Fully understanding and solving the coronavirus pandemic will be about the data. There’s no shortage of data sources that are growing hourly. Now nine organizations, business and academic, have formed a coalition to bring coronavirus data sources together, and added incentives for researchers who can apply modern data analysis and artificial intelligence to it. Leading this effort is the Silicon Valley company C3.ai
C3.ai, Microsoft Corporation, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, the University of Chicago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at UIUC announced two major initiatives:
- C3.ai
Digital Transformation Institute (C3.ai DTI), a research consortium
dedicated to accelerating the application of artificial intelligence to
speed the pace of digital transformation in business, government, and
society. Jointly managed by UC Berkeley and UIUC, C3.ai DTI will sponsor
and fund world-leading scientists in a coordinated effort to advance the
digital transformation of business, government, and society.
- C3.ai
DTI First Call for Research Proposals: C3.ai DTI
invites scholars, developers, and researchers to embrace the challenge of
abating COVID-19 and advance the knowledge, science, and technologies for
mitigating future pandemics using AI. This is the first in what will be a
series of bi-annual calls for Digital Transformation research proposals.
“The C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute is a consortium
of leading scientists, researchers, innovators, and executives from academia
and industry, joining forces to accelerate the social and economic benefits of digital
transformation,” said Thomas M. Siebel, CEO of C3.ai. “We have the opportunity
through public-private partnership to change the course of a global pandemic,”
Siebel continued. “I cannot imagine a more important use of AI.”
Immediate Call for Proposals: AI Techniques to
Mitigate Pandemic
Topics for Research Awards may include but are not limited
to the following:
- Applying
machine learning and other AI methods to mitigate the spread of the
COVID-19 pandemic
- Genome-specific
COVID-19 medical protocols, including precision medicine of host responses
- Biomedical
informatics methods for drug design and repurposing
- Design
and sharing of clinical trials for collecting data on medications,
therapies, and interventions
- Modeling,
simulation, and prediction for understanding COVID-19 propagation and
efficacy of interventions
- Logistics
and optimization analysis for design of public health strategies and
interventions
- Rigorous
approaches to designing sampling and testing strategies
- Data
analytics for COVID-19 research harnessing private and sensitive data
- Improving
societal resilience in response to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic
- Broader
efforts in biomedicine, infectious disease modeling, response logistics
and optimization, public health efforts, tools, and methodologies around
the containment of rising infectious diseases and response to pandemics,
so as to be better prepared for future infectious diseases
The first call for proposals is open now, with a deadline of
May 1, 2020. Researchers are invited to learn more about C3.ai DTI and how to
submit their proposals for consideration at C3DTI.ai.
Selected proposals will be announced by June 1, 2020.
Up to $5.8 million in awards will be funded from this first
call, ranging from $100,000 to $500,000 each. In addition to cash awards, C3.ai
DTI recipients will be provided with significant cloud computing,
supercomputing, data access, and AI software resources and technical support
provided by Microsoft and C3.ai. This will include unlimited use of the C3 AI
Suite and access to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and access to the Blue
Waters supercomputer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
(NCSA) at UIUC.
“We are collecting a massive amount of data about MERS,
SARS, and now COVID-19,” said Condoleezza Rice, former US Secretary of State.
“We have a unique opportunity before us to apply the new sciences of AI and
digital transformation to learn from these data how we can better manage these
phenomena and avert the worst outcomes for humanity,” Rice continued. “I can
think of no work more important and no response more cogent and timely than
this important public-private partnership.”
“We’re excited about the C3.ai Digital Transformation
Institute and are happy to join on a shared mission to accelerate research at
these eminent research institutions,” said Eric Horvitz, Chief Scientist at
Microsoft and C3.ai DTI Advisory Board Member. “As we launch this exciting
private-public partnership, we’re enthusiastic about aiming the broader goals
of the Institute at urgent challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as on
longer-term research that could help to minimize future pandemics.”
"At UC Berkeley, we are thrilled to help co-lead this
important endeavor to establish and advance the science of digital transformation
at the nexus of machine learning, IoT, and cloud computing,” said Carol Christ,
Chancellor, UC Berkeley. “We believe this Institute has the potential to make
tremendous contributions by including ethics, new business models, and public
policy to the technologies for transforming societal scale systems
globally."
“The C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute, with its vision
of cross-institutional and multi-disciplinary collaboration, represents an
exciting model to help accelerate innovation in this important new field of
study,” said Robert J. Jones, Chancellor of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. “At this time of a global health crisis, the Institute’s
initial research focus will be on applying AI to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic
and to learn from it how to protect the world from future pandemics. C3.ai DTI
is an important addition to the world’s fight against this disease and a
powerful new resource in developing solutions to all societal challenges.”
“Together with the other C3.ai Digital Transformation
Institute partners, we look forward to creating a powerful ecosystem of
scholars and educators committed to applying 21st century technologies to
the benefit of all,” said Chris Eisgruber, President of Princeton University.
“This public-private partnership with innovators like C3.ai and Microsoft,
providing support to world-class researchers across a range of disciplines,
promises to bring rapid innovation to an exciting new frontier.”
“By strongly supporting multidisciplinary research and multi-institution
projects, the C3.ai DTI represents a new avenue to develop breakthrough
scientific results with a positive impact on society at a time of great need,”
said Robert Zimmer, President of the University of Chicago. “I’m very pleased
that the University of Chicago is part of this formidable collaboration between
academia and industry to lead crucial innovation with great purpose and
urgency.”
“The vision of C3.ai DTI is driven by the recognition of
digital transformation as both a science as well as a scientific imperative for
this pivotal time, applicable to every sector of our economy across the public
and private sectors, including in healthcare, education, and public health,”
said Farnam Jahanian, President of Carnegie Mellon University. “We are excited
to participate in building out the Institute’s structure, program and further
alliances. This is just the beginning of an ambitious journey that can have
enormous positive impact on the world.”
"At MIT, we share the commitment of C3.ai DTI to advancing
the frontiers of AI, cybersecurity and related fields while building into every
inquiry a deep concern for ethics, privacy, equity and the public interest,”
said Rafael Reif, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “At
this moment of national emergency, we are proud to be part of this intensive
effort to apply these sophisticated tools to better analyze the COVID-19
epidemic and devise effective ways to stop it. We look forward to accelerating
this work both by collaborating with the companies and institutions in the
initiative, and by drawing on the frontline experience and clinical data of our
colleagues in Boston's world-class hospitals."
Building Community
At the heart of C3.ai DTI will be the constant flow of new
ideas and expertise provided by ongoing research, visiting professors and
research scholars, and faculty and scholars in residence, many of whom will
come from beyond the member institutions. This rich ecosystem will form the
foundational structure of a new Science of Digital Transformation.
“This is about global innovation based on multinational
collaboration to accelerate the positive impact of AI by providing researchers
access to real world data and to massive resources,” said Jim Snabe, Chairman,
Siemens. “This is exactly the kind of multinational public-private partnership
that is required to address this critical issue.”
“I could not be more proud of our association with C3.ai and
Microsoft,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO of Baker Hughes. “This is exactly the
kind of leadership that is required to bring together the best of us to address
this critical need.”
“We are at war and we must win it! Using all means,” said
Jacques Attali, French statesman. “This great project will organize global
scientific collaboration for accelerating the social impact of AI, and help to
win this war, using new weapons, for the best of mankind.”
“In these difficult times, we need – now more than ever – to
join our forces with scholars, innovators, and industry experts to propose
solutions to complex problems. I am convinced that digital, data science and AI
are a key answer,” said Gwenaëlle Avice-Huet, Executive Vice President of
ENGIE. “The C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute is a perfect example of what
we can do together to make the world better.”
Establishing the New Science of Digital Transformation
C3.ai DTI will focus its research on AI, Machine Learning,
IoT, Big Data Analytics, human factors, organizational behavior, ethics, and
public policy. The Institute will support the development of ML algorithms,
data security, and cybersecurity techniques. C3.ai DTI research will analyze
new business operation models, develop methods of implementing organizational change
management and protecting privacy, and amplify the dialogue around the ethics
and public policy of AI.
C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute is a Research
Initiative that Includes:
- Research
Awards: Up to 26 cash awards annually, ranging from $100,000 to
$500,000 each
- Computing
Resources: Access to free Azure Cloud and C3 AI Suite resources
- Visiting
Professors & Research Scientists: $750,000 per year to
support C3.ai DTI Visiting Scholars
- Curriculum
Development: Annual awards to faculty at member institutions to
develop curricula that teach the emerging field of Digital Transformation
Science
- Data
Analytics Platform: C3.ai DTI will host an elastic cloud, big
data, development, and operating platform, including the C3 AI Suite
hosted on Microsoft Azure for the purpose of supporting C3.ai DTI
research, curriculum development, and teaching.
- Educational
Program: $750,000 a year to support an annual conference, annual
report, newsletters, published research, and website
- Industry
Alignment: C3.ai DTI Industry Partners will be established to assure
the institute’s operations are aligned to the needs of the private sector.
- Open
Source: C3.ai DTI will strongly favor proposals that promise to
publish their research in the public domain.
To support the Institute, C3.ai will provide C3.ai DTI
$57,250,000 in cash contributions over the first five years of operation. C3.ai
and Microsoft will contribute an additional $310 million in-kind, including use
of the C3 AI Suite and Microsoft Azure computing, storage, and technical
resources to support C3.ai DTI research.
To learn more about C3.ai DTI’s program, award
opportunities, and call for proposals, please visit C3DTI.ai.
About C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute
C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute represents an
innovative vision to take AI, ML, IoT, and big data research in a consortium
model to a level that cannot be achieved at any one institution alone. Jointly
managed and hosted by the University of California, Berkeley and the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, C3.ai DTI will attract the world’s leading
scientists to join in a coordinated and innovative effort to advance the
digital transformation of business, government, and society, and establish the
new Science of the Digital Transformation of Societal Systems.
About C3.ai
C3.ai is a leading AI software provider for accelerating
digital transformation. C3.ai delivers the C3 AI Suite for developing,
deploying, and operating large-scale AI, predictive analytics, and IoT
applications in addition to an increasingly broad portfolio of turn-key AI
applications. The core of the C3.ai offering is a revolutionary, model-driven
AI architecture that dramatically enhances data science and application
development. Learn more at: www.c3.ai.
