Mission
A better community through harnessing the power of data intelligence
Vision
To create community good via data science and artificial intelligence.
The Data Intelligence group of ClujIT consolidates the potential of Cluj’s software and innovation companies to design and deliver succesful AI solutions wich bring a positive effect to the regional socio-economic life.
Created at the end of 2019, our group has close to 20 member companies from various industries and of different sizes – from product startups to established IT service delivery providers. For more information about our vision and objectives we encourage you to access Data Intelligence – Workgroup Initiation Proposal.
NEWS AND UPCOMING EVENTS
TOWARDS A ROMANIAN STRATEGY FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
UNDERSTANDING THE STATUS QUO
The disruptive effect of Artificial Intelligence for the society and economy is already acknowledged by major geopolitical players such as US, EU or China. Each of them have already devised strategies to capitalize on the massive opportunities (and even risks) generated by this disruption and aim to acquire the competitive dominance in the decades to come.
For us, Romanians, there is also a very important question: where does Romania stand in regards with this massive change? Thus, we foresee a series of critical questions in regards with Romania:
- Can Romania become a creator of value through AI or it will acquire at most a (hopefully discerning) consumer status? Do we have the necessary mindset and talent to thrive once the change sets in?
- How is AI going to change the Romanian workforce market and relations? Are we really prepared for AI dominated workspace or we just think we are? Do Romanians perceive AI as a workplace threat or as a workplace opportunity?
- How is AI going to impact our rights and our privacy? Will we be legally protected against malicious use of AI (such as privacy invasion, deep fakes or behavioral exploitation)? Is Romanian legislative body really prepared to establish a regulatory framework adapted to a society and economy which is data driven and heavily infused with AI?
Let’s find out more in the report created by Intertechnica in close consultation with the Data Intelligence Group of Cluj IT: Towards a Romanian AI Strategy .
TRANSYLVANIA NEWS – NEW LITERACY SERIES
AI – CASE STUDIES AND ETHICAL ASPECTS
As a follow up to the first episode of the AI dissemination series, the second episode was focused on exploring the ethical aspects associated to AI and several use cases. We have addressed several important topics as follows:
- What is Algorithmic Discrimination and how can we minimize its impact;
- AI as a force multiplier for agents – from activists to 5-th generation warfare;
- The opportunities and challenges of Artificial Intelligence in business and social development;
- The perpetual race between technological progress and lawðics in society.
A record of this episode can be found here (Romanian language): Noua Alfabetizare: Inteligența Artificială – studii de caz și aspecte etice .
TRANSYLVANIA NEWS – NEW LITERACY SERIES
DISSEMINATING BASIC AI CONCEPTS FOR SOCIETY
One of the major objective of Cluj IT in general and Data Intelligence Workgroup in particular is the dissemination of Artificial Intelligence concepts for the general audience. Part of our efforts in this direction is the collaboration between the Cluj IT and Transilvania News focused on democratization of Artificial Intelligence for the general public.
The first episode on this series was performed on 26th May 2021 and was focused on the basic understanding of Artificial Intelligence concepts such as:
- What is and is not Artificial Intelligence;
- The impact of Artificial Intelligence in the life of a person;
- The opportunities and challenges of Artificial Intelligence in business and social development.
A record of this episode can be found here (Romanian language): Noua Alfabetizare: Cluj, un HUB al inteligenței artificiale în România .
CLUJ INNOVATION DAYS 2021
DATA INTELLIGENCE AND AI INVOLVED AT THE TOP LEVELS OF SMART CITIES
Artificial Intelligence is one of the key factors in shaping the future solutions for the major challenges faced by humanity. The role of AI in solving global challenges is recognized by UNESCO as well:
Business as usual in the global economy is clearly not working – and we need to find ways to make exponential progress in addressing environmental challenges including climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution management. Big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation can play important roles to ensure environmental sustainability and sustainable development.
We have dedicated an entire panel to discuss and disseminate the information related to AI utilization for Smart Cities – along with three major Romanian universities: Babes Bolyai University of Cluj Napoca, Technical University of Cluj Napoca and Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu.
A record of this panel can be found here: CID2021 Data Intelligence and AI involved at the top levels of Smart Cities .
CLUJ INNOVATION DAYS 2021
AI POWERED INNOVATION IN THE DIGITAL ERA
The AI driven innovation is a key driver in the today’s hypercompetitive landscape. This is recognized by OECD as well:
Data-driven innovation forms a key pillar in 21st century sources of growth. The confluence of several trends, including the increasing migration of socio-economic activities to the Internet and the decline in the cost of data collection, storage and processing, are leading to the generation and use of huge volumes of data – commonly referred to as “big data”. These large data sets are becoming a core asset in the economy, fostering new industries, processes and products and creating significant competitive advantages.
I had the honor to moderate a panel dedicated to the AI driven innovation, part of the Cluj Innovation Days 2021 event. The panel was dedicate to two major axes: green (eco-friendly) artifical intelligence and intelectual property concerns for AI driven discoveries.
A recording of this panel can be found here: CID2021 AI powered innovation in the digital era .
EUH4D DATA FORUM 2021
EUH4D Data Forum is as an annual event to be held within the framework of the EUH4D project.
It is created with the aim of raising awareness, sharing results and recommendations, and receiving contributions on strategies and policies from the European Commission around data. The event was held on Tuesday, March 30, 2021 in online format with the participation of different experts in the field of European Big Data.
Cluj IT was represented by Marin Iuga, representing the European Digital SME Alliance organization as well. The main topic addressed by us in this forum was the challenges faced by the SMEs in the European AI business domain.
A copy of the presentation can be found here: EUHUBS4Data Forum 2021 – Business Challenges.
CAPABILITIES
The Data Intelligence working group has strong capabilities to deliver machine learning/AI solutions on a various platforms and technologies. The cumulative knowledge and delivery capabilities of the members makes the Data Intelligence group a powerful AI innovation and delivery organization.
ENTERPRISE PLATFORMS
AMAZON WEB SERVICES
MICROSOFT AZURE
GOOGLE AI
MAINSTREAM AI/MACHINE LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES
TENSORFLOW
PYTORCH
OPENCV
SCKITLEARN
SCIPY
XGBOOST
PANDAS
NUMPY
MATPLOTLIB
COMPANIES
UNIVERSITIES
CONSULTATION ON EUROPEAN DATA ACT
Recognizing the impact of data driven economy by the EU is now a certainty. Data is recognized now as an essential resource similar to energy or food – thus ensuring a proper governance. Access to data is considered to generated between 1-2.5% of EU GDP, a value estimated to 7-11 billion EUR by 2028 (savings of 1.3 trillion EUR in manufacturing and 120 billion EUR in the medical sector).
Our work group has issued a position paper with amendments which can further improve this proposal, find it at ClujiIT Data Intelligence Consultation on Data GovernanceAct Position Paper .
Sibiu Innovation Days – AI Speakers
The first edition of Sibiu Innovation Days is co-organized by University Lucian Blaga in Sibiu, (through Hasso-Plattner Knowledge Transfer Institute) and by Cluj IT Cluster and will be held during November 26th and 27th, in conjunction with the “The Researchers Night 2020”.
The Cluj IT cluster was represented by AI speakers designated from the members of the Data Intelligence group, with subjects related to Deep Learning in Computer Vision and disruption in the management processes due to embedding data driven decisions processes.
CID 2020 – ADOPTING AI FOR SOCIETY AND BUSINESS PANEL
The combined effect of digital transformation, COVID-19 pandemic and automation creates a ripple of changes throughout the entire global society. All these factors are catalysts for large scale adoption of AI at various strata of the society: from policy makers and strategic decision makers to SMEs and individuals. Whomever will be able to survive and thrive through this disruption – will be one of the dominant players of the years to come.
The panel”Adopting AI for society and business”, which we had the honor to moderate, addressed this topic from the perspective of an EU policy maker, a manager and a scientist: ms. Annika Linck – EU Policy Manager at Digital SME Alliance, mr. Iustinian Sovrea – CEO at jPard and mr. Razvan Florian – CEO at RIST.
We would like to share the presentations as well:
ms. Annika Linck: Challenges of AI uptake in Europe from the perspective of SMEs
mr. Iustinian Sovrea: Management without managers in the AI Era
Finally we would like to offer our thanks to the speakers and to our audience as well!
CID 2020 – RE-IMAGINING WORK IN TIMES OF AI PANEL
We all know that there are great expectations on the society in regards with how AI will disrupt the workplace. Whether these expectations represent optimism or apprehension – they are definitely shaping the social mindset and the landscape of work in the years to come.
This was the topic of the panel “Re-imagining work in times of AI”, a panel which we had the honor to moderate along with one of the best selection of speakers: prof. Gerard de Melo from Hasso Plattner Institute – University of Potsdam, mr. Radu Orghidan – VP Cognitive Computing at Endava and mr. Ovidiu Ortan – Director Projects at Emerson.
We would like to share the presentations as well:
prof. Gerard de Melo: Putting AI to Work – How AI is Disrupting the Workplace
mr. Radu Orghidan: NFL When Reshaping Work Using Augmented Intelligence System
mr. Ovidiu Ortan: The role of human workforce in the digital plant of the future
Finally we would like to offer our thanks to the speakers and to our audience as well!
MACHINE LEARNING CHALLENGES FOR MEDICINE
Part of the ACAMED (Academy of young entrepreneurs&researchers in Medicine) European project activities, this event was focused on providing a fast track on AI and Machine Learning, on the main start-ups/vendors using AI in healthcare and on the legal, moral and social challenges of AI. The presentation was held by Marin Iuga from Intertechnica to more than 20 PhD students and researchers.
The audience was formed of researchers from Cluj Napoca’s Medical University, Oncological Institute, and University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine.
Access the presentation as follows: Machine Learning Challenges For Medicine .
CONSULTATION ON EUROPEAN AI PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES
Under the umbrella of the European DIGITAL SME Alliance we have contributed with the group’s opinions and experience on topics related to AI security, fairness and ways to ensure AI adoption at European Level. These opinions were assembled on a common SME position at the European level. The documents we provided can be consulted as follows:
Consultation_on_the_White_Paper_on_Artificial_Intelligence_ClujIT_DataIntelligence
Access_to_data_Consultation_document_DIGITAL_SME_selected_questions_part_1_ClujIT_DataIntelligence
Access_to_data_Consultation_document_DIGITAL_SME_selected_questions_part_2_ClujIT_DataIntelligence
CONSOLIDATION OF DATA INTELLIGENCE GROUP CAPABILITIES
This project aimed at consolidating the group’s capabilities and interests. For a period of two months, the group members participated to a detailed survey and the responses were consolidated into a comprehensive Data Intelligence Group – CapabilitiesReport .
