A brain-inspired computer, self-learning software and powerful computing power: Intel Israel, the Technion and the Hebrew University launch the Joint Research Institute for Computational Intelligence

The institute will employ about 40 researchers from the participating universities, a similar number of graduate students, and a number of Intel employees. Additional researchers from other universities will join the institute

Although computer performance exceeds human performance in many aspects, there are still many tasks that are simple for humans, but not for computers. Intel, together with the Technion and the Hebrew University, hope to change this and explore technologies that will be inspired by the human brain

Intel announced this week the establishment of a joint research institute for computational intelligence that will investigate the future interaction between humans and technology. The amount of investment in the institute will amount to 15 million dollars for the next five years. The institute will bring together researchers from the Technion in Haifa and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In total, about 40 researchers from the participating universities, a similar number of graduate students, and a number of Intel employees will work in the institute. Additional researchers from other universities will join the institute.

"The model of joint industry-university research is designed to strengthen the collaboration between Intel and academia. Today there are five centers in the US in this model and we are making the model global, first at a small university in Germany in the field of visual computing, later in Taiwan in the field of linked contextual computing and now in Israel with the Institute for Computational Intelligence," said Justin Ratner, Intel's global research director, at the The launch of the Computational Intelligence Institute held in Tel Aviv. "This is a very exciting combination that is already generating great enthusiasm in Israel about the opportunity for cooperation, and I foresee many interesting developments and the opening of a new chapter for the cooperation between Intel and academia."

"From the business point of view, today for the first time there is computing power that allows you to do whatever you want with computers, and you can say that computers are almost human," said Molly Aden, president of Intel Israel. "In five years all human senses will be in computers, and in ten years there will be more transistors on a chip than neurons in the human brain. The expectation from the Computational Intelligence Institute is that it will provide a breakthrough in research and ideas that can be translated into products and applications."

The institute is led by Professor Uri Weiser from the Technion, Professor Naftali Tashvi from the Hebrew University, and Roni Ronan, Senior Chief Engineer at Intel Laboratories. The universities were chosen due to the expertise in computer architecture and machine learning that exists in both universities.

The joint institute will research machine learning technologies (the development of algorithms designed to allow a computer to learn from examples), computing inspired by the human brain, and advanced computer architectures. Breakthrough technologies that will enable future applications such as apps that study the user and help him in real time.

Technological progress paves the way to a world where billions of computer processors will be connected to trillions of sensors, and almost all objects and all people will be connected to each other in one way or another (The Internet of Things). Intel and the researchers will combine different fields in order to create the building blocks for a computing system that will collect the relevant data, store it, protect it and analyze it so that it can be used to help people in the present and in the future.

Machine learning, one of the fields that will be researched at the institute which requires enormous computing power, allows the computer to integrate the enormous amount of data coming from a large number of sources (from the cloud, from the sensors, from the network and from the environment). Together with private and general information from the past and present, the purpose of the computer is to turn all of this into information that helps a person in various ways.

Advanced computer architectures, another area that will be researched at the institute, will pave the way to smaller, faster and more efficient processors that will provide the required computing power.

Although computer performance exceeds human performance in many aspects, there are still many tasks that are simple for humans and even animals, but not for computers (for example, learning and recognition). Intel and the researchers at the Hebrew University and the Technion intend to apply their in-depth understanding of the fundamental structures and mechanisms of the brain in order to explore "brain-inspired computing" - a combination of creative algorithms and advanced computing architecture to perform these tasks better than traditional computers. To that end, Intel will bring together brain experts with architecture and networking experts to build software and hardware inspired by the brain.

The research that will be born will enable new applications, such as small and wearable computers that combine the local data on a person with the data stored in the cloud, in order to create a knowledge base that can improve our daily lives in areas such as health, society or entertainment.

According to Minister of Science and Technology Daniel Hershkowitz, "The Institute for Computational Intelligence is an Israeli breakthrough. New technology is the result of new basic research. It is fascinating that in this case the industry itself invests in academia. It is not surprising that Intel does this, as a company that plays an important role in high-tech in Israel and its activity here affects its activity all over the world. This is a real landmark in the relations between academia and industry in Israel."

Here are three examples of possible technological applications that may develop as a result of research at the institute:

1. "Learning visual/audio systems"
The State of Israel has recently been dealing with several criminal incidents that undermined the sense of personal security. In some cases the security forces and the police made an attempt to locate the suspects using security footage. Using smart devices based on computational intelligence, the security cameras placed in the city centers will be able to very quickly and without human involvement detect unusual events, alert them - and identify suspects. Sometimes in real time.

2. "The Smart Agent"
Suppose a tourist arrives in a foreign city. It's late and he doesn't speak the local language. The "smart agent" will come to his aid. This will be an application on a smartphone or ultrabook, which at the airport will direct the tourist to the nearest taxi station. When he arrives at the hotel, the smart agent will suggest a good Italian restaurant in the vicinity, because based on familiarity with the tourist, the application will know that this is his favorite type of restaurant, and from information about the environment, he knows where they are. In addition, the application will remind the tourist that it is cold outside and he should have a coat.
The basis here is that the smart agent (the personal assistant) not only knows the person firsthand, but it will also connect him to the environment and the world. The computer software, the application on a smartphone or computer, will teach the person continuously, and each time you will apply this learning in a new place. This is just one small example of one application of computational intelligence.

3. The software that will take pictures of us at every moment and remind us of what we forgot
It happens to all of us. We are late for work. Finally, we leave in a hurry, lock the door, go to the car - and then discover that we forgot the keys. Our new close secretary will take pictures of everything we do, so when we ask him near the car where we left the key - he will be able to tell us that we left it, for example, on the dresser by the entrance last night. The same secretary, after accompanying us for a few days and teaching us - will understand (predict) that we are on our way to work and remind us to take the keys even before we activated the alarm. This is how a computer program will actually learn our behavior pattern and warn us in real time about how to behave or act.

Intel Israel estimates that the technologies developed at the academic institute will reach maturity in the coming years, and some of them are expected to become commercial products.

This year Intel also invested about NIS 300,000 in excellence awards for engineering and science students

In a ceremony held at Cinema City in Gilolit, Intel celebrated the completion of the 'Intel Awards' program for 2012. This year, approximately 60 awards were awarded with a total value of approximately NIS 300,000.

The 'Intel Awards' is a unique program that has been held continuously since 2003, the purpose of which is to promote excellence in studies and academic research, and to encourage male and female students to pursue advanced degrees. As part of the program, Intel annually awards excellence awards to outstanding undergraduate and graduate engineering and science students. The awards for advanced degrees are awarded to master's students and doctoral students conducting their research in fields such as visual computing, software, production technologies, green production and planning, communications.

Maxine Fassberg, Vice President of Intel Global and CEO of Intel Israel, emphasized at the ceremony the importance of the relationship between Intel and academia, and praised the winners.

Professor Feder Meir from Tel Aviv University welcomed on behalf of the Academy. The evening concluded with a lecture on innovation by Shay Quas, director of the architecture group at Intel. The doctoral awards were given this year for the names of Intel employees who died in the past year, in the class of the employees' families.

Intel sees great importance in the promotion of higher education, which is the basis for the continued growth of the Israeli economy, and therefore annually invests many resources in the promotion of the Israeli academy. The cooperation with the academy includes the development of teaching programs in the fields of engineering and sciences, grants for teaching laboratories, development and teaching of academic courses, donation of equipment for teaching and research laboratories, support for research projects, support for outstanding students, and encouragement of students in engineering and science studies to pursue graduate degrees.