Astrid iHUB Stadtwerke Wolfsburg Intensifies Cooperation With NVIDIA on Artificial Intelligence

Companies plan to develop AI applications, establish an internationally open development platform Wolfsburg, Stadtwerke Wolfsburg AG and WOBCOM GmbH today (14.09.2021) announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NVIDIA to collaborate on implementing and testing new technologies and solutions, especially artificial intelligence (AI) based offerings. To this end, WOBCOM plans to leverage NVIDIA’s AI platform as a technical foundation and support the establishment of an open, international development platform, the so called ASTRID Innovation Hub.

Anatoli Seliwanow (Operations Manager, WOBCOM GmbH), Volker Meschonat (Sr. Manager, Sales DC Solutions Central Europe, Mellanox), Giovanni Coppa (Head of Data Center), Charbel Aoun (乔博翁) (AI City Director – EMEA, NVIDIA), Keith Strier (Vice President, Worldwide AI Initiatives and Head of global public sector, NVIDIA), Dr. Frank Kästner (Member of the Board, Stadtwerke Wolfsburg AG and Managing Director, WOBCOM GmbH), Dalibor Dreznjak (Head of Corporate Development and Communication, Stadtwerke Wolfsburg AG).
Anatoli Seliwanow (Operations Manager, WOBCOM GmbH), Volker Meschonat (Sr. Manager, Sales DC Solutions Central Europe, Mellanox), Giovanni Coppa (Head of Data Center), Charbel Aoun (乔博翁) (AI City Director – EMEA, NVIDIA), Keith Strier (Vice President, Worldwide AI Initiatives and Head of global public sector, NVIDIA), Dr. Frank Kästner (Member of the Board, Stadtwerke Wolfsburg AG and Managing Director, WOBCOM GmbH), Dalibor Dreznjak (Head of Corporate Development and Communication, Stadtwerke Wolfsburg AG).

The Stadtwerke group of companies has a long history of collaboration and scientific exchange with NVIDIA. As a technology partner, NVIDIA provided significant support to WOBCOM in the construction of the WOBCOM Data Center, one of the most advanced data centers in the field of network automation. Today’s announcement extends this cooperation to the field of AI. Dr. Frank Kästner, Member of the Board of  stadtwerke Wolfsburg AG, commented: “We are very pleased that with the signing of this MoU we will intensify the cooperation between the Stadtwerke Group and the international technology leader NVIDIA. Machine learning, deep learning and AI in general are becoming increasingly important and are therefore already key drivers of digitalization. Working with NVIDIA, Stadtwerke plans to drive the development of AI-supported applications in the future.” “Cities are increasingly challenged to build out the digital infrastructure needed to fully harness AI,” said Keith Strier, Vice President, Worldwide AI Initiatives and head of global public sector at NVIDIA. “Public- private collaboration like ours with Stadtwerke and WOBCOM can unlock new frontiers of urban innovation for the City of Wolfsburg and others using our accelerated computing platform.”

Volker Meschonat (Sr. Manager, Sales DC Solutions Central Europe, Mellanox), Giovanni Coppa (Head of Data Center),
Giovanni Coppa (Head of Data Center), Volker Meschonat (Sr. Manager, Sales DC Solutions Central Europe, Mellanox)

Research and innovation agenda & establishment of an innovation hub Stadtwerke intends to build on this collaboration by furthering a strategic research and innovation agenda in the key areas of smart cities, smart mobility, smart industries, cybersecurity and other areas. The basis for this is the extensive and state-of-the-art IT infrastructure in Wolfsburg, which already makes it possible to try out, test and validate a wide range of smart and networked solutions in practice. In perspective, the urban ‘open, digital, data platform’ can form the basis for all subsequent data analyses and AI-based applications – from machine learning to computer-aided inference.

Specific actions with NVIDIA include the establishment and further development of an international Innovation hub, an incubator for future research and innovation projects for real-world digital AI applications. NVIDIA plans to support the “ASTRID iHUB,” located under the umbrella of the Firware Foundation, by bringing in its international partner network and enabling iHUB members to use its AI platform.

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