Tech Intelligence Bulletin (HG Insights) – SAS has become a tier one partner with the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), a network of world-leading research and innovation centers working with manufacturing companies of all sizes from around the globe. The parties will work together to identify specific pain areas in the manufacturing industry and seek to solve those business problems using SAS software, and methods and principles of advanced analytics. The AMRC aims to transform industrial and economic performance by making step changes in productivity, increasing competitiveness, developing new products and processes and training new talent and skills. It is made up of more than 125 member organizations, ranging from global giants to SMEs offering specialist equipment and services. Like other industries, manufacturing is seeing a drive towards digital transformation, thanks to more and more data being generated more quickly than ever before, greater connectivity, greater compute power and the ability to extract actionable insights from this data using analytics.

Tech Intelligence Bulletin (HG Insights) – Cognizant has been selected by Network Rail, Britain's principal rail infrastructure owner, to lead a new consortium tasked with delivering data-driven operations as part of a comprehensive Intelligent Infrastructure transformation program. Cognizant, in partnership with rail specialists Amey Consulting and Arup, has been awarded a five-year contract to design, build and operate digital capabilities based on artificial intelligence, internet of things, data analytics, and mobility technologies that will help improve Network Rail's asset management and overall performance. Cognizant will lead the consortium in developing and applying enhanced data collection and analytics to Network Rail's more than 12,000 connected assets, such as track circuits, signal power supplies, and switches. The new capabilities will equip Network Rail with real-time condition monitoring and data-driven insights, aided by artificial intelligence, to improve decision-making and asset management. Network Rail expects to lower costs and enhance safety by predicting and preventing maintenance issues, prioritizing work streams and minimizing the time rail workers spend on the tracks.

Tech Intelligence Bulletin (HG Insights) – Brown University is exploring concepts with Intel technology for an Intelligent Spine Interface project that aims to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to restore movement and bladder control for patients paralyzed by severe spinal cord injuries. During the two-year program, researchers will record motor and sensory signals from the spinal cord and use artificial neural networks to learn how to stimulate the post-injury site to communicate motor commands. Surgeons at Rhode Island Hospital near Brown University will implant electrode arrays on both ends of a patient's injury site, creating an intelligent bypass to eventually allow the severed nerves to communicate in real time. Researchers are considering Intel AI open source software such as nGraph and Intel AI accelerator hardware to meet the real-time requirements of this application. "As a Ph.D. student at Brown, I investigated how to interface the brain with machines as an application. Now at Intel, we're combining our AI expertise with Brown University's cutting-edge medical research to help solve a critical medical problem: how to reconnect the brain and spine after a major spinal injury," said Naveen Rao, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of the AI Products Group.