The official launch of the AUAS Expertise Center Applied AI took place on Thursday 5 November. With this, the university of applied sciences invests in the development of research and education of applied AI within all domains and disciplines. Nina Tellegen, director of the Board, was present at the opening: "Not everyone needs to become an AI expert, but you should all know much better what AI actually does and what it means to you."
With the opening of the VU Campus Centre for AI & Health, another piece of Amsterdam’s wildly ambitious ‘AI Technology for People’ initiative falls into place. The online launch event highlighted how a diversity of specialists is required to bring a people-centric artificial intelligence to healthcare.
All the medical insights and life-saving procedures we know are based on years of research with patients in front of us. We now have a unique opportunity to greatly accelerate medical research if we use health data in a sensible, safe, and ethical way. Jeroen Maas, Challenge Lead Health at the Amsterdam Economic Board, works with partners from the Amsterdam Coalition on the responsible use of this data and the acceleration of sensible AI applications within the health field.
The cooperating authorities in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and the Amsterdam Economic Board have taken an important step towards the ambition to make their procurement circular in steps from 2020. During the second MRA Sustainability Top, 'guidelines' were presented for the circular procurement of three packages: asphalt and concrete, catering and office furnishings.
30 parties in the fashion and textile industry, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the municipalities of Amsterdam & Zaanstad, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and the Amsterdam Economic Board will sign the Denim Deal on October 29. The agreement contains agreements to make the denim textile chain more sustainable. It is the first time that all parties have joined forces to achieve cleaner denim garments such as production companies, brands and shops, but also collectors, sorters, cutters and weavers.
The Royal Schiphol Group LEAP pilot yielded energy savings of 10 to 13 percent with an astonishingly little effort. 'It is mainly a matter of checking your settings again and ensuring that your servers are running when they really have to deliver performance. The fear that this will affect your performance is unjustified ', says Mark Spronk of Schiphol.
Computers, laptops and monitors have a huge impact on the environment. The potential for smarter and circular solutions is great, but underutilized. Circular procurement can be an important tool to change this.
The service technician emission-free into the city: the idea is great, but how does that turn out in practice? The Board is investigating this together with the AUAS and a number of companies in the Service Logistics via Hubs project. The first results are very promising. "It was not really difficult to convince the management."
This September, the 20 partners of Amsterdam Smart City came together to present the progress of innovation projects, ask for input, share dilemmas and involve other partners in their initiatives. Following the thought that nobody wants to live in a smart city but in a nice, friendly, cosy city we work on challenges in which people play a central role. These gatherings are called Demo days and occur every 8-10 weeks. Get a quick overview of the topics and projects about to happen in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and let us know if you want to be involved!
To highlight the importance of AI to a broader public, the Amsterdam coalition ‘AI technology for people’ has published a special AI edition in the October issue of the popular science magazine New Scientist. The special edition showcases some of the research, teaching and innovation in AI being carried out across the Amsterdam region.
