Seneca Centre for Innovation in Artificial Intelligence Technologies (CIAIT): Accelerating adoption of AI powered solutions by Canadian enterprises

Seneca应用艺术与技术学院(Seneca)正在建立人工智能技术创新中心(CIAIT)。人工智能(AI)可以被定义为能够执行通常需要人类智能的任务的计算机系统。在过去的十年里，人工智能算法的进步和可用计算能力的不断增加导致了消费者层面的应用程序的爆炸性增长。2021年，我们正在不断地与人工智能的各种应用互动，如语音识别、语言之间的翻译、客户服务和计算机视觉。可以肯定的是，在不久的将来，我们日常生活中人工智能应用的激增将继续下去，人工智能技术的采用将成为建设未来成功经济的关键因素。为了让加拿大在未来几十年取得成功，大多数企业将不得不过渡到这种新的数字范式。Seneca处于非常有利的地位，可以支持这一过渡。作为学位授予机构，学院拥有一大批拥有终端资质(即博士)的数据科学家来支持这类研究项目。在过去3年中，在Seneca发起的软件和信息技术领域的应用研究项目中，近70%是在人工智能的保护伞下交付的。拟议中的工业与信息化建设正是建立在这一既定基础之上的。CIAIT将专注于三个关键应用领域：商业决策支持、内容分析和管理以及网络安全。这三个重点领域都可以应用于为安大略省GDP创造大部分的广泛行业部门：先进制造业、商业、农业和食品加工、创意和媒体以及生命科学。将用于支持这三个领域的主要技术包括：数据和预测分析、机器学习、自然语言处理和计算机视觉。CIAIT研究人员将与行业合作伙伴合作应对以下商业挑战：通过人工智能语音建模改进实时转录，分析法律合同以确定关注的领域，以及预测电池能量存储系统的健康状况及其性能优化。通过这些和未来的行业项目，CIAIT将继续支持对开发人工智能技术感兴趣的本地中小企业，以支持和增强其核心业务成果。

Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology (Seneca) is establishing the Centre for Innovation in Artificial Intelligence Technologies (CIAIT). Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be defined as the computer systems that are able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. In the last decade advances in AI algorithms and continuous increases in available computing power has led to an explosion of applications at the consumer level. In 2021 we are constantly interacting with various applications of AI, such as speech recognition, translation between languages, customer service and computer vision. It is safe to say that this proliferation of AI applications in our daily lives is going to continue in the near future, and that the adoption of AI technologies will become a critical factor in building successful economies of the future. In order for Canada, to be successful in the coming decades, most businesses will have to transition into this new digital paradigm. Seneca is very well positioned to support this transition. As a degree granting institution, the college has a large number of data scientists with terminal credentials (i.e. PhD) to support these types of research projects. In the last 3 years, close to 70% of the applied research projects initiated at Seneca in the software and information technology fields were delivered under the umbrella of AI. The proposed CIAIT is building on this established foundation. CIAIT will focus on three key application areas: business decision support, content analysis and management, and cybersecurity. All three areas of focus can be applied to a broad range of industry sectors that generate the bulk of the Ontario GDP: advanced manufacturing, commerce, agriculture and food processing, creative and media, and life sciences. The main techniques that will be used to support those three areas include: data and predictive analytics, machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. CIAIT researchers will collaborate with industry partners on such business challenges as: improvement in live transcription through AI speech modeling, analysis of legal contracts to identify areas of concern, and prediction of battery energy storage system health and its performance optimization. Through these and future industry projects CIAIT will continue to support local SME companies interested in the development of AI technologies that support and enhance their core business outcomes.