The University of La Laguna (ULL) strongly supports the Tenerife’s candidacy to be the headquarters of the Spanish Space and Artificial Intelligence Supervision agencies, options that the Cabildo has already made official. In fact, Ernesto Pereda de Pablo, vice-rector for Research, Transfer and the Santa Cruz and South Campus of the institution, points out that “we already proposed to the regional government the creation of a similar entity, not at this level, in the area of Canary Islands». Professor of Electrical Engineering in the Department of Industrial Engineering, he teaches at the Higher School and at the Higher Polytechnic of the area. He considers the ULL “perfectly prepared” to provide this initiative with “infrastructures, training, knowledge and talent”.
According to the Space agency values that «Tenerife is unique in this sense». She reasons: “Few sites exist worldwide with this training capacity, in degrees and masters, and research.” To these driving ideas he adds «a privileged sky and air connectivity to and from the rest of the world. An ideal setting.”
Artificial intelligence.
The entity of the foundations is not minor in the Artificial intelligence (AI). Pereda points out at the training level “the degree of cybersecurity and intelligence and the chair in this area.” The ULL in fact has a Chair of Big Data -the large volume of data that floods the network every day-, Open Data -free data available to everyone- and Blockchain (Bob) -Bitcoin block exploration service, digital currency- made up of specialized researchers in the field whose objective is to drive, promote and strengthen related business activities.
Pioneer project.
Pereda recalls the Cidihub project (Canary Islands Digital Innovation Hub) that has just been recognized recently, on June 16, with the category of European Digital Innovation Hub EDIH. A specific European call within the Digital Europe programme. In addition, Cidihub has obtained one of the highest scores with an assessment of 14 out of 15. In addition to obtaining European funding, the continent’s seal of excellence is added.
The Digital Innovation Center of the Canary Islands, the Cidihub, explains Pereda, is a consortium of organizations and competence centers specialized in business digitization -the IAC, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the ITER, the ITC…-.
This scientific hub provides key infrastructure and resources for the digital transformation of private companies and public entities with a concept of “active participation in civil society”. It operates mainly in the Canary Islands, although it also collaborates and works with entities from other regions and other countries inside and outside the European continent. Another letter in favor.
Talent.
Pereda considers that “the talent factor is fundamental in the aspirations to host organizations of this type and here we have it to spare.” From cybersecurity to AI or supercomputing. In this, he values, “we are a national and international reference”. He recalls that «it is not that we support this idea, but also, but that we have already presented a project to study the possibility at the regional level. More modest, but with similar parameters». Pereda points to examples of the island level such as the twin sisters, digital twins, mathematical models that replicate the original.
The ULL, through its Vice President for Research and Transfer, chaired by Pereda, participates in the Innovate Canarias program during the search for solutions to the challenges posed by nine leading Canarian companies in their fields of action. The research groups and departments of the ULL thus have the opportunity, starting in January of next year, to transfer their knowledge to improve the productivity and competitiveness of the selected firms.
With this initiative, the academic institution supports a vTransfer mission defined from the needs and opportunities that arise from companies and society itself. The participants in this first edition will be Arquimea Research Center, Astican, Canaragua, Compañía Cervecera de Canarias, Domingo Alonso Group, Grupo Hermanos Domínguez, Netkium, Grupo Newport and Satocan.
The IAC as a value itself.
The Vice Chancellor also refers to the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC). A research center that provides technological support services abroad not only in the field of astrophysics, but also in scientific, technological and industrial disciplines such as medicine, telecommunications, the environment, or security. It has a series of telescopes, three of them robotic, which use AI in their day to day. The data collected by these instruments has an international impact that makes this institute a benchmark. In addition, the recent projects promoted show that astronomy enters the era of Big Data.
Nor does Pereda forget to emphasize the value of geography: «People who may come from technology centers in Madrid or Barcelona should bear in mind that the distance to Tenerife is shorter than between the two cities». Ernesto Pereda concludes with the mention of a perhaps less tangible factor such as “the level and quality of life due to the climate and for being able to have the highest level of technological connectivity”.
