The University of Edinburgh says the launch of the Quantum and AI Centre of Excellence follows several years of close collaboration.
Professor Jane Hillston FRS (pictured), head of the School of Informatics, said: “Over the last five years we have developed an extremely successful partnership, with potential benefits across a wide range of applications. Software now touches most areas of daily life and it is essential that we maintain our research efforts to ensure that the software developed and deployed is of the highest standards.”
Dr Chris Heunen, reader in quantum informatics at the school of informatics, said: “Our aim is to combine our collective strengths to help shape the development of software technologies to benefit our economy and society as a whole.”
Edinburgh and Cisco formed a partnership in 2019 to accelerate innovation by supporting 20 start-ups through the university’s AI Accelerator Programme.
The centre will fund research projects over the next five years to deliver leading-edge software solutions. The School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, is the UK’s oldest academic AI research centre, and this year celebrates 60 years of AI and computer science research.
The university and Cisco have worked together since 2017 on a number of projects in areas such as speech technologies, legal implications of artificial intelligence, network traffic analysis and quantum programming languages.
Heunen, leader of the new centre, is supported by Michael Rovatsos, professor of artificial intelligence.
