Innovation Across the Sea: London’s New INS Hub
Director Tommaso Melodia announces the launch of the London hub of Northeastern University’s Intelligent Networked Systems Institute. Photo by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University
Northeastern’s Institute for Intelligent Networked Systems opens a new hub in London after its success in Boston and Burlington. Their projects focus on optimizing wireless communications, with a focus on AI.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Patrick Daly.
New London tech hub at Northeastern wants to make AI technology faster, more reliable
LONDON — The Institute for Intelligent Networked Systems will open the door to more European partnerships and groundbreaking research in the fields of artificial intelligence and wireless communications with its new London hub.
Having secured 68 patents for new inventions, built more than 30 industry partnerships and conducted advanced wellness research since its inception in 2019 at Northeastern University’s Boston campus, the institute, formerly known as the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things, has opened its first research office outside of the U.S. The new hub at Northeastern’s London campus means a transatlantic expansion of industry partnerships in the AI and wireless communications space.
“We’re going to be working at creating an interface between the world of connectivity and the world of intelligence,” institute director Tommaso Melodia told a launch event on Friday. “We will have an expanded focus … with new research topics, new areas and new expertise that is brought by the London hub.”
“We think that the creation of the hub in London will create an opportunity to partner even more in Europe and to create additional opportunities,” Melodia added.
Bipin Rajendran and Osvaldo Simeone. Photos by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University.
The institute is dedicated to making wireless communications faster, more energy efficient and more secure, with a focus on AI, machine learning and telecommunications. London becomes its third location, adding to its headquarters in Boston and a satellite office in Burlington, Massachusetts.
The U.K. office is being led by Bipin Rajendran, professor of intelligent computing systems, and Osvaldo Simeone, professor of information engineering.
The researchers’ projects include working with U.S. tech giant IBM to develop the next generation of AI hardware and investigating misbehavior by the AI technology that is behind everyday use apps such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
Melodia told Northeastern Global News that the new researchers would help diversify its expertise with their focus on machine learning, neuromorphic computing — computing that is inspired by how the human brain can process large quantities of information at speed — and quantum computing.
Simeone said the U.K. hub’s two missions would be “developing reliable AI” and focusing on “emerging computing for our times.” Rajendran and Simeone are only two weeks into the job but already front a team of about 20 researchers based at Portsoken One, the technology and engineering-focused building on Northeastern’s London campus.
The two professors have been buddied up for the past decade, first working together in New Jersey before moving as a duo first to King’s College London and now to Northeastern.
Rajendran described himself and Simeone as “complementary” in terms of their research expertise. “I totally agree,” Simeone responded. “Bipin is an expert on systems, hardware, software and co-design. And I’m more of a theoretician — an information theorist. So the way this works is that, typically, I come up with some kind of idea or system that can work on paper and then Bipin makes it work in practice.”
Read full story at Northeastern Global News: New London Tech Hub to Improve Wireless Communication with AI