SenseTime has picked Singapore as its hub in Southeast Asia for innovation in the development of artificial intelligence (AI).
With this in mind, the company yesterday launched the SenseTime International AI innovation Hub in the Lion City, while also reaffirming it commitment to nurture local AI-based talents through MOUs signed with Business China and Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education (ITE).
“With over 70 percent of Southeast Asia consumers concurring that AI is crucial to the region’s future, there is a critical need for governments and AI providers to equip the workforce across the region with fundamental AI skills. As such, SenseTime is also furthering our commitment to promote and facilitate AI development across the region via our AI Innovation Hub to empower the next generation with the ability to thrive in a digital-first era,” said Mr Martin Huang, Managing Director, SenseTime International.
With AI projected to have a 10% to 18% GDP uplift across Southeast Asia and contribute nearly US$1 trillion to the region’s economy by 2030, the Hub in Singapore will showcase the company’s AI and Computer Vision technologies, and serve as an immersive living lab to help businesses harness the power of AI to accelerate Southeast Asia’s digital economy and unlock new opportunities through connected intelligence.
The Hub features eight different zones that showcase real-world AI applications for augmented and mixed reality, education, healthcare and customer engagement scenarios; visitors are invited to immerse themselves in an environment powered by SenseTime’s industry-leading technologies and envision wide-ranging possibilities enabled through AI.
Among the highlights of the Hub include:
- AI Education: Visitors will witness first-hand SenseTime’s comprehensive AI Education solutions in action, including the web-based module learning platform SenseStudy, and hands-on coding modules with SenseRover Mini and SenseStorm robots. The showcase will enable visitors, in particular educators, to uncover ways to personalise AI learning to cater to their students’ learning styles.
- Augmented Reality for Tourism and Culture: An immersive zone featuring SenseTime’s Augmented Reality (AR) platform, SenseMARS, which connects the virtual world with the real world to deliver fresh experiences and interactions to end users.Visitors may interact with an AR simulation of the Merlion and Marina Bay Sands building and take commemorative photos with the attractions. These AR technologies have also been used to power museum exhibitions and art installations, like the “Smile2Vote” interactive digital screen during Singapore Art Week 2020.
- Augmented Reality for Entertainment and Retail: An experiential zone featuring SenseMARS, which supports highly accurate expression and body gesture identification even under extreme lighting for seamless mixed reality interactions.Visitors are also treated to fresh AR entertainment and retail experiences, including interactive wayfinding and AR advertisements, made possible through SenseMARS’s powerful post-processing rendering engine.
Developing global AI professionals
Meanwhile, SenseTime has inked an MOU with Business China jointly provide internship and international exchange opportunities AI talents.
Under the MoU, SenseTime will come on board the Singapore-China Youth Interns Exchange Scheme (YES) to provide tertiary students from Singapore and China with internship opportunities at SenseTime’s China and Singapore offices respectively. Through a series of curated activities, such as training programmes and technology forums held with Chinese technopreneurs and industry players, participants will gain meaningful cross-border experiences first-hand.
SenseTime will also launch a new programme to introduce China’s business landscape to students under the Industrial Post-graduate Programme (IPP), to nurture a pool of talents with a good understanding of China’s economic, business, social, cultural and educational environment.
“While internships can be a stepping stone to a student's professional career, they can also help companies to build a pipeline of promising young talents. Business China is therefore pleased to work with SenseTime to offer an internship programme at both its offices in Singapore and China,” said Tin Pei Ling, chief executive officer, Business China.
She added: “We believe that this arrangement will play an important role in cultivating professional AI competencies and the ability to appreciate local cultures and operating environments in Singapore, China and the region, facilitating cross-border collaborations.”
Cultivating Local AI Talent with ITE
In conjunction with the launch of the Hub, SenseTime furthers its commitment to promoting and facilitating AI education in Singapore through the signing of an MoU with ITE to jointly develop AI competencies for students and staff.
As part of this two-year MoU, SenseTime and ITE aim to equip ITE students, staff and adult learners with AI technical competencies through:
- support in AI competency-building for educators at ITE by providing the SenseStudy AI Education curriculum via its Train-the-Trainer programme;
- the Enhanced Industrial Attachment for ITE students to be placed with SenseTime’s partners to explore and work on AI industry proof-of-concept (POC) projects with coaching and mentorship; and
- Continuing Education and Training (CET) programmes for adult learners in the fields of Computer Vision and Smart City, with certification provided upon completion of the course.
“This valuable partnership will enable ITE to leverage SenseTime’s know-how in deep learning and computer vision technologies to deepen AI competencies in our students, staff and adult learners. We are excited to advance our AI journey with SenseTime’s support,” said Low Khah Gek, CEO, ITE.
