Editorial

Dear ITEA Innovation Community,

Not only is the variety of usage of digital systems increasing but so is the complexity of digitalisation. Digitalisation grows in our lives just like time does in space;

• moving in smaller spaces such as in nanocomponents or deeper in the human body
• moving in larger spaces such as digital twins of production zones or billions of connected people in social media

Given these circumstances, it is not surprising that Artificial Intelligence is moving in our lives more, amplifying human intelligence to support innovation cycles. The size of data created by devices and humans is increasing logarithmically and the need for quality of service and speed of delivery challenge any conventional system. Artificial Intelligence will create disruptive change in human life, bringing new insights by processing enormous amounts of data in a matter of seconds in 2 ways:

• detecting repetitive data to simplify systems; and
• detecting anomalies in data to identify problems.

There are several ITEA projects that have already delivered a set of solutions. Please read the post of ITEA Vice-chairman Philippe Letellier on some of these ITEA projects that use AI or check his SotA highlight on Deep Learning.

In addition to Artificial Intelligence, open source platforms are necessary to enable a comfortable start and to support the first steps for solutions in a complex world. In ITEA, creating open source platforms and building communities using these open source platforms are also important priorities, just like creating global standards. The central point of focus in open source platforms is the problem itself, so the Community connects to each other with a specific purpose rather than through a hierarchical order. Open source leverages external resources and knowledge to increase innovation and product quality as well as to shorten time-to-market and is an enabler for a variety of problems. Open source communities also provide the blueprint for other industries to jointly solve big problems. You may enjoy reading the success stories of AMALTHEA and AMALTHEA4Public on open source platforms on automotive.

Additionally, complex systems need a set of diverse knowledge bases to tackle complex problems. In ITEA projects, large industry players enable the creation of international impact, SMEs bring in the innovative ideas and dynamics of the market, and academia and RTOs create deep knowledge and a scientific approach. So in ITEA projects, an innovation bridge is built between large industry, SMEs and academia in an international environment. The knowledge transfer is explained in the Community Talk article by Isabel Praça and value of international collaboration is elaborated in the Focus of Belguim by VLAIO and Siemens Industry Software.

Having the UK as the EUREKA Chair this year, I invited David Golding to the ITEA PO days in Stockholm last year. And now I am proud to announce his interview in this magazine in which he explains his impression of the ITEA PO Days and his viewpoint on potential collaboration between EEN and Clusters. He also invites the ITEA Community to join this year’s EUREKA Flagship Event, the EUREKA Global Innovation Days 2019, to create more awareness of each other, which can help break down barriers and support companies, research institutes, universities and others to find each other.

In ITEA, our main purpose is to create a positive impact by using the latest technologies for today’s industrial and societal challenges. By witnessing the impact that is created by the ITEA Community, it gives me an “Alice in Wonderland” feeling. Reading the Success Stories like MoSHCA and the End-user happiness story of ViNotion might take you there as well.

Happy reading!

Zeynep Sarılar