Minister KTR launches INAI projects

INAI is an initiative to apply AI to population scale problems in the Indian context, combining research and translation. This collaborative effort, championed by Intel and catalyzed by the Government of Telangana, is anchored at IIITH. INAI leverages the broader computing strengths and expertise in AI at IIITH, the technology leadership and architecture strength of Intel, and the activities of iHUB-Data. iHUB-Data @ IIIT-Hyderabad is one the 25 TIHs (Technology Incubation Hubs) established by DST under NM-ICPS program. Key focus is on Data Driven Technologies & Solutions.

Shri. K T Rama Rao, Hon’ble Minister for IT, Industries, Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Government of Telangana launched the following projects on campus:

Project iRASTE Telangana:

Project iRASTE (intelligent Solutions for Road Safety through Technology and Engineering) Telangana uses AI & ADAS solutions that will act as a force multiplier and transform Road Safety. This is in collaboration with INAI, IIITH, Intel, TSRTC and Uber. Predictive insights generated via AI can prevent accidents even before they happen. TSRTC vehicles that ply on the highways are the target fleet for this project with Uber’s Road Safety Initiatives expertise.

Govt. of India (GoI) is driving the vision of 50 percent reduction in road fatalities on Indian Roads by 2030. Technology can act as a force multiplier in addressing the problems of road safety and mobility enhancement on India’s roads. Artificial Intelligence (AI) based solutions have shown remarkable results worldwide in enabling safer Mobility and Transportation systems.

Bodhyaan Car Platform

Bodhyaan is the car data capture platform set up at IIIT-Hyderabad with multiple sensors – cameras, LIDARs, night-vision cameras, RADARs, including the required computational power to capture and process real-time data on the car. Bodhyaan 1.0 is presently equipped with 6 cameras for a full surround view, a LIDAR sensor and high compute for data capture and processing. Researchers, academics, and start-ups in India, can use this platform to test algorithms or methods in vehicle navigation, data collection, or anything related to Indian roads and research.

Micro-labs:

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the strength of Genomics in knowing the virus, variants linked to disease outcome and genomic surveillance. Current Genomic Surveillance initiatives send samples to Central Labs that have challenges with turnaround time and logistics. Pathogen sequencing capability closer to the sample collection point will address these challenges. MicroLabs [Next generation sequencing for pandemic preparedness], setup at IIIT Hyderabad in collaboration with CSIR-IGIB, is a solution approach to address the above questions. This solution brings genomic surveillance for communicable diseases to Point of Care (POC).

MicroLabs will work toward Broad Genomic surveillance of CDs – Real time dashboards/heatmaps for health officers, complementary to current IDSP, cover all districts in Telangana and expand to Pan-India (In partnership with CSIR-IGIB); develop cost effective (order of magnitude) diagnostics; become the diagnostic gold standard and the datasets can be used for drug & vaccine repurposing.

Speaking at the occasion Sri K T Rama Rao said, IIIT Hyderabad built great academic strength in broad AI areas through its Kohli Centre on Intelligent Systems. We are keen to apply that to population-scale problems that can impact everyone. We teamed up with Intel and the Government of Telangana to create INAI in 2020. IHub-Data was established by DST at IIITH later that year. These entities join forces on three projects in healthcare and transportation areas that are being launched today. The car platform can be used by the research and start up community to collect data on Indian roads to build vehicle safety soulutions for India. Micro-Labs in collaboration with several health-care establishments will provide the country with advanced disease surveillance. iRASTE will help immensely with road safety with specific context to Telangana

Commenting on the launch, Nivruti Rai, Country Head, Intel India and Vice President, Intel Foundry Services said, “INAI was launched as collaborative effort between Intel, Govt. of Telangana & IIITH to apply AI to population scale problems in the Indian context, with a focus on identifying and solving challenges in the healthcare and smart mobility segments. I am excited to be part of the launch today of three major projects that target Road Safety, Enhanced datasets & Genomic Surveillance with multiple ecosystem partners. We expect these projects to make a major impact on the ground in Telangana”.