DECENTER, a joint EU-South Korea research and innovation project

DECENTER is a new research and innovation project funded by the European Union and the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT (MIST) on cloud technologies and Internet of Things (Internet of Things, IoT) in support of Artificial Intelligence applications. Coordinated by Domenico Siracusa from Fondazione Bruno Kessler and by Seung Woo Kum with the Korea Electronics Technology Institute, the project, involving 11 European and South Korean partners, started in July 2018 and will last three years.

The goal is to create a decentralized cloud platform to guarantee power, the speed of calculation, privacy and security to emerging applications of Artificial Intelligence (IA). This will enable the ever-increasing amount of data collected from the myriad of IoT connected sensors and equipment to be processed in a timely and effective manner. DECENTER’s platform will facilitate the creation of an unprecedented ecosystem in which computing resources and IoT (processing, memory, storage, connectivity, detection, activation) can be integrated in a harmonious, simple and effective way.

In this way, it will be possible to fully benefit from the potential of AI in time-sensitive situations, such as alerting a worker of a potential safety risk on a construction site, processing data close to their source (for example a camera). Furthermore, user privacy can be ensured as sensitive data are not sent to the cloud.

The platform also allows each cloud resource provider to share them, thanks to the collaborative creation of smart contracts for applications on different administrative domains, each with its own policies on data processing, security, legal and business aspects. The observance of the so-called SLAs (Service Level Agreements) will be duly recorded and monitored thanks to the support of blockchain-based technologies.

The research and innovation offered by DECENTER will offer new market and international cooperation opportunities for Europe and South Korea, in particular in the field of artificial intelligence applications and cloud and IoT technologies.

After the official launch of the project in Trento in August, the consortium met in a joint conference organized by the EU and MIST October 10-12 in Seoul.

The project will include pilot on-the-field experiments in the areas of smart cities, of robotics in logistics, of construction and of environmental intelligence in order to favour the safety of citizens in pedestrian crossings, workers and goods in the logistics and construction areas, of people in homes and buildings.

DECENTER, which brings together teams with expertise in the three reference technology sectors, Cloud Computing, IoT and IA, includes the following participants: Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Atos, CEA-LETI, the City of Trento, Robotnik, University of Ljubljana, Korea Electronics Technology Institute, Gluesys, Daliworks, LGU+ and the National University of Seoul.