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Bukalapak, ITB launch AI, cloud computing innovation center
The center provides access to hardware and big data to the academic community.
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A new research center for artificial intelligence and cloud computing has been launched. (Shutterstock/Willyam Bradberry)
T
echnology, Research and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir on Friday led the launch of the Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing Innovation Center at Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), a collaborative project between startup unicorn Bukalapak and ITB.
The research laboratory is located at the School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics compound and is expected to be the center of research for students, lecturers and Indonesian researchers who study artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Bukalapak CEO Achmad Zaky, an ITB alumnus, claimed that there were only a few artificial intelligence experts in Indonesia.
“This is a challenge for all of us. [We have] to create experts on technology especially on artificial intelligence who will contribute to [the advancement of] Indonesia,” he said.
“We provide the place, facilities and data for research purposes. We also provide internet servers [..] and access to 200 engineers working for the Bukalapak Research and Development division located not far from the center who will guide the students,” he added.
Bukalapak spokeswoman Evi Andarini said the data, which was provided as a grant, was highly valuable for artificial intelligence research.
“Even a sample of less than 0.1 percent of our petabyte-scale data warehouse will be a mountain of valuable data that we hope can accelerate the AI research in Indonesia on areas such as natural language understanding, computer vision and deep learning,” she said.
Minister Mohamad Nasir said he was confident that the collaborative project would produce innovative outcomes in the information and technology field.
“The goal is to create innovation that will have a positive impact on the economy,” he said.
Nasir noted that Bukalapak, a popular e-commerce platform, could also offer its know-how, which will complement in-class theory and lectures for students. (swd)
