AI4industry: the very first workshop dedicated to the roll-out of AI in industry in Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Members of Nouvelle Aquitaine’s artificial intelligence community from as far afield as La Rochelle, Poitiers, Limoges, Pau, Bidart and Bordeaux are set to descend on the Talence campus of the University of Bordeaux for a five day AI course beginning on 20 January 2020.
This unique workshop will have two aims: to introduce future and current engineers to issues surrounding the deployment of AI in industry and to bring together research laboratories, the teaching community and the major manufacturers in the wider region - the key figures in this process.

The major challenge will be to offer something different to what is currently available in AI (ordinarily centred around algorithms taken out of context), focusing instead on the efficient operational deployment of AI in industry by raising subjects such as data and knowledge, computing and communication infrastructure and AI-user interaction.

Coming up with tangible solutions to real industrial problems

Frédéric Alexandre, Director of Research at the Inria Bordeaux Sud-Ouest Research Centre, will be responsible for all the scientific and educational aspects of the workshop. He has assembled a variety of different skill sets, including Inria researchers and engineers, to contribute to this event, which will offer conferences run by experts and practical examples.

The practical cases will cover problems posed by manufacturers that the students will be asked to analyse and to try to solve over the course of the week. We hope they will be able to come up with tangible solutions to real industrial problems.

Eight different problems have been put forward by manufacturers in the region on subjects including predictive maintenance, the analysis and interpretation of images and language analysis.
Dan Dutartre, an Inria engineer who will be responsible for jointly supervising the practical examples, is delighted to have been given the opportunity to participate in this workshop:

On top of the satisfaction of supporting students with their education, the work we do will enable us to keep a close eye on current problems facing manufacturers in relation to AI, and that’s really useful.

Unifying the AI community in Nouvelle Aquitaine

Teachers, researchers, engineers, clusters, laboratories and research institutes will be coming together from across the Nouvelle Aquitaine region to give this workshop the regional scope its organisers are looking for.

We were able to take an overview of AI by calling upon resources from all universities within the region

explains Frédéric Alexandre. This speaks of the dynamism of the artificial intelligence community within the region and the desire shared by the various different stakeholders to work together.

The goal is for this workshop to take place on an annual basis in order to help unify the AI community.

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