The future according to IBM: a car without a driver and a computer that locates terrorists

Researchers at IBM's research laboratories are engaged in a number of long-term future developments, including IT systems that help detect carriers of rapidly spreading epidemics, locating terrorists and embezzlers in banks, storage systems for hundreds of years into the future, and the establishment of shopping sites that combine purchases in the real and virtual world ● Among the projects - computerized sensors that will take control of The vehicle in emergencies ● A rare interview with Oded Cohen, director of IBM's research laboratories in Haifa

Yehuda Confortes and Yossi the Tony, DailyMaily system, people and computers 
 
 

The blue giant has a research division, and it has an annual budget of 5 billion dollars. The employees of IBM's research laboratories are engaged in a wide variety of fields, at all levels of computing: hardware, software, tools and applications. Over 750 researchers and developers - out of approximately 3,000 R&D employees worldwide - are employed in the research and development laboratories in Israel, which are the company's largest outside the US. IBM's research division has eight R&D laboratories - three in the US and five abroad - in Zurich, Tokyo, Beijing and Delhi. IBM's development and research activity in Israel is one of the oldest in the country: already more than 30 years ago, in 1972, an IBM scientific center was established in Haifa, which later developed into the research and development laboratories in Haifa. DailyMaily spoke with Oded Cohen, director of IBM's research laboratories in Haifa, who in a rare interview talked about the activities of the laboratories and the integration of this activity into the commercial-business fabric of the company.

"Last year we started working on a long-term project, which will last about a decade, in the field of collaborative driving systems," says Cohen. "As you know, every car has computers, and today it is already possible to create short-term communication between the cars. Our idea is aimed at reducing the number of accidents on the road, which is partly due to the large number of cars and their density on the roads. My researchers are working on an idea, according to which sensors and computers from one car will communicate with other cars and with traffic lights and sensors that will be placed on the roads. The goal is to give the driver an indication, which will change his behavior during the trip."

"For example", Cohen illustrates, "the sensors and computers will 'notice' that the driver is coming to a sharp turn at too high a speed, and then the steering wheel will have 'difficulty' turning, or the driver will feel some physical experience, which will alert him to this, and then control of the driving will be taken away from him, even if only partially. This is a virgin phase of the research, which is groundbreaking in its own right. I estimate that over the years we will find the customers for whom the project will suit - whether inside IBM or outside it."

"Another field in which we operate is XNUMXD Internet. Take the Second Life site. As such, the components present in it are not new. What is new is their combination. There are three dimensions, there are social aspects, there are instant messages, and of course - there is a connection to the physical world.

This site, and similar ones, is a kind of platform where the behavior is more natural than typing on the keyboard and the browser. Thus, IBM built a shopping site - which combines the virtual and the physical world - together with the Sears chain. The couple who are in different places and for some reason must purchase a refrigerator together now. They browse the website together, enter the appliance floor together, examine the various models, choose a model, pay and receive the refrigerator a day later. Businesses in the amount of a million dollars are conducted on this site every day. The Sears store is real, inside the Second Life website. What is interesting is the combination of the two worlds. Libm does not yet have a business model, but it is interested in showing a presence in it. IBM has entered the world of the XNUMXD Internet and I estimate that we will invent new things there, it seems that it has tremendous potential."

Emphasis: research, not development
What does the research laboratory in Haifa do?
"There are three laboratories in Israel: the old research laboratory operating in Haifa, and managed by me;
the software laboratories operating in Rehovot and Jerusalem, which were established due to IBM's purchases of three Israeli companies; And additional development laboratories, which deal with hardware development, operate in Tel Aviv and Haifa. Our emphasis is on research and not on development, and this is our uniqueness compared to the R&D centers of other international companies in Israel.

IBM's research laboratory in Haifa began its journey in 1972, under the leadership of the late Prof. Yosef Raviv, who for 25 years led IBM's research and development activities in Haifa, first in several rooms in the Technion complex, and later - at Matam. The continued growth and the desire to strengthen the relationship with the academy, led to the construction of the new building on the campus of the University of Haifa.

The laboratory in Haifa is a unique entity in IBM as a whole, thanks to the close integration in one site - and sometimes within one team, between research and development. Over the years, we have been able to adapt to changes in technology and business emphasis - and to acquire a significant position for ourselves in IBM and the industry as a whole.

Our mission is to take care of the company's long-term future. To develop technologies that will help the company in the fields of hardware, software and services. The distribution of the employees is according to the time span. Some of them - the small one, look a decade ahead; Some of them are working in the direction of 3-5 years, and some are looking at what will go into different versions of products in the next two years."

From cancer diagnosis to soil fertilization"In the last fifty years, IBM's global research division has recorded a series of technological and scientific victories, placing IBM at the forefront of industrial research. These research efforts have earned IBM the first place in the registration of new patents in the US for the last ten years in a row. The laboratory in Haifa integrates into IBM's global research system. Researchers at the Haifa laboratory registered hundreds of patents this year, and won recognition thanks to a variety of scientific articles and professional awards. The projects in the laboratory focus on the development of algorithms and technologies that will meet the challenges facing IBM all over the world. The research is carried out in small dynamic groups, in an atmosphere that encourages innovation, creativity and teamwork. Thus, the workers sit in isolated rooms, and not in an open space, so that they have peace and can think. There are meeting rooms that are characterized by the fact that they do not have electrical outlets. Thus, the sitters are prevented from plugging in their laptops and in effect 'force' them to talk and not send out emails while doing so.

IBM researchers were involved in the development of liver cancer diagnosis systems using ultrasound, computerized irrigation and water supply, computerized soil models and fertilization processes, urban planning systems, computerized time systems for schools, hearing aids, document and form recognition and processing systems, speech recognition, handwriting recognition Hand and pattern recognition, storage systems, data compression, advanced communication solutions, and a line of tools for the Internet world.

The direct contribution of the laboratories to the IBM product basket in the last twenty years includes hardware and software for a series of systems - personal computers, workstations and servers; Elementary mathematical functions for several computer models, data storage and backup systems, design verification of a product line, and sound and video systems for personal computers."

Storing information for generationsHow do you decide what to research and what to develop?
"We move on the axis between basing on the traditional strengths of IBM, on the one hand, and developing new things, which rely on the strengths of the past. An example of this is from the world of storage; Anyone who has ever tried to open a document, which was created in a word processor on a computer ten years ago, is well aware of the problem: accessing information stored in previous generations of software and in formats that were and are not - is a difficult task. Increasing amounts of digital information created and stored all over the world may become - within a few years - inaccessible. Therefore, we looked for ways to understand and use this information, in an environment that relies on software, systems and knowledge - different from the ones we are familiar with today.

Moreover, our researchers are partners in a pan-European project, designed to develop means and ways to preserve cultural and scientific heritage and resources. The CASPAR project, English acronym for "preservation, access and retrieval of cultural, artistic and scientific knowledge", handles information related to cultural content of the countries of the European Community, scientific studies and contemporary art. The project focuses on the implementation of the OAIS model - an open specification for archival systems - which is currently accepted as an international standard for preserving digital information. CASPAR will develop components and an overall framework for presenting information and preserving it, within a virtual storage framework, which are based on advanced technologies in the field of storage management, and using copyright management systems in a digital environment and full control over the presentation of the stored knowledge.

The researchers contribute to the project a new storage concept, called Preservation DataStore - 'Storage of information for generations'. The technology is based on object storage systems, and uses open standards and especially OAIS, in order to offer a uniform storage interface for knowledge preservation environments. The information is packaged together with large amounts of metadata (metadata), about the stored data, such as the context in which the content was created and stored, its formats and presentation methods - all in order to ensure the long-term stability of all the information that will be required, in order to access and display the data Precisely - even hundreds of years after their storage. The Israeli team has already developed a driver in an open source environment to handle object-oriented storage. The project began in April 2006, and is expected to be completed by the end of the decade. Together with IBM's research laboratories in Haifa, bodies such as UNESCO, the European Space Agency, universities from around Europe and technological and business bodies are partners in the project. The project will provide a comprehensive solution for preserving stored information over time. The R&D at IBM Haifa provides a storage solution, based on objects".

Upgraded BI
How do the laboratory personnel relate to the technological changes for their needs?
"Take for example the event-driven world. This is a field that comes from two capabilities that have developed - the multitude of sensors that exist today. In London, for example, the average person is photographed 300 times a day. In addition, there is a highly developed connectivity, which makes it possible to collect information between the various sensors. In addition to the problem - due to the large number of items, there is also potential here: it is possible to make cuts on the information items and benefit from them. Thus, for example, in the event that an epidemic breaks out, it is possible to cross-check information coming from travel agencies about tourists who arrived from one country to another, and information about tourists who were hospitalized in a third country. Only the intersection between these types of information will bring you the data you need to know who is spreading the plague.

Another example is theoretical: a cross between data that could be collected on those who participated in civil aviation courses in the USA, before September 11, and those who are of Arab origin. We developed an engine that 'grinds' events, receives information from diverse sources, identifies situations, and among them - identifies anomalies in some field, for example in the security or health world. What makes the system unique is that it serves the professional parties, not the IT people, who come and define at the immediate level what a new and interesting threat is to their method. On this basis, a 'law' was built - without software development and without compilation (exclusion). The power of the system is in its ability to define for the consumer, from now to now, what interests him. This is a kind of upgraded BI.

Among other things, banks use this engine. They are very disturbed by various types of frauds. The engine is able to detect types of movements, which in themselves are not suspicious, but their concentration indicates a pattern of fraud."

The integrated model
How can the achievements of the laboratories and their contribution to the company's business be quantified?
"There are studies that have been carried out, which have resulted in sales turnover of a billion dollars for the company, for example in the world of storage - storage systems that have the ability to copy data, while maintaining their consistency, with handling aspects of survivability and reliability.

This measurement - of 'profitability' and the usefulness of research - has several faces: do the things enter, at the end of the process, into the products and services provided by IBM; what is the technological depth; How many patents have been registered - this is an indication of innovation; What is the amount of publications at the academic level?

We built an integrated model that bridges the two worlds. At one end there is a company that gives scientists money, and they do whatever they want. At the other end is a company that only gives the scientists a budget if they help sales directly and immediately, which results in them handling the 'chopchick' of the software. In the integrated model, i.e. ours, part of the budget comes to promote science and society, and part - we have to recruit partners, in society and outside. Thus, a system of balances is created that bridges between the act and the present, and between science and the future. The annual budget for R&D at IBM is about 5 billion dollars a year. Our budget is growing consistently and we have a considerable degree of freedom to look at the future."

What is the average profile of the researcher in the laboratories?
"30% of the employees are doctors, the rest are students. There are few bachelor's degree holders, but they are super-excellent. The threshold for admission to us is a score of 90 from the Technion. There are many returning Israelis in the laboratories. I don't see a brain drain phenomenon. I don't see people fleeing in favor of start-ups. There are advantages to working in a large company: there is someone to learn from, there is an environment of experienced people, your ability to knock on doors and say 'I work in research at IBM' is different from working in a small company. I do not share the opinion that the level of people is decreasing."

Do you feel a threat from the east?
"I don't see this as a problem for BMW. This is an opportunity for the company. This is an emerging market, with double-digit growth. In my opinion, this is also an advantage for Israel: because Israel's business core is in innovation, and innovation is very difficult to imitate. This will be our advantage, and they will not be able to take that away from us."