Accelerat.ai: a new consortium to accelerate digital transformation in Portugal
INESC-ID has joined a wide ranging set of partners in Accelerat.ai — a new consortium whose goal is to accelerate the digital transformation of the public and private sectors in Portugal.
Representing an investment of 34.5 million euros supported by the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan (Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência, PRR), Accelerat.ai will be led by Defined.ai and include companies and research institutions as varied as INESC-ID, Instituto Superior Técnico, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, IBM, Microsoft or KPMG. Interested clients will include the banking sector (Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Novo Banco and Santander), the Portuguese Ministry of Health (e.g., the Portuguese National Health System, SNS), the Portuguese Ministry of Social Security, companies from the electricity and gas sectors (EDP and Galp), as well as other companies such as NOS, Worten and the insurance provider Fidelidade.
Accelerat.ai aims to improve and optimize customer support services across the Portuguese and European markets based on the development of a unique set of technological solutions that pair virtual assistants with contact centers in European Portuguese. On Accelerat.ai, Daniela Braga, founder of Defined.ai, commented that “Alone, we go faster, but together we go further, resulting from committed and motivated teamwork. It is with enthusiasm that I thank the team that has accompanied me in this great project and present in Portugal, the first virtual assistant 100% in my native language.”
Alberto Abad will lead INESC-ID’s participation in Accelerat.ai, a role that will mainly consist in investigating and exploring the capacity to mutually convert from speech to text and text to speech, also known as Automatic Speech Recognition and Speech Synthesis — a key component of Conversational AI. INESC-ID and IST will take responsibility for the development and derived research activities of the modules of the speech-to-speech conversational stack, particularly, those related with automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech for European languages, and very especially, European Portuguese. The impact of this research is expected to concentrate on promoting a faster deployment of new languages, more engaging and successful agents, as well as better acceptance by specific population groups.
Accelerat.ai is one of two Artificial Intelligence (AI)-related PRR-supported consortia that INESC-ID will be involved in. Have a read on that other AI PRR-supported ptoject, Responsible AI.
Upcoming Events
OLISSIPO Workshop: “How to design a graphical abstract” with Dr. Rita Félix (CNC-UC)
On April 19, the OLISSIPO project will host an 8-hour workshop titled “How to design a graphical abstract” with Dr. Rita Félix, a science communicator, illustrator and designer from CNC Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (Coimbra, Portugal). Registration is free and seating is limited.
Registration Deadline: April 5 | Register here (free but mandatory)
Date & Time: April 19, 09h00-18h00 ( 8-hours)
Where: INESC-ID, R. Alves Redol 9, 1000-029 Lisboa | Room 9 (Auditorium), Ground Floor
Summary: “How to design a graphical abstract” Workshop aims to explain what a graphical abstract is, and give you design tools and tips on how to create a better, clear and engaging graphical abstract. This workshop is tailored to give you tools and improve your graphical abstract, without having to learn how to use a new software program (like Adobe Illustrator). Bring your graphical abstract, share it with the class, work on it and take home a new version.
Short Bio: Rita Félix is a science communicator, illustrator and designer, with life sciences research experience. Currently working as the Institutional Communication Manager and Designer at CNC-UC. She completed her PhD in Neuroscience in 2020, in the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme. After that, she enrolled in a Digital Illustration Specialization Course to further develop her visualization and design skills. Worked as a Scientific Graphic Designer at Science Crunchers, a science communication company, where she developed multiple graphical abstracts, article figures, infographics, diagrams, illustrations, visual identity, logos and webdesign for companies, scientific institutions and Horizon 2020 consortia. More information at https://ritallfelix.wixsite.com/portfolio .
INESC-ID talk: “Rise of the AI-Empowered End User Software Engineer” by Ed Ayers and Andy Gordon (Cogna)
On April 19, INESC-ID will host a talk by Ed Ayers and Andy Gordon from the startup Cogna. The talk is titled “Rise of the AI-Empowered End User Software Engineer” and is organised by INESC-ID researcher Nuno Lopes.
Date & Time: April 19, 15h00 -16h00
Where: INESC-ID, Rua Alves Redol, 9, 1000-029 Lisboa | Room 9 (Auditorium), Ground Floor
Summary:
“What if natural language really is the new programming language? Inspired by the transformation of professional software engineering by generative AI, let’s take the next step: empowering end users. We can boost their productivity with hyper-customized software generated from natural language. This challenge needs research right across software engineering: requirements, architecture, coding, testing, verification, repair, and maintenance. We will survey current progress and open research questions in this exciting new area of programming language research.”
(Photo: Cogna website)