INSAIT leads a key initiative on Edge AI

dAIEDGE will accelerate applications in fields like autonomous driving, personalised digital assistance, and intelligent service robots

INSAIT has been selected as the leader of one of the five working groups in the dAIEDGE project, a key initiative of the European Union focused on artificial intelligence development and implementation, particularly in end and peripheral devices (Edge AI).

Comprising 37 leading universities, companies, and organisations from 16 countries, the project includes representation from Bulgaria through the Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Technology (INSAIT) at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski.” Notably, Bulgaria and Greece are the sole Eastern European countries participating in the consortium.

Heading the project’s working group for computer vision and the development of algorithms and methods for resource-constrained devices is Prof. Luc Van Gool, a world-renowned computer scientist and pioneer in computer vision and artificial intelligence, who joined INSAIT in 2022.

Prof. Van Gool joined INSAIT in 2022

dAIEDGE, led by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), boasts prominent European scientific and industrial leaders like ETH Zürich, Frauenhofer, ST Microelectronics, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), IMEC, among others. The dAIEDGE collaboration unites expertise in artificial intelligence, embedded computing, microprocessors, distributed hardware and software, computer science, and engineering.

Combining Edge computing with AI (Edge AI) empowers rapid decision-making on devices, processing data directly at the source within milliseconds. Edge AI is an artificial intelligence approach where computation is executed right next to the user at the edge of the network. This empowers devices in the physical world to process data where it resides, rather than in a remote data centre as it currently is, eliminating insecure network connections, high latency, excessive energy consumption, and transmission costs.

The development of Edge AI holds tremendous potential for extensive applications across various industries and fields, including autonomous cars, intelligent transportation systems, smart cities, robotics, agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, defence, and more.

dAIEDGE receives funding by the European Union’s framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon Europe.