Overview of the topics of the series of round tables on AI

The Digital Society Institute located 11 AI-topics within the three main themes of Industry. Health and Energy. Click below on one of the themes of IndustryHealth and Energy to find an overview of these 11 topics. 

Click here to find the details about the first three sessions and their outcomes.

  • Industry

    Industrial Sustainability

    The session of Industry that was held was focussed on Industrial Sustainability. Find more information about this session that took place on the 1st of April

    Sustainability is one of the key challenges for industry in the future. Advancements in AI have provided manufacturing enterprises with better capabilities to forecast more accurately in terms of consumer demand, automate specific processes and improve control of production processes and systems in real time. Besides improving production output related performance indicators, those advancements also bear the potential of improving the utilization of energy and resources. This relates to e.g. data-based or simulation support methods towards improvement of production process but also to AI based alignment of energy and resource demand within companies and production networks.

    Predictive Maintenance

    Predictive maintenance is the process of optimizing asset maintenance plans through the prediction of asset failures with data driven techniques. By enabling predictive maintenance, billions of euros can be saved worldwide through the reduction of repair and upkeep costs and downtime. To achieve this, we need to harness the power of AI to create insights and detect patterns and anomalies that escape detection by the cognitive powers of even the most gifted humans.

    Manufacturing Robotics

    AI is one of the most widely adopted technologies in various industries, and the manufacturing sector is no exception. AI is making inroads in the manufacturing segment with AI Industrial Robotics. AI industrial robotics technology is seeing a wide application in the manufacturing sector for improving productivity and flexibility of standard industrial robots. Industrial automation has already transformed the manufacturing process, and AI-enabled robots are improving on automation’s impact with more efficient and seamless processes.

    Digital Twin for Production Optimization

    Digital twins, paired with advancements in AI, are increasingly valuable in transforming industrial operations and creating additional business value. With the use of more intelligent AI agents, it can prescribe actions in the physical world, so that companies can reconfigure, in real-time, with fact-driven choices, alternate processes to mitigate issues like plant downtime or bottlenecking.

    Drones for Inspection & Maintenance

    Oil rigs, chimneys or antennae – a company's large infrastructure assets are typically remote and difficult to survey. Drones can access hard-to-reach places faster, cheaper and with less risk to conduct inspection and one day perhaps also maintenance. With a drone’s ability to stay aloft nearly all day, improved computing capacity and AI will enable it to perform real-time analysis. Growing computing muscle will also aid the development of so-called swarms of drones, which will call on AI to work together on increasingly complex tasks.

  • Health

    Personalized eHealth

    The session of Health that was held by DSI and the TechMed Centre is Personalized eHealth. Find more information about this session that took place on the 18th of March. 

    It becomes more and more evident that the current approach to healthcare is not sustainable, especially when considering the increasing volume and demands of chronic diseases. Biological, behavioral and environmental factors influence the surge and progression of these diseases. The use of ICT in healthcare – eHealth – allows to target this challenge of diversity, for example, by providing personalized solutions adaptable to each user, and also to changes over time. Every individual, dealing with any specific condition presents a distinctly unique case, highlighting the need for Personalized eHealth Technology.

    Intelligent Medical Imaging 

    Doctors have been using medical imaging techniques to diagnose diseases like cancer for many years. AI will take this technology further by improving medical imaging capabilities through higher automation, increased productivity, standardized processes, more accurate diagnosis, and the computation of quantitative data. With many applied AI solutions and many more AI applications showing promising scientific test results, the market for AI in medical imaging is forecast to grow exponentially over the next few years.

    Sensors & Wearables for Prevention

    We have only scratched the surface of AI’s potential in the development of wearable technology. As mobile processors get smaller, more powerful, and more efficient, it are AI technologies that will support multi-functionalism with vision, hearing, emotions, touch, and even cognition being rolled into a single application. Focusing on wearables that use AI to solve problems can likely propel wearables from occasional nice-to-haves to ubiquitous must-haves.

    AI Infrastructure in (e)Sports and Wellbeing

    AI is revolutionizing sports and elevating it to a whole new level. While it is true that statistics and quantitative analysis have played a central role in sports for a long time, AI is significantly impacting the way games are strategized, played, and engaging the audience. AI in sports is here to stay, and as the technology improves through better sensors, processors, and algorithms, it will become even more important. Whether through an internal IT organization or via external AI platforms, sports organizations now need AI to successfully compete at the highest levels.  

  • Energy

    Distributed Energy Control Systems

    The session of Energy that was held is on the topic of Distributed Energy Control Systems. Find more information about this session that took place at the 16th of March

    The electricity supply is becoming greener with the increasing penetration of renewable energy enabled by e.g. energy storage, and a variety of other networked distributed energy resources (DERs). Integrating these DERs into the existing energy system is a challenging task. With proper decentralized energy management concepts combined and integrated with AI techniques, DERs can be aggregated into virtual power plants to replace conventional sources of generation and mitigate climate change consequences. For a successful implementation and mass rollout, AI can play a vital role in improving the accuracy or replacing part of the underlaying control models, resulting in accurate adaptive control methods that are able to track and act on changes in our energy system as the energy transition unfolds.

    Digital Twin Earth for Sustainable Development

    A Digital Twin Earth will help to visualize, understand, monitor and forecast natural and human activity on the planet. The model will be able to monitor the health of the planet and to perform simulations of Earth’s interconnected system with human behavior. This contributes towards the development of accurate environmental policies that are vital to solve the urgent climate-related challenges the world faces and to achieve sustainable development.