalition and Saskia Lensink is specialist in the field of language and speech technology at TNO and one of the leaders of the NAIN.

In aflevering #13 van Snoek op Zolder vertelt Laura Hollink van het Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI) en het Cultural AI Lab, over de ICAI samenwerking van CWI, TNO, de UvA en de VU, het KNAW Humanities Cluster, de Koninklijke Bibliotheek, het Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid én het Rijksmuseum, over hoe BERTje het mkb kan helpen om ook met AI te starten, over white boxing the black box, over hoe AI interessant wordt gemaakt voor gebruik door geesteswetenschappers en over een eerlijk en onbevooroordeeld aanbevelingssysteem voor boeken die je kunt lenen.

Over Snoek op Zolder

Snoek op Zolder is de tweewekelijkse wetenschapspodcast van ICAI en de Nederlandse AI Coalitie (NL AIC). Hennie Huijgens duikt met een onderzoeker van een publieke of private organisatie in de wereld van kunstmatige intelligentie. Zijn belangrijkste vraag is ‘wat is de stand van zaken in AI onderzoek, en wat betekent dat voor mij en voor de samenleving?’

In deze aflevering van de Snoek op Zolder podcast vertelt Marcel van Gerven van de Radboud Universiteit en het het Donders AI for Neurotech Lab, over machine learning methods for brain reading and brain writing technologies, AI over vijf en vijftien jaar, “krijgen we straks robots met neurale implantaten en AI technologie?”, “AI, HBO-studenten en het mkb” en “wie was Frans Donders?”

Over Snoek op Zolder

Snoek op Zolder is de tweewekelijkse wetenschapspodcast van ICAI en de Nederlandse AI Coalitie (NL AIC). Hennie Huijgens duikt met een onderzoeker van een publieke of private organisatie in de wereld van kunstmatige intelligentie. Zijn belangrijkste vraag is ‘wat is de stand van zaken in AI onderzoek, en wat betekent dat voor mij en voor de samenleving?’

The e/MTIC AI-Lab focuses on improving personalized treatment in healthcare. In this article the lab provides an update of their latest state-of-the-art initiatives: the Health Data Portal and the ‘From Bench to Bedside’ project.

Future diagnostics, treatments and prevention in healthcare are supported by AI systems that are trained by large data sets. This requires a professional and structural approach for a data platform, not only from a functional ICT perspective but also from a non-functional perspective in data and cyber security, privacy, liability, robustness, ownership, access control and many other aspects.

e/MTIC AI works with a unique mixture of industry, clinical partners and researchers to increase the value of AI for clinical practice and improve personalized treatment. The research and innovation, conducted by the five e/MTIC partners, are increasingly ‘data driven’. Breakthrough innovations are based on insights obtained from combining and analyzing data sets from various domains and sources.

e/MTIC Health Data Portal

To safely share the medical data from these multiple institutions, e/MTIC established a scalable collaboration platform called the Health Data Portal (HDP). The e/MTIC HDP is the first health data platform in the Netherlands that will be able to bring together data from different disciplines and institutes to speed up health innovations by facilitating large amounts of data from complementary sources to be stored, shared and researched in a secure, reliable and privacy-respecting way.

This year the e/MTIC HDP has progressed sufficiently to take the next step in the direction of integration in national health infrastructures. With this, it will play an important role in the national network of the Health-RI project, financed by the National Growth Fund.

In practice, with the e/MTIC Health Data portal, PhD students can spend more time on research instead of arranging and collecting data and sorting out all kinds of legal aspects.

From Bench to Bedside

With such solid data infrastructure in place, e/MTIC – Fast track to clinical innovation – takes shape in many projects, amongst which ‘From Bench to Bedside‘. This project focuses on accelerating digital innovation by co-creating in 6 months innovation cycles with a multidisciplinary team (Catharina Hospital, Philips Research and the TU/e).

Newly developed solutions need to have a practical application in healthcare and preferably implemented quickly and as impactfully as possible. However, every innovation has a long journey, from the first idea to a product or a solution. This innovation circle can be reduced considerably by using existing and new data combined with AI. The Bench to Bedside methodology covers 4 phases: identifying clinical requirements, identifying technical requirements, followed by building and testing a proof of concept. These 4 phases come in form of innovation cycles of only six months.

e/MTIC is a large-scale research collaboration between the Catharina Hospital, Maxima Medical Center, Kempenhaeghe Epilepsy and Sleep Center, Eindhoven University of Technology and Philips Eindhoven.

Snoek op Zolder is the biweekly science podcast of the Dutch AI Coalition (NL AIC) and ICAI. In this week’s episode #11, host of the podcast Hennie Huijgens talks to Jan-Jacob Sonke on the use of AI for radiotherapy in the Netherlands Cancer Institute, ‘sloppy cancer cells’, the role of doctors and patients in AI research, and more. The podcast is in Dutch.

During the second edition of the ICAI Day we will take a closer look at the way ICAI brings together knowledge institutes, industry, and government to catalyze knowledge creation in AI.

We will address questions such as: What does it look like for industry to work closely together with academia? How can you bring academic work into practice?

Experts and talent from academia, industry and government will share lessons learned on this topic. We will also hear from speakers who invest in public-private collaboration by working simultaneously on the academic and on the industry side.

27 October 2021
12:00 – 17:00 hrs
Den Bosch*

More information about the program and how to subscribe will be shared soon!

*This ICAI Day will have a hybrid format. Participation will be possible both in-person and online.

TU Delft and ICAI present the online program AI in Practice. A course developed for anyone interested in learning how AI technology can help their organizations. Why can AI be interesting for your company?

1. AI isn’t just hype

While the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) was already on the increase before 2020, not surprisingly the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend. According to some studies, the ongoing crisis and lockdown measures have stepped up the digital transformation of many organizations and the adoption of AI. McKinsey’s Global Survey on AI in 2020 states that despite the economic challenges, most high-performing companies have increased their investment in AI amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The increasing use of digital tools and online activities are also uncovering new opportunities in areas as diverse as business, public administration, education and research. Elizabeth Aguado, a professional working on import operations in Peru, says:

“With the reset we are about to experience due to COVID-19, many young professionals see the necessity of upgrading their skills to stay competitive in an ever changing business world. There are definitely better career prospects for those who are skilled in new technologies and I realized that AI was something I needed to continue to be valued in the manufacturing and import/export industry.”

2. AI is for everyone

Regardless how large or small, simple or complex your organization may be, there are AI solutions available in all shapes and sizes. AI can help solve specific problems, drive efficiency and improve performance and decision-making. It can support all kinds of business needs, from automating business processes, handling and interpretation of data to engaging with customers and employees. Marian Stan, Manager Customer Support in Romania, says:

”I had been interested for some time to learn more about AI, especially to gain new ideas on how AI can be implemented in certain industries.”

AI is clearly a field that no longer concerns solely data scientists and computer programmers. With AI emerging as the most disruptive type of technology, a wide range of professionals also need to prepare for the application of AI in their organizations. This includes managers and business leaders who want to know what AI can do for their companies, or data analysts and consultants who want to understand how AI can be applied in their business processes. Zeinep Kechagia, Management Consultant in the financial sector, says:

“I am always very keen to explore the future of all complex decision-making processes in a structured way. What I have learned in the field of AI will help me to guide my clients through their transformation journey mostly by integrating their assets with state-of-the-art technology and solutions.”

3. Preparing for AI is key

AI is developing at such rapid pace that before investing in a new AI initiative, organizations need to fully understand the pros and cons of different AI technologies. Gerard Danjou, a Senior Director in a digital market place, says:

“After a career in consumer goods and traditional retail industry, I joined an E-commerce platform and became fascinated by improving search in the E-commerce industry. I wanted to understand the role AI would play in the future of E-commerce and the challenges and considerations that need to be taken into account when deploying E-commerce even further.”

Understanding the practical aspects of applying AI is key. From implementation challenges, lifecycle aspects, maintenance and management of AI applications, to potential implications such as compliance and ethical considerations. Think for instance of concerns about the potential misuse of data, security or privacy issues. Learning about the practicalities of AI can help you avoid wasting time and resources pursuing the wrong technology or taking unnecessary risks.

Month of AI

International and national initiatives, like the Month of AI, offer a wide range of options to learn about the latest in AI research and applications.  

Developed by the Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence Academy (ICAI) and the Delft University of Technology, the online program AI in Practice presents a wide range of real cases and examples to illustrate how AI can be of value in all types of organizations. It includes more than 25 contributors from 14 different organizations, universities and companies.

Regardless of your professional background or job role, if you are, like many others, puzzled as to how to get involved with the technology, or how to apply it in your business processes and successfully integrate it in your organization, this online and self-paced program might be just what you need to be able to navigate this new technology and its integration.

On Thursday, 22 April, JADS and ICAI hosted the first ICAI Day. The event gave participants a bird’s eye view of the state of affairs in the Netherlands around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and focused on the collaboration between academia and industry. Published on jads.nl at May 4, 2021

3rd anniversary of ICAI

The ICAI day marked the 3rd anniversary of the ICAI initiative. The National Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI) has the mission to keep the Netherlands at the forefront of knowledge and talent development in AI. ICAI acts as a national network on technology and talent development between universities, industries and government in the area of AI.

Connecting knowledge and practice in AI Labs

ICAI facilitates intensive collaborations between knowledge institutions and industry in the shape of AI Labs. “The ICAI labs give knowledge institutions the opportunity work closely on research questions that are relevant for industry and can yield practical results. Challenges and practical cases of organizations are the input for research of the academics. It is a collaboration with ongoing interaction and working together to gain new insights, experiment on site, and validate the outcomes. This approach proves to be very appealing: in the past 3 years, we’ve grown from 3 to 25 AI labs,” says Esther Smit, Business Director of ICAI.

Responsible AI lab at JADS

One such lab, the Responsible AI Lab, was established at JADS in 2020. The overall objective of this lab is to facilitate the use of AI technology by the industry in a responsible way. To achieve this, a team of JADS experts collaborates with KPN to develop transparent, privacy aware, and personalized AI solutions for businesses, that exploit the power of AI to create value from data.

ICAI Day: inspiring and diverse

In last Thursday’s ICAI event, the JADS/KPN Responsible AI lab was featured prominently. In an extensive interview, PhD candidates told about their challenges and findings within the Responsible AI Lab. Other elements of the program were breakout sessions in which six of the ICAI locations gave an impression of their AI labs, and the AI Startup Talkshow, that explored the intersection of AI and entrepreneurship and gave startups the opportunity to present themselves to the public. The afternoon was hosted by Nathan de Groot, online facilitator, day chair and trainer. “It was great to see all the work of the different locations being presented together in one place which gives an amazing overview of the work that is going on in AI research.”, says Esther Smit.

ICAI: propelling the Netherlands into the future of AI

Liesbeth Leijssen, director Business at JADS, adds: “We are proud to have hosted this valuable event. The partnership with ICAI is immensely valuable for JADS. We see a key role for ICAI in propelling the Netherlands into the future of AI and the digital transition. Not just in the field of education and AI, but also when it comes to supporting startups. This is a key collaboration for JADS, now and in the future.”

Event streams

Have you missed the event or do you want to watch again? You can find the video streams here.