Representatives from Unicamp, Fapesp (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) and partner companies signed, on the afternoon of this Tuesday (10), the agreement that establishes the conditions for the execution of the Intelligence Research Center project Artificial – Brazilian Institute of Data Science (BI0S).
BI0S will have resources of around R$10 million, to be made available over a period of five years. Half of this amount will come from Fapesp, and the other part will be financed by private institutions, such as the Albert Einstein Hospital, in São Paulo, the Foundation for Technological Innovations (FITec) and the CPQD Foundation.
The Center will be based at Unicamp's Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Feec) and will be led by the University's Vice-Rector of Research, João Marcos Travassos Romano.
BI0S will focus on research in the areas of medical diagnostics aimed at women's health, precision agriculture and optimization of the use of agricultural resources, data science — an area that studies how to treat, analyze and obtain information from data sets , often large —, among others. In addition, it must create a data repository specifically focused on health using patients' medical history — a system already called reBI0S.
“BI0S has great potential for generating value around these themes”, said João Romano, during the signing of the agreement. “With this, we hope to contribute very effectively to this ecosystem that is being formed in the surrounding area, which includes training activities, research and partnerships with companies, public authorities and the generation of startups”, he added. “This vocation is in the Center’s DNA”, defines the pro-rector.
The dean of Unicamp, professor Antonio José de Almeida Meirelles, recalled the importance of a research center like BI0S. “We are convinced that the development of a society depends on science and technology,” he said.
The president of CPQD, Sebastião Sahão, said it was inspiring to be alongside Unicamp on a project of this scale. “A project that will contribute to reducing inequality and improving the population’s quality of life, bringing values of sustainability and equity,” he stated. “I was surprised by the size and dimension of the project”, declared the researcher from FITec Jorge Moreira de Souza.
The CPA has the involvement of around 100 researchers and has an international advisory committee of 15 members from different continents, all experts in artificial intelligence or related areas. The system will mobilize nine teaching and research units and two interdisciplinary centers at Unicamp, in addition to five other Brazilian institutions — the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA), the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the University of São Paulo (USP), the Federal University of ABC (UFABC) and the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam).
According to the neurologist at Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Brasileira Hospital Albert Einstein Edson Amaro Junior, the Center has become an integrated system for generating knowledge. The CEO of Templo CC, Herman Bessler, stated that Artificial Intelligence has gained a proportion of the market never seen before, with a huge impact on society, and that the Center's objective is to bring innovation to the market and, consequently, to people.
Included in a selection promoted by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), Fapesp and the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br), the Center for Applied Research (CPA) in Artificial Intelligence BI0S (Brazilian Institute of Data Science) went into formal operation at Unicamp on November 28 last year.
