Nvidia to further develop future AI talents in Singapore
By Chong Jinn Xiung October 26, 2017
- To collaborate with EDB and NSCC to help advance Singapore’s AI agenda
- To provide hardware, knowledge expertise to train the next generation of AI talents
NVIDIA Corporation announced a partnership with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) to develop and train a new generation of talents specialising in Artificial Intelligence (AI) during its recently concluded Nvidia AI conference in Singapore.
In line with Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative, the EDB - Nvidia Future Talents Programme will see a total of 30 postgraduate scholarships will be awarded to Singaporean citizens or permanent residents to study neural networks, machine learning and architecture development for graphics processing units (GPU).
Under the programme, this will see Nvidia mentor the Masters and PhD candidates of Singaporean universities to develop AI skills that address industry-specific needs.
EDB managing director Chng Kai Fong (pic, above) said: “EDB’s goal is to grow a strong AI ecosystem across the entire value chain from research, hardware, software and services.”
Acting the perfect testbed for AI implementation would be for nought if the workforce is not prepared, hence Chng encouraged the workforce of tomorrow to be equipped with the skill to tap into the benefits of AI.
That is in line with the EDB-Nvidia Future Talents Programme that aims to aid Singapore to build the next generation of AI talent for the country’s electronics ecosystem and strengthen the nation’s position as hub for AI development and adoption.
Nvidia also revealed it will establish an AI Lab at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) to coincide with the Future Talents Programme.
“Our GPUs are transforming industries across the world and we believe that we can help Singapore transform and advance with deep learning. The scholarships and establishment of the AI Lab show Nvidia’s hopes to nurture AI talent to accelerate Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative,” said Nvidia’s vice president of APAC sales and marketing Raymond Teh.
Nvidia also signed an agreement with Singapore’s National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) to establish a platform called AI.Platform@NSCC to support AI Singapore (AISG), a Singaporean national programme to drive AI adoption, research and innovation.
The AI.Platform@NSCC is described as a “makerspace” environment that aims to share resources and facilities to bolster the AI ecosystem in Singapore while maximising community interaction and collaboration.
AISG said it aims to deliver 100 AI projects and proofs of concept to solve real-world problems. It hopes to inspire both the research community and end users from the industry to address major societal challenges that are not only relevant for Singapore but also the world.
Under the platform, it provides AI training, technical expertise and computing services to all Singapore-based research and tertiary institutions including the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore University of Design and Technology (SUTD), Singapore Management University (SMU) as well as research institutions in the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).
It is said that the platform will be launched by early next year and will be located at NSCC’s Data Centre in Connexis Building, Fusionopolis.
The training and research centre is said to be equipped with six Nvidia DGX-1 deep learning supercomputers, packed with 48 Nvidia Tesla V100 GPUs that offer six Tensor petaflops of AI computing power, that is claimed to allow researchers to reduce the time to train larger and more sophisticated deep neural networks to meet the computing demands of AISG.
NSCC’s Professor Tan Tin Wee said the centre will tap on Nvidia’s expertise to fully integrate AI machines with NSCC’s current petascale supercomputer ASPIRE 1.
The agreement between Nvidia and NSCC will also see the provision of intensive deep learning training for at least 400 persons through Nvidia’s Deep Learning Institute (DLI).
Though self-paced labs and instructor-led workshops, DLI is said to provide training on the latest techniques for designing, training and deploying neural networks for developers, data scientists and researchers.
Nvidia’s Teh added that the establishment of the shared facility gives Singapore a powerful platform for their AI projects and innovations in areas such as intelligent video analytics, natural language processing, genomics, life sciences and cyber-security.
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