Research group at imec & Vrije Universiteit Brussel

News

FARI, new initiative on AI for the common good

What is FARI?

FARI is an independent, not-for-profit Artificial Intelligence initiative led by two universities in Brussels: the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). This initiative will aim at helping citizens, politicians, and companies as well as not-for-profit organizations to address local, every day, or long-term challenges in the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium, and Europe. It brings world-leading and future researchers to the service of the city. It reinforces a virtuous circle: the city encounters problems that FARI can help address with projects that in their turn could lead to major scientific advances, especially in the field of AI (Explainable and Trustworthy), Data (Open), and Robotics (human-centric).

 

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF SMIT?

SMIT is one of the core partners of FARI as it is within SMIT’s mission to make technologies societal proof. Within FARI different SMIT team members will contribute their expertise on Ethical and Trustworthy Data & AI, Human-Robotic interaction and acceptance as well as on (open) data-governance and business modeling. From its role within the AI Xperience Centre SMIT also acts as one of the partners to set up testing environments and living labs.

The first project wherein SMIT contributed is the development of a smart cockpit as a decision support system for the vaccination strategy and plans of the Brussels-Capital Region. SMIT not only helped to identify the goals and objectives of this cockpit but also mapped the specific requirements of such a tool and determined the relevant building blocks to make the system trustworthy.

 

More information?

For more detailed information about FARI, please visit their website at http://fari.brussels/.

 

[Photo by Stephanie LeBlanc on Unsplash]