WEDNESDAY JUNE 12th – 9 companies who have been participating in the first ever Intel Edge AI incubator programme today shared an update of their progress at an open day event that brings to a close the first iteration of the programme which has been facilitated by Intel for the last 6 months at the Talent Garden campus in Dublin.
The Edge AI incubator programme, which is enabled by Intel, gave companies the opportunity to come onboard and participate in a structured programme of technical guidance and support centered on Intel Movidius technology.
Intel Movidius is transforming the future of computer vision and artificial intelligence to accelerate innovation for the next generation of smart and connected devices. Movidius is at the forefront of a new era of computing that enables new levels of intelligence for edge devices (cameras, drone, robots, etc.) by delivering low-power, high-performance SoC platforms in the area of computer vision.
Movidius was co-founded in Dublin in 2005 by David Moloney and Seán Mitchell and acquired by Intel in 2016. This acquisition brought with it algorithms tuned for deep learning inference, depth processing, navigation and mapping, and natural interactions, as well as broad expertise in embedded computer vision and machine intelligence. The Movidius Engineering team operates out of three primary locations in Ireland, Romania and North America. The Ireland team are based at the Leixlip campus and specialise in leading edge computer vision IP and hardware development.
The Edge AI Incubator programme provided a unique opportunity for the expertise and technology developed by the Intel Movidius team in Ireland to be married with a diverse group of companies seeking to integrate computer vision technology into their hardware solutions.
The Incubator programme was first announced in October 2018 and, after a fantastic response to the call for participants, a total of 9 companies were selected and have been working within the incubator since January of this year.
The technologies which the companies have been developing over the past 6 months are based on Myriad2 and MyriadX hardware and software from Intel, with the support of the local Intel team in Leixlip.
The Open Day event included an initial short round of presentations which was followed by the opportunity to see the technology first hand and talk to the founders. The Incubator programme has been housed at the Talent Garden co-working campus which is based at Dublin City University’s innovation campus, DCU Alpha.
Intel embarked on the Incubator programme to identify and enable a cohort of innovators who will develop new AI competencies and deep learning solutions. Speaking at the open day event, Noel Murphy, Vice President of Intel’s AIPG group and Director of Engineering, Intel Movidius, said “The incubator programme has been about taking technology being developed by Intel Movidius and using it to catalyse innovation which we hope will support Ireland in becoming a powerhouse for Edge AI – we are excited to support companies in developing leading edge technology and testing it in real world deployments. We are looking at how we can take the learnings of this first incubator programme and use it to inform further opportunities for technology innovation”.
Dr. Fiona Edwards, founder ApisProtect, one of the companies participating in the Incubator programme, reflected on the experience; “I was very anxious initially as I had no experience in deep learning. The Incubator programme gave us a wealth of knowledge and education on deep learning and much more. This information will help us to progress our application in the future”.
Micheal Brogan from RetroTek, another of the participant companies, spoke about their experience of the Incubator; “The programme gave us a fantastic introduction into AI technology which will be an essential grounding for future projects. I highly recommend this experience to other start-ups”.
Further information about the companies who participated in the Edge AI Incubator can be found in a profile article published by Silicon Republic.
Additional information about Intel is available at:
Web – intel.ie | Twitter – @Intel_IRL | Facebook – Intel Ireland
Media contact: Sarah Sexton | sarah.sexton@intel.com | + 353 1 606 8537