VisualCortex and University of Wollongong partner to drive computer vision innovation and industry – research collaboration

VisualCortex signs mutual non-disclosure agreement with the University of Wollongong’s SMART Infrastructure Facility, joining the Hub for Artificial Intelligence of Things Solutions – an Australian government backed initiative supported by Telstra, Microsoft and NVIDIA

VisualCortex – the Video Intelligence Platform connecting computer vision’s potential to real-world business outcomes – has partnered with the University of Wollongong (UOW), joining its research and development hub for Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIOT) Solutions.

Under the terms of the mutual non-disclosure agreement between VisualCortex and the UOW, the computer vision start-up and the university’s SMART Infrastructure Facility will share exclusive research and software development capabilities to drive smart video analytics innovations, including machine learning (ML) models, learnings from real-world computer vision implementations, and local employment opportunities.

View the joint partnership video here: bit.ly/3RP9A82 

As part of the partnership, VisualCortex has established a satellite office at UOW’s Illawarra-based Innovation Campus — a technology precinct that fosters industry – research collaboration — and joins the Telstra-UOW Hub for AIOT Solutions. The hub is backed by a AUD$1.7 million government funding grant through the Strategic University Reform Fund (SURF); designed to establish Illawarra as a global leader in AIOT solutions for communities, enterprises and governments.

The hub is also supported via collaboration with technology industry giants Telstra, Microsoft and NVIDIA. The initiative brings together over 30 experts from industry and academia, focusing on delivering globally applicable AIOT outcomes in smart transport, smart logistics, resilient infrastructure and intelligent manufacturing. 

VisualCortex CEO and Co-Founder, Patrick Elliott, said that partnering with UOW’s SMART Infrastructure Facility and AIOT solutions hub delivered practical outcomes in three main ways.

“UOW and SMART bring world-leading AI research capabilities to the fore, which have transformative potential within today’s computer vision market,” said Elliott.

“Secondly, because SMART and the Telstra-UOW Hub for AIOT Solutions are mandated to apply academic rigour to real-world problems, they collaborate extremely well with industry and the public sector. The ability to work with PhD students and doctors of AI, and directly apply their research and skills to tangible computer vision challenges, is truly exciting.

“We have a very strong meeting of minds: We provide a Video Intelligence Platform, which enables academics to productionize ML models at scale and see their research make real-world change. At the same time, UOW provides outstanding academic expertise, industry relationships, and data governance.

The marriage of the two – VisualCortex’s enterprise-ready computer vision platform, coupled with UOW’s ability to use that platform as a vehicle to deliver academic-produced ML models to industry – represents an ideal partnership. It’s a win for everyone.

“Thirdly, the partnership provides a mutually beneficial avenue to industry for university researchers and students. To be successful and scale, VisualCortex needs access to a steady stream of the best available talent.

For UOW, our partnership provides a clear employment pathway via VisualCortex’s talent exchange, internship and graduate hiring programs.”

UOW’s SMART Infrastructure Facility specialises in applying data analytics, advanced simulation, Smart Cities technology and video analytics to core infrastructure challenges, including electricity, roads, rail urban growth and regional development. 

“While SMART Infrastructure Facility’s journey into smart video analytics is relatively recent, growth in effort and demand has been nearly exponential,” said SMART Infrastructure Facility Director, Professor Pascal Perez. “So we know, based on its technology and the number of requests we’re fielding, the market opportunity for VisualCortex is wide and broad.

“What VisualCortex is trying to do is brave: At the moment, most of the video analytics market develops around vertical integration; and bespoke – if not ad-hoc – solutions for specific sectors, or even sub-sectors. That means we’re going to see a lot of redundancies in terms of the deployment of all these single-use-case computer vision tools and the fees that end-users will have to pay.

So, we need a transversal approach, which VisualCortex is bringing to bear with its industry-agnostic platform.”

Perez echoed Elliott’s comments, characterising the UOW – VisualCortex partnership as “a perfect marriage”.

“We share the same approach to smart video analytics – we don’t see one sector; we’re interested in a transversal approach and the fundamentals behind the different use cases,” said Perez. “At SMART, we’re good at assessing new use cases for computer vision, optimising algorithms and wrapping them into a container.

But, we need to push these new ML models into something for deployment, in order to be useful to industry. VisualCortex’s Video Intelligence Platform provides that ideal something.

“It’s the best of both worlds; and I really look forward to developing a strong partnership with VisualCortex in the years to come.”

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About VisualCortex

VisualCortex is making video data actionable in the enterprise. As the world’s best Video Intelligence Platform, VisualCortex provides the stability and scalability to productionize computer vision technology for the first time.

Unlike camera-side or point solutions, VisualCortex can be used for any video analytics use case in any industry. VisualCortex’s production-ready cloud-based environment transforms video assets into analyzable streams of data at scale.

The VisualCortex platform delivers the artificial intelligence smarts, governance and usability, enabling organisations to connect any number of video streams, repositories and use existing commodity hardware. An intuitive user interface, out-of-the-box reporting, range of configurations and integrations empower non-technical people to produce, analyse and act on insights derived from computer vision throughout the enterprise.

Organisations can easily combine these AI-generated video insights with other data sources and systems to facilitate both real-time operations and strategic analysis. The VisualCortex Model Store also provides a secure marketplace for customers, partners and independent machine learning experts to share quality controlled computer vision models.

For more information, visit www.visualcortex.com 

For regular updates, follow VisualCortex on Twitter (@VisualCortexApp), LinkedIn (VisualCortex), YouTube (VisualCortex) and Facebook (@VisualCortexApp).

For regular industry news and analysis, subscribe to VisualCortex’s mailing list here: visualcortex.com/contact-us/ 

About UOW, SMART Infrastructure Facility and the Telstra-UOW Hub for AIOT Solutions

SMART Infrastructure Facility is a research institution dedicated to helping governments and businesses better plan for the future. SMART’s work is augmented by collaborations with experts across the University of Wollongong’s (UOW) Faculties in infrastructure related fields such as energy generation and storage, water sustainability, environmental engineering, spatial geotechnics and social planning.

SMART is involved in key international partnerships and collaborations addressing some of the big challenges in infrastructure. 

The Telstra-UOW Hub for AIOT Solutions, will deliver innovative, cost-effective and fit-for-purpose AIOT solutions for communities, enterprises and governments. The Hub has been developed with the support of a $1.7 million Federal Government grant via the Strategic University Reform Fund (SURF) to give Australia traction in a fast-expanding global market, while using applied research to increase productivity and create jobs.

Its focus is world-leading research in several AIOT technologies including smart video analytics, sensor-embedded edge computing for optimised data fusion and transmission, as well as digital industrial twin technology.

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