Last month, the KTU Artificial Intelligence Centre (AI Centre) invited to apply for funding to undertake applied research projects. Based on the application evaluation criteria and the decision of the council members, it was decided to finance the project “New artificial intelligence-based concrete crack identification system in bridges and oil rigs”, led by KTU Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Professor Minvydas Kazys Ragulskis. The total amount for the project EUR 49 973.
The project funding aims to promote applied research in artificial intelligence and the development of innovative products based on their results with commercial potential and/or practical application in the public or private sector.
The project, led by Professor M. Ragulskis, aims to develop an artificial intelligence-based concrete crack identification system for bridge structures and oil rig supports above and below water using the latest image processing technologies.
“The project was chosen because of the identified problem, the performed market analysis, the identified risks and their management plan, the high level of competencies of the team members. A very important factor in selecting a winner is practical application. Foreign companies submitted letters to the financed project, demonstrating the need for such a solution”, says Agnė Paulauskaitė-Tarasevičienė, the Head of the KTU AI Centre.
The fund can be used to pay salaries, purchase services and goods, and pay for business trips. Funding is only available for the year 2021. The beginning of the project – 17 May 2021, end of the project (including the deadline for using the funding) – 31 December 2021.
There were 9 applications received and analysed in terms of their relevance to artificial intelligence methods in industry, medicine, public, and other sectors. Also, practical applicability, commercialisation potential: market, initial and final level of technological readiness, competencies of the research team while also protocols supporting the need for potential customers of the developed product.
