IIIT Hyderabad partners with Intel and PHFI to set up AI research centre focusing on road safety, health

Chip-making giant Intel on Monday said its newly launched applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) research centre in Hyderabad will focus on identifying and solving challenges in the healthcare and smart mobility segments through strong ecosystem collaboration. Launched in collaboration with the Telangana government, International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad (IIIT-H) and Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), the new centre called INAI is an initiative to apply AI to population scale problems in the Indian context, Intel said at the inaugural all.ai 2020 virtual summit.

Anchored at IIIT-H, PHFI is the founding healthcare partner in this initiative. "The launch of INAI, the Applied AI Research Center in Hyderabad, is a key milestone in our digitalisation journey," Telangana IT Minister K. T. Rama Rao said in a statement. Intel said INAI will act as a catalyst to accelerate India's leadership in AI by driving innovation and entrepreneurship, creating national assets such as curated datasets, computing infrastructure, tools and frameworks with the aim to attract global talent for high impact research towards social sector development.

INAI will leverage the broader computing strengths and academic expertise of IIIT-H, the technology and architecture strength of Intel, the public health expertise of PHFI, as well as expertise from other domain and technology players to drive targeted outcomes in technology innovation, entrepreneurship development, job creation and international collaboration.

"Our aspiration is to make AI synonymous with India as we strive to achieve the true potential of AI in critical segments like healthcare, smart mobility and the future of work by advancing innovation, research, technology and skilling," said Nivruti Rai, Country Head, Intel India and Vice President, Data Platforms Group, Intel Corporation. In the smart mobility domain, INAI will advance research in the area of road safety with the aim of using AI to reduce road accidents and fatalities in the country. In the area of public health, the centre will work to enable solutions to extend health coverage to every individual and advance research for better prediction of non-communicable diseases, Intel said.