Pioneering Excellence Award recognizes FCAI’s partnerships and collaborative achievements

Teamwork and cross-border activity were key factors in the award.
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The Aalto University Computer Science building. Photo: Matti Ahlgren

Aalto University has given its Pioneering Excellence Award to the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence FCAI. Professor Samuel Kaski received the award on September 28th on behalf of the entire FCAI team. “We have built a productive culture and active collaborative ecosystem at FCAI that will serve as a springboard for the development of next-level AI,” says Kaski. “We are grateful that Aalto and the award committee acknowledge the important role AI has in solving global challenges and how FCAI has developed ways of working and results that meet these challenges.”

Kaski emphasizes that cooperation in AI research goes beyond the three institutions that founded FCAI (Aalto University, University of Helsinki and VTT). CSC, Finland’s IT Center for Science that runs the LUMI supercomputer, and other partners such as Academy Professor Guoying Zhao from the University of Oulu, are important members in what Kaski envisions as a strategic European hub for AI and machine learning. “Growing the talent base in this area is critical for Finland, which is why we are planning for an ELLIS Institute, a long-term powerhouse for research and innovation in intelligent systems.” FCAI currently hosts the smaller-scale ELLIS Unit Helsinki, a node of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS).

AI development is at an exciting turning point, says Kaski. Algorithms can generate fantastic art or solve complex scientific problems such as protein folding, but the potential for even more significant contributions to the climate and energy crises is just around the corner. One of the keys to achieving this, according to Kaski, is collaborative human-AI teamwork. “One of our goals at FCAI is to produce AI systems that understand their collaboration partners well enough to effectively assist in decision-making and planning. They operate with people rather than replacing them, as in pure automation.” For small economies like Finland’s, artificial intelligence may provide a necessary boost in efficiency in both industry and society. “For this to happen, universities and companies need to work even more closely together,” says Kaski. “At FCAI, we have created a good model for these kinds of collaborations, which I think was recognized in the Pioneering Excellence Award.”