Swiss expertise supports Bulgarian artificial intelligence centre
Switzerland’s two federal institutes of technology have helped launch an $100 million (CHF93 million) information technology research centre in Bulgaria.
The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) was opened in Sofia on Monday.
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and federal technology institute ETH Zurich both helped set up the centre and will continue to support its operations.
“INSAIT aims to become a leading international scientific institute for computer science, artificial intelligence and computational technology, and to build a world-class research powerhouse that aims to attract scientific and technological talent from the region and around the world,” read a statement from EPFLExternal link.
The new institute was also backed the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), UC Berkeley, Yale, Princeton, and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Large scale technology companies such as Amazon Web Services, Google and DeepMind have also lent their support to the ambitious project, along with Bulgarian enterprises.
INSAIT will focus its research on machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, information security, programming languages, formal methods, quantum computing, and computer architecture, and other tech-related fields.
Martin Vechev, professor of Computer Science at ETH Zurich, said INSAIT “has the potential to become a very disruptive initiative”.
Also at the INSAIT opening ceremony was Swiss education minister Guy Parmelin who met with Bulgarian and European Union officials. Parmelin later tweeted that Bulgaria is supporting Switzerland’s bid to be re-admitted as a full member of the EU’s Horizon Europe research programme.
Switzerland’s status in Horizon Europe has been downgraded following a dispute with the EU on future bilateral relations.
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