Press release: Innovative services for artificial intelligence

No. 158 - 04.11.2022

New joint project – AI service centre for sensitive and critical infrastructures

The increased demands of research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), continuously more powerful hardware, and the increasing availability of data and algorithms have led to enormous progress in the context of AI. In order to further focus this process for critical infrastructures, especially in the fields of energy and medicine, and to be a competent contact in the future, five institutions from the centre of Germany are researching how an AI service centre can be established. The joint project "AI Service Centre for Sensitive and Critical Infrastructures (KISSKI)," led by the University of Göttingen, has been funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research with 17 million euros over a period of three years.

The project partners are the Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH Göttingen (GWDG), the Leibnitz Universität Hannover, aQua - Institut für angewandte Qualitätsförderung und Forschung im Gesundheitswesen GmbH in Göttingen, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology in Kassel. The goal is to establish a service centre for AI that will offer a range of user-centred services and conduct supporting research.

Research will focus on the fields of medicine and energy because, as critical infrastructures, these have special requirements for the secure handling of sensitive data. The collaborative project also plans to conduct pilot projects, for example with small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups, to test and validate the services developed.

Fifteen scientists from the University of Göttingen, the University Medical Center Göttingen and the Campus Institute for Data Science (CIDAS) are involved in the collaborative project. They are exploring a multi-layered service offering from infrastructure provision to the development and provision of suitable models and data, which could be described in modern terms as "AI-as-a-Service." In the project, the University will receive extensive funding for the core technical infrastructure of KISSKI, consisting of a cluster of GPU systems and various innovative architectures.

The joint project is coordinated by Professor Julian Kunkel from the Institute of Computer Science at Göttingen University. He is also the GWDG's Deputy Director for high-performance computing. "I am very pleased that KISSKI will enable us to contribute to addressing the challenges in AI," he says. "I'm convinced that the project's open service offering will be a springboard, leading to more successful projects for us and our partners."

"The funding of KISSKI is further evidence of outstanding research and excellent research infrastructure in Göttingen and offers us a unique opportunity to further develop the location," says a delighted Professor Metin Tolan, President of Göttingen University.

Contact:

Professor Julian Kunkel

University of Göttingen

Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science

Institute for Computer Science

Tel: +49 (0)551 39-30144

Email: julian.kunkel@gwdg.de