Country for PR: China
Contributor: PR Newswire Asia (China)
Monday, July 25 2022 - 13:06
AsiaNet
VisualCortex and University of Wollongong partner to drive computer vision innovation and industry - research collaboration
SYDNEY, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

-VisualCortex signs mutual non-disclosure agreement with the University of 
Wollongong's SMART Infrastructure Facility, joining the Hub for Artificial 
Intelligence of Things Solutions – an Australian government backed initiative 
supported by Telstra, Microsoft and NVIDIA

VisualCortex – the Video Intelligence Platform connecting computer vision's 
potential to real-world business outcomes – has partnered with the University 
of Wollongong (UOW), joining its research and development hub for Artificial 
Intelligence of Things (AIOT) Solutions.

Under the terms of the mutual non-disclosure agreement between VisualCortex and 
the UOW, the computer vision start-up and the university's SMART Infrastructure 
Facility will share exclusive research and software development capabilities to 
drive smart video analytics(https://visualcortex.com/solutions/) innovations, 
including machine learning (ML) models, learnings from real-world computer 
vision implementations, and local employment opportunities.

View the joint partnership video here: https://bit.ly/3RP9A82

As part of the partnership, VisualCortex has established a satellite office at 
UOW's Illawarra-based Innovation Campus — a technology precinct that fosters 
industry - research collaboration — and joins the Telstra-UOW Hub for AIOT 
Solutions. The hub is backed by a AUD$1.7 million government funding grant 
through the Strategic University Reform Fund (SURF); designed to establish 
Illawarra as a global leader in AIOT solutions for communities, enterprises and 
governments. The hub is also supported via collaboration with technology 
industry giants Telstra, Microsoft and NVIDIA. The initiative brings together 
over 30 experts from industry and academia, focusing on delivering globally 
applicable AIOT outcomes in smart transport, smart logistics, resilient 
infrastructure and intelligent manufacturing.

VisualCortex CEO and Co-Founder, Patrick Elliott, said that partnering with 
UOW's SMART Infrastructure Facility and AIOT solutions hub delivered practical 
outcomes in three main ways.

"UOW and SMART bring world-leading AI research capabilities to the fore, which 
have transformative potential within today's computer vision market," said 
Elliott. "Secondly, because SMART and the Telstra-UOW Hub for AIOT Solutions 
are mandated to apply academic rigour to real-world problems, they collaborate 
extremely well with industry and the public sector. The ability to work with 
PhD students and doctors of AI, and directly apply their research and skills to 
tangible computer vision challenges, is truly exciting.

"We have a very strong meeting of minds: We provide a Video Intelligence 
Platform(https://visualcortex.com/platform/), which enables academics to 
productionize ML models at scale and see their research make real-world change. 
At the same time, UOW provides outstanding academic expertise, industry 
relationships, and data governance. The marriage of the two – VisualCortex's 
enterprise-ready computer vision platform(https://visualcortex.com/platform/), 
coupled with UOW's ability to use that platform as a vehicle to deliver 
academic-produced ML models to industry – represents an ideal partnership. It's 
a win for everyone.

"Thirdly, the partnership provides a mutually beneficial avenue to industry for 
university researchers and students. To be successful and scale, VisualCortex 
needs access to a steady stream of the best available talent. For UOW, our 
partnership provides a clear employment pathway via VisualCortex's talent 
exchange, internship and graduate hiring programs."

UOW's SMART Infrastructure Facility specialises in applying data analytics, 
advanced simulation, Smart Cities technology and video analytics to core 
infrastructure challenges, including electricity, roads, rail urban growth and 
regional development.

"While SMART Infrastructure Facility's journey into smart video analytics is 
relatively recent, growth in effort and demand has been nearly exponential," 
said SMART Infrastructure Facility Director, Professor Pascal Perez. "So we 
know, based on its technology and the number of requests we're fielding, the 
market opportunity for VisualCortex is wide and broad.

"What VisualCortex is trying to do is brave: At the moment, most of the video 
analytics market develops around vertical integration; and bespoke – if not 
ad-hoc – solutions for specific sectors, or even sub-sectors. That means we're 
going to see a lot of redundancies in terms of the deployment of all these 
single-use-case computer vision tools(https://visualcortex.com/platform/) and 
the fees that end-users will have to pay. So, we need a transversal approach, 
which VisualCortex is bringing to bear with its industry-agnostic platform."

Perez echoed Elliott's comments, characterising the UOW - VisualCortex 
partnership as "a perfect marriage".

"We share the same approach to smart video analytics – we don't see one sector; 
we're interested in a transversal approach and the fundamentals behind the 
different use cases," said Perez. "At SMART, we're good at assessing new use 
cases for computer vision, optimising algorithms and wrapping them into a 
container. But, we need to push these new ML models into something for 
deployment, in order to be useful to industry. VisualCortex's Video 
Intelligence Platform provides that ideal something.

"It's the best of both worlds; and I really look forward to developing a strong 
partnership with VisualCortex in the years to come."

About VisualCortex

VisualCortex is making video data actionable in the enterprise. As the world's 
best Video Intelligence Platform, VisualCortex provides the stability and 
scalability to productionize computer vision technology for the first time. 
Unlike camera-side or point solutions, VisualCortex can be used for any video 
analytics use case in any industry. VisualCortex's production-ready cloud-based 
environment transforms video assets into analyzable streams of data at scale.

The VisualCortex platform delivers the artificial intelligence smarts, 
governance and usability, enabling organisations to connect any number of video 
streams, repositories and use existing commodity hardware. An intuitive user 
interface, out-of-the-box reporting, range of configurations and integrations 
empower non-technical people to produce, analyse and act on insights derived 
from computer vision throughout the enterprise. Organisations can easily 
combine these AI-generated video insights with other data sources and systems 
to facilitate both real-time operations and strategic analysis. The 
VisualCortex Model Store also provides a secure marketplace for customers, 
partners and independent machine learning experts to share quality controlled 
computer vision models. For more information, visit www.visualcortex.com

For regular updates, follow VisualCortex on Twitter 
(@VisualCortexApp)(https://twitter.com/VisualCortexApp), LinkedIn 
(VisualCortex)(https://au.linkedin.com/company/visualcortex), YouTube 
(VisualCortex)(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxB59JNwD8aURWC9WfDTt1A) and 
Facebook (@VisualCortexApp)(https://www.facebook.com/VisualCortexApp).

For regular industry news and analysis, subscribe to VisualCortex's mailing 
list here: https://visualcortex.com/contact-us/

About UOW, SMART Infrastructure Facility and the Telstra-UOW Hub for AIOT 
Solutions

SMART Infrastructure Facility is a research institution dedicated to helping 
governments and businesses better plan for the future. SMART's work is 
augmented by collaborations with experts across the University of Wollongong's 
(UOW) Faculties in infrastructure related fields such as energy generation and 
storage, water sustainability, environmental engineering, spatial geotechnics 
and social planning. SMART is involved in key international partnerships and 
collaborations addressing some of the big challenges in infrastructure.

The Telstra-UOW Hub for AIOT Solutions, will deliver innovative, cost-effective 
and fit-for-purpose AIOT solutions for communities, enterprises and 
governments. The Hub has been developed with the support of a $1.7 million 
Federal Government grant via the Strategic University Reform Fund (SURF) to 
give Australia traction in a fast-expanding global market, while using applied 
research to increase productivity and create jobs. Its focus is world-leading 
research in several AIOT technologies including smart video analytics, 
sensor-embedded edge computing for optimised data fusion and transmission, as 
well as digital industrial twin technology.

For further media information, interviews or images, please contact:

Lachlan James, VisualCortex Chief Marketing Officer, on +61(0)431-835-658 or 
lachlan.james@visualcortex.com
Benjamin Long, University of Wollongong Media and Public Relations Manager, 
+61(0)429-294-251 or benl@uow.edu.au

Source: VisualCortex

Image Attachments Links:

   Link: https://iop.asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=426107

Attachments
VisualCortex.png