$65 million investment from IBM Canada to enable innovative industry-academic collaborations at U of T and 13 partner institutions

sgupta — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 09:05:46 +0000

$65 million investment from IBM Canada to enable innovative industry-academic collaborations at U of T and 13 partner institutions sgupta Wed, 11/25/2015 - 04:05

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Climate change scientists measure Arctic sea ice (photo by NASA via flickr)

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Breaking Research

Industry Partnerships

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Research

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Technology supports research into climate change, transportation and more

A new $65 million investment from IBM Canada Ltd. will enable the Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform (SOSCIP) to add new areas of focus – mining, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity and digital media – to its collaborative R&D mandate and double the number of academic institutions in the SOSCIP consortium.

IBM’s investment comes in the way of agile, advanced computing infrastructure and big data analytics as well as related support through research, IT and business expertise.

U of T is a founding member of the SOSCIP consortium, which is now composed of 14 post-secondary institutions as well as Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) and IBM as the lead industry partner. Created in 2012, SOSCIP supports collaborations between academic researchers and small- and medium-sized companies using advanced computing and big data analytics. The ultimate goal is for these projects to bring new products and services to market.

Read more about SOSCIP at U of T

Together with OCE and Mitacs, which will contribute funding to support SOSCIP projects and provide high-tech training opportunities for students and post-doctoral fellows, IBM’s latest investment was critical to securing the matching funding required to generate the support of the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario). As a result, SOSCIP is able to launch a major expansion of its activities.

In addition to the four new areas of focus and new academic members, SOSCIP will place a strategic emphasis on commercialization and partnerships with medium-sized companies to help them adopt advanced computing and big data analytics technologies.

“U of T, Western and our SOSCIP colleagues have already benefitted immensely from our partnership with IBM Canada. Now, thanks to this additional $65 million investment by IBM, SOSCIP has been able to launch its second phase of operations, using state-of-the-art computing to solve critical problems in areas of great social, economic and environmental importance,” said U of T President Meric Gertler. “This latest investment will enable SOSCIP to add new areas of research focus. It will also support more opportunities for students and post-doctoral fellows to gain skills and experience in high-tech settings.”

SOSCIP was founded with a focus on research into five core areas—cities, health, energy, water and advanced computing. Using state-of-the art technology, such as the IBM BlueGene/Q (the fastest supercomputer in Canada and one of the fastest in the world), research has progressed by way of scientists such as U of T Engineering Professor Eric Miller, who is analyzing urban transportation and Professor Richard Peltier, who is investigating climate change.

In addition to U of T, SOSCIP is co-led by Western University.

“Western is very proud to co-lead the SOSCIP project with the University of Toronto and its team and we are thrilled to have such a strong relationship with IBM as our lead industrial partner,” said Amit Chakma, president of Western University.

“With this additional investment, we will continue to move ideas into practice by increasing confidence in the digital economy through improved online security, by empowering health professionals to more quickly provide accurate diagnoses and by preparing businesses to identify risks and take advantages of new opportunities. This is where research has impact in our communities.”

The president of IBM Canada, Dino Trevisani, said “We believe one of the best ways to address the innovation gap this country is facing is for academia, industry and government to work more collaboratively on common initiatives. Our partnership in SOSCIP is driving Canadian competitiveness and growth by pairing global industry expertise with academia, providing access to technology tools otherwise out of reach and fueling made-in-Canada innovation that can move quickly out of the labs and into the market.”

The other founding partners in SOSCIP are McMaster University, Queen’s University, University of Ottawa, University of Waterloo and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, IBM Canada Ltd. and OCE. Four additional universities joined SOSCIP in April 2014: Carleton, Ryerson, York and Wilfrid Laurier. In August of this year, OCAD University, Seneca College and the University of Windsor also joined the consortium.

(See the original of the photo used courtesy of NASA via flickr)

Learn more about industry partnerships at U of T

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IBM Watson competition: U of T students create virtual legal researcher

sgupta — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 14:37:15 +0000

IBM Watson competition: U of T students create virtual legal researcher sgupta Fri, 12/12/2014 - 09:37

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He's not holding the scales of justice just yet but Ross, the legal researcher created by U of T students using IBM's Watson, is willing to provide answers to questions on corporate law (photo by Patrick M via Flickr)

Artificial Intelligence

Subheadline

Ross swiftly answers legal queries, cites precedents and suggests related readings

And the winner is... Ross. That's the name of the virtual legal researcher designed and created by University of Toronto students for the IBM Watson Cognitive Computing Competition.

This fall, a select group of U of T students were given access to a 'supercomputer' called IBM Watson as part of the competition.

Their task: to develop innovative artificial intelligence-based applications with an entrepreneurial twist.

U of T is the only Canadian participant among an elite group of 10 universities including Carnegie Mellon University, the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University. (Read more about entrepreneurship at U of T)

Five U of T teams competed for the chance to go on to the Watson Challenge in Manhattan in January 2015, where the top groups will compete for a US$100,000 prize awarded to the most insightful and articulate business proposal. Ross, with his ability to answer questions on corporate law – and rate his own confidence in the answer – won the day.

The Globe and Mail's Jeff Gray spoke with Trinity College student Jimoh Ovbiagele and alumnus Andrew Arruda (also of Trinity) about building Ross.

Ovbiagele, who is also a member of the Whirlscape team, told The Globe, “When we are short of time, we just say it is Siri for lawyers,” adding: “Watson is a lot smarter than Siri.”

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