The University of Valladolid and SNGULAR have initiated an alliance to promote research and training in the area of artificial intelligence and data science applied to the natural environment. The creation of the University of Valladolid – SNGULAR Smart Global Ecosystems Chair seeks to promote the sustainability of our ecosystems through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and massive data analysis.
SNGULAR is defined as an organism made up of talent and technology. Within that body there is a technology services company, a talent development agency and an educational institution. With a global presence and projects and initiatives spread across all continents, SNGULAR is made up of a team of more than 750 people, with profiles ranging from software engineering to creativity in interactive environments, including experts in artificial intelligence, data science or design systems. SNGULAR also boasts a focus on open innovation, and has teams focused on the reinvention of learning or the development of professional careers.
For the University of Valladolid, the creation of this chair is a boost to the DataForest master’s degree and the University Institute for Research in Sustainable Forest Management (iuFOR), which stands as a benchmark for the digital transition of a key element for the ecological transition, such as the natural environment.
For SNGULAR, this agreement represents a new way of applying technology to support research and learning, and at the same time, to get involved in initiatives related to nature and sustainable development to add value in this area through the combined talents and strengths of both entities working as a team.
Information and communication technologies, together with massive data analysis, open a world of opportunities to launch training, research and social awareness actions in order to develop methods and products of data science and artificial intelligence that facilitate the sustainable management of ecosystems.
To achieve this, SNGULAR and the University of Valladolid will develop the Smart Global Ecosystem Challenge every year, which will be a challenge where students will collaborate with professors and professionals to deepen their knowledge of artificial intelligence techniques and project management and problem solving.
This first year the challenge is focused on the detection of Global Singular Trees using remote sensing techniques and artificial intelligence. The Master DataForest (http://dataforest.uva.es) students and a team of Vietnamese students are already working on this first case. A total of 45 students and professors from the University of Valladolid and the Vietnam National University-University of Science and professionals from SNGULAR participate.
In addition, in the coming weeks, meetings will be held between experts from the University of Valladolid and SNGULAR to share needs, lines of work and define the scope of the first projects to be tackled.
SNGULAR and the University of Valladolid will base their collaboration on the agility to develop projects, the flexibility to execute them in the best possible way and be open to collaboration with collaborators who add value to the initiative.
The creation of this chair extends the collaboration that has already been carried out for more than 20 years between researchers from the iuFOR (UVa-INIA University Institute for Research in Sustainable Forest Management) and the company SNGULAR, in the development of programs and algorithms for the ecosystem management. Projects such as SIMANFOR, the first forest management simulator in the cloud, have already emerged from this collaboration: SIMANFOR currently has various versions that allow its use in high-performance computers or supercomputers and the simulation of forests all over the world.
