Masdar Institute launches innovation-entreprenurship lab and scholarship with BP

iInnovation

The institute's recent reorganization into area-specific research centres (putting me in "iSmart") resulted in a new centre for innovation and entrepreneurship, called "iInnovation". Many of us from the university, as well as corporation delegates and faculty from other universities today gathered at iInnovation for an open house marking the launch of the centre's innovation lab, "iLab".

Dr Bruce Walker Ferguson

Centre head Dr Bruce Walker Ferguson, who was commended in an opening address by institute president Dr Fred Moavenzadeh, delivered a presentation on the entrepreneurial ecosystem and policy issues, highlighting the educational value to students of seeing real world processes of innovation and company setup in action. The open house also marked the launch of a new entrepreneurial scholarship that would encourage students to develop business plans and possibly even set up companies while at the university. Dr Katherine Moortgat and BP Ventures' Dr Issam Dairanieh were present and presenting, BP being involved with both the centre and the scholarship.

One of our projects

After the talks, an outdoor lunch and informal poster session shone light on some existing institute research projects with entrepreneurial potential, including one of our lab's newest projects.

Talal Rahwan seminar on coalition algorithms at Masdar Institute

This week, Dr Talal Rahwan, a research fellow at the University of Southampton, dropped by our department at Masdar Institute to talk about the work he is doing on algorithms for reward maximization and reward distribution in agent coalition formation.

He gave us an overview of the improved dynamic programming algorithm (and one of its hybrid versions) for reward-maximal coalition formation, briefly presented his work on using domain-specific properties of the reward functions in reward maximization, and described the reward distribution problem and some of its algorithmic solutions. He used graphical representations a lot, making much of his material accessible to even those without formal acquaintance with the theory at a graduate level (I think).

Finally, he described applications in power generation management, marketing referral networks, network analysis for node targeting, etc. It was a very interesting and well-delivered presentation, and it was nice to see some solid algorithm work after quite a while.

Fall 2013 CIS Orientation at Masdar Institute

We're welcoming the newest batch of students to Masdar Institute this week. From what I've seen of at least those specializing in Computing and Information Sciences among the incoming students, they're a unique mix of nationalities.

They're also fortunate to be the first batch to enter the university after the campus expansion was officially opened for use last month. That means plenty more office, lab and living space for them.

I delivered the STEVAS lab's talk on behalf of the lab's head, who was away. A couple of the students took a keen interest in our work, and I gathered from the self-introductions that some others had experience or interest in relevant areas of research and/or industry. I look forward to working with any of them who do make it into our lab.

veri.ly mentioned in a TEDx talk

The veri.ly crowd-sourced crisis information verification platform, which we at MIST's SCAILab were developing when I left, was recently mentioned in a TEDxTraverseCity talk by QCRI's Patrick Meier (one of the lead collaborators in this project), along with earlier work on the DARPA Network Challenge.

Masdar Institute campus expansion opens

The second phase of the Masdar Institute campus has started operating, and my department, Computing and Information Sciences, moved in this past week. For us in CIS, that means no more weird smells and machinery sounds occasionally wafting and blaring in from the chemical labs adjacent to us in the old research building, although those did add to the "sciencey" atmosphere of the place.

The new campus still uses a lot of the old architectural styles; at least, that's way it looks from the outside. Most of the new buildings have the clay-coated wavy and air-padded screened facades of the residential and research buildings in the older part of campus. The new part of campus also seems much, much larger, with multiple courtyards.

The only new building style is represented in a couple of blocks that have facades that slope outwards on all sides. One of these blocks is literally hinged to the top of a set of pillars, which hold it over the swimming pools. Presumably, this design will make their smooth faces less likely to collect dust.

One major concession that has been made is the addition of a rather large car parking lot right in front of the new part of campus. For a few years now, access to the old campus was limited to shuttles, electric vehicles and self-piloting electric pod cars that ferried staff, faculty, students and visitors between the campus proper and the parking lots on the outskirts of the city. Now, private cars will be able to enter the city itself.

Everything is nice and fresh. Our new premises have wide corridors and a lot of meeting/common space, and (seemingly) better cooling.