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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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."
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.
At The Next Web conference, Smart Health Amsterdam hosted a range of startups to present their healthcare innovations. This was backed by a roundtable diving deep into the best practices when scaling your Health/AI business. The panellists from PacMed, Breathomix and Philips Ventures shared insights on how to reach the next level. Key takeaways: partner with larger organisations and be aware that “loopholes can be dangerous for both ethics and the effectivity of your AI”.
