ARMONK, N.Y. and SAN DIEGO, Sept. 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/
-- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the University of California San Diego
have announced a multi-year project to enhance quality of life and
independence for aging populations through the new Artificial
Intelligence for Healthy Living Center (AIHL), located on the
campus of UC San Diego. The groundbreaking center will bring
together the technology, artificial intelligence and life sciences
knowledge of IBM and UC San Diego to promote critical research and
applications in two thematic areas: Healthy Aging and the Human
Microbiome.
This collaboration is part of the IBM Cognitive Horizons
Network, an international consortium of leading universities
working with IBM to develop technologies needed to help fulfill the
promise of artificial intelligence (AI). According to the National
Institute on Aging, cognitive health—the ability to clearly think,
learn and remember—is an important component of brain health.
"This is a very prestigious relationship for UC San Diego, the
first university on the West Coast to collaborate with the IBM
Cognitive Horizons Network," said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. "Our campus, one of the top
15 research universities in the world, is home to changemakers
whose innovation will help advance cognitive wellness to make a
difference in our lives."
The collaborative research initiative will use AI to comb
through massive amounts of data to enable healthier living. Funds
will be used to support faculty research; trainee stipends
including opportunities for UC San Diego graduate and undergraduate
students; administrative support; equipment; and corporate
affiliation.
"We're committed to collaborating with the best minds in
academia to inspire the next generation of scientists by providing
access to leading-edge AI tools and expertise to solve real
problems that impact human lives," said Dr. John Kelly III, IBM senior vice president,
Cognitive Solutions and IBM Research. "This new collaboration with
UC San Diego is the latest example of how we're executing on this
AI vision -- and we are thrilled to bring our global AI research
resources to Southern California
to engage the wealth of local talent."
The overall goals of the project are to develop and evaluate a
cognitive framework for a supportive living environment that
facilitates older adults to live independently longer and have a
higher quality of life, and to discover and better understand the
health implications of the human microbiome. During the project,
the team anticipates that machine learning algorithms for sensing,
understanding, modeling, personalizing and informing will be
developed, with consideration to human-centered design, and testing
in real world environments.
Co-directors of the Artificial Intelligence for Healthy Living
Center will be Ruoyi Zhou and Ho-Cheol
Kim from IBM Research; and Tajana
Rosing, holder of the Fratamico Endowed Chair and faculty
member in the Jacobs School of Engineering's Computer Science and
Engineering Department, and Rob
Knight, a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics and
Computer Science and Engineering and Director of the UC San Diego
Center for Microbiome Innovation.
The Healthy Aging project will be led by Virginia de Sa, a professor in Cognitive
Science, and Laurel Riek, a Computer
Science professor. The Human Microbiome theme will be led by
Rob Knight and Larry Smarr, director of the California
Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, as
well as Sandrine Miller-Montgomery,
a Jacobs School of Engineering faculty member and executive
director of the Center for Microbiome Innovation. As part of the
IBM-UC San Diego partnership, IBM will join the UC San Diego Center
for Microbiome Innovation as a platinum sponsor.
This initiative will bring together the campus' top researchers
in computer science, cognitive science, engineering and medicine,
including psychiatry. A list of participating faculty can be found
here.
Over the course of five years this project plans to, for the
first time, study in depth the impact that a combination of daily
habits, the environment, genetics and the microbiome have on the
cognition of older adults. The project expects to model the subtle
changes of aging, and will deploy personalized interventions via
robots that help support wellness. The ultimate goal is to enable
older adults to live independently longer and have a higher quality
of life.
Through training experiences centered on the thematic areas,
undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and
project scientists will be positioned to gain knowledge, experience
and expertise in these new and important areas of IBM advancement.
Hands-on research experience with UC San Diego and IBM scientists
is planned and will be complemented by jointly taught classes and
seminars, as well as showcase opportunities for trainee and faculty
projects.
About UC San Diego
At the University of California San
Diego, we constantly push boundaries and challenge
expectations. Established in 1960, UC San Diego has been shaped by
exceptional scholars who aren't afraid to take risks and redefine
conventional wisdom. Today, as one of the top 15 research
universities in the world, we are driving innovation and change to
advance society, propel economic growth and make our world a better
place. Learn more at www.ucsd.edu.
About IBM Research
For more than seven
decades, IBM Research has defined the future of information
technology with more than 3,000 researchers in 12 labs located
across six continents. Scientists from IBM Research have produced
six Nobel Laureates, 10 U.S. National Medals of Technology, five
U.S. National Medals of Science, six Turing Awards, 19 inductees in
the National Academy of Sciences and 20 inductees into the U.S.
National Inventors Hall of Fame. For more information about IBM
Research, visit www.ibm.com/research.
MEDIA
CONTACTS
UC San
Diego: Judy Piercey, 858-534-6128,
jpiercey@ucsd.edu
IBM: Caroline Yu Vespi,
408-927-2205, cvespi@us.ibm.com
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SOURCE IBM