Economy Minister Gordon Lyons has announced that Queen’s University Belfast and NVIDIA will invest £5.4million in a joint Research and Development (R&D) project with the aim to accelerate artificial intelligence, machine learning and cyber security research in Northern Ireland.
Part of the project will be funded through a £1.7million R&D grant by Invest Northern Ireland.
NVIDIA’s Belfast office will become a research hub for advanced network intelligence, with 10 new highly skilled engineering and research roles being created.
Making the announcement, the Minister said: “Northern Ireland is enjoying a growing international reputation as a region with expertise in cyber security. This research and development project will enhance this reputation by making a significant contribution to the next generation of cloud communications infrastructure,”
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Mr. Lyons also added: “Collaboration between industry and academia is an important driver of innovation and growth in technology and I’m pleased to see this partnership between Queen’s University Belfast and NVIDIA. Investments like this are supporting my department’s 10X Economic Vision and positioning Northern Ireland on the global innovation map amongst the best small economies.”
NVIDIA graphics processing units, or GPUs, have redefined modern computer graphics, high performance computing and artificial intelligence. This new research and development project will include efforts to develop additional innovative functionality on NVIDIA’s next-generation data processing units, or DPUs.
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Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast, Professor Ian Greer, said: “The allocation of this funding will have a hugely positive impact on the cyber security sector, both locally and globally. At Queen’s, we are very proud of the work that takes place through our Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology and are looking forward to further developing cutting-edge research through the Global Innovation Institute.”
Invest NI’s R&D support is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the Investment for Growth and Jobs Northern Ireland (2014-2020) Programme. Invest NI is committed to driving innovation in Northern Ireland and is a proud partner of Innovate NI, a Department for the Economy programme, helping local businesses innovate successfully. For further information, visit www.innovateni.com
Source: Written from press release.
