Today, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and global technology company IBM are announcing a broad research partnership to explore quantum technology, pursue new technical developments and discuss the opportunities and risks that these technologies present for society.
With a rich legacy of working together, the expanded partnership will be aimed at collaborative research, talent development, and developing cutting-edge solutions that take advantage of the transformative potential of generative AI.
The announcement of this ambitious collaboration was made earlier in the year, reinforcing the drive to progress digital innovation. Areas of focus in R&D collaboration The focus of R&D areas of the collaboration will be on: “Digital Innovations for Services and Platforms; Artificial Intelligence (AI); and Human-Machine Collaboration.”
Central to the initiative is the founding of a tenure track professorship at KIT, which will be directly enabled by IBM. The Professorship is an essential part of developing academic research and offering state-of-the-art teaching in generative AI.
Professor Jan S. Hesthaven, President of KIT, reinforced the strategic significance of the cooperation, saying, “The strategic collaboration of KIT with IBM provides us with stronger tools to work on the opportunities and challenges of digitalization and artificial intelligence, and to develop joint solutions.
And with the development of digital innovations, we create an international competitive edge and also work to drive forward societal benefit to a great extent.”
In addition, students at KIT are to benefit directly from the cooperation in the form of new joint teaching formats within the framework of education in, for example, Industrial Engineering, Information Systems and Informatics.
This will afford them valuable exposure and experience to real-world problems, and help them build capabilities in this swiftly changing space.
“On both sides there is something for everyone – while IBM can benefit from the interdisciplinary expertise at KIT, the University will also included in innovation processes at the company,” explained Dr Carsten Holtmann, Head of IBM Customer Success with responsibility for AI research and cooperation with KIT.
“Collaborative innovations are great opportunities for showcasing strong local chips, for developing concrete assets in key technologies aro und (generative) AI, and for pushing forward application-led research. Also, excellence in science is one of the cornerstones in attracting students, researchers and industrial expertise.
This novel collaboration of KIT and IBM is a perfect match of academic excellence and industrial competence. Jointly leveraging KIT’s world leading research, supported by IBM’s state of the art AI solutions and global presence, this alliance will make significant advancements in pushing the boundaries of generative AI and how it can be applied across multiple industries.
It also highlights shared commitment to developing the next generation of AI experts and sparking growth in an innovative ecosystem.
