Download - NYU Tandon School of Engineering

PRESS OFFICE • 15 MetroTech Center, 6th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201
CONTACT • Kathleen Hamilton
646.997.3792 / mobile 347.843.9782
[email protected]
Immediate Release:
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SUMMIT TO SHOWCASE NEW YORK CITY
AS GROWING HUB FOR AI ACTIVITY
AI NexusLab at NYU Tandon and ff Venture Capital convene top minds in technology development to
discuss cutting-edge advances
First cohort of AI NexusLab companies to demonstrate innovative products and ideas
NEW YORK – The Future Labs at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and ff Venture Capital (ffVC), a
leading early-stage technology venture capital firm based in New York City, today will convene top
artificial intelligence (AI) experts and entrepreneurs at the Future Labs AI Summit to discuss how
artificial intelligence is impacting all facets of life. Attendees will learn how academia, corporations,
and emerging technology startups are harnessing AI to rethink robotics, communication and chatbots,
healthcare, financial technology, and more.
The Future Labs AI Summit will cover topics including investing in AI, building an AI company, how
enterprise companies approach AI problems, industry hype, and an AI market report by Future Labs’
graduate CB Insights. Featured speakers include Yann LeCun, NYU professor and director of AI research
at Facebook; Paul Horn, NYU senior vice provost for research; Riva-Melissa Tez, managing partner at
Permutation Ventures; Anand Sanwal, founder and CEO of CB Insights; and Ruchir Puri, chief architect
at IBM Watson, and others.
-more-
The AI Nexus Lab – an accelerator-type program for AI – marks the first cooperation of its kind
between a university and a venture fund in the United States. At the summit, its entrepreneurs will
demonstrate their products and introduce their companies — the latest example of New York City
quickly becoming an AI hub. The AI NexusLab helps early-stage AI companies develop their ventures
through a four-month program providing technical support, venture development, and pilot
partnerships for each of the five companies in the program.
"We join ffVC in congratulating the AI NexusLab companies on their early success,” said NYU Tandon
Dean Katepalli R. Sreenivasan. “Their accomplishments during this pilot helped cement the NexusLab
as an innovative capacity-building hub for AI in New York and beyond. I would also like to acknowledge
the many contributions of John Frankel and his team at ffVC in launching this novel program — one we
hope will serve as a model for our Future Labs as it builds more private-sector partnerships. The
collaboration between these new companies and researchers throughout New York University has
benefited all involved.”
“We're thrilled to announce the first cohort of the AI NexusLab: amazing companies using artificial
intelligence to solve diverse and identifiable problems in each of their respective fields,” stated ffVC
Founding Partner John Frankel. “Each company’s growth over the course of the program has been
extremely encouraging. AI is now beginning to have a profound impact on enterprise productivity, and
we feel that these companies — and the teams behind them — represent some of the best and
brightest emerging players.”
The five early-stage AI startups represent leading sectors of the New York City economy, including
robotics, marketing, health care, financial technology, and enterprise support. The startups received
dedicated space at the Data Future Lab — the Future Labs’ Manhattan incubator for AI, machine
learning, natural language processing, and data for industry startups — for the four-month program.
ffVC invested $100,000 in each company, providing working capital for the startups and supporting AI
NexusLab services, including curated access to talent, partners, customers, AI experts from NYU and
the NYU ecosystem, computing power, and a community of AI companies and graduates in the Data
Future Lab, in addition to guidance from ffVC.
Applications for the next AI NexusLab cohort are open until May 3.
AI is among the fastest-growing sectors, with investment in AI startups growing to a record
$5 billion across 550 deals, according to CB Insights. With applications in self-driving cars, marketing,
robotics, defense, human relations, and a vast range of software that performs analysis, prediction,
and personal digital assistance, AI revenue is widely expected to skyrocket. Meanwhile, university
graduates with AI experience are in high demand and research opportunities are on an upward
trajectory.
“One of our goals with the inaugural AI program was to separate real AI companies from the hype.
Unlike web and mobile startups, AI companies require deep technical knowledge to build and scale,”
said Steven Kuyan, managing director at the Future Labs at NYU Tandon. “Each company went through
an intense four months of evolving their products to meet the expectations of their pilot customers.
They benefited from a uniquely tailored program specific to AI companies, and we’re excited to see
them grow into successful ventures contributing to making New York City a thriving hub for artificial
intelligence startups.”
The initial AI NexusLab cohort is:
Alpha Vertex – This data science and machine learning company is building the next generation of AIpowered technologies that work with humans to support investments around the world.
Its solutions autonomously monitor, classify, and link large volumes of data across global financial
markets. The company’s products also offer advanced analytical capabilities to the investment
community to predict financial outcomes and identify trends before they become obvious.
Behold.ai – Its artificially intelligent medical records platform helps healthcare providers parse and
process billings, claims, and medical images. The computer-assisted coding platform saves providers
time and can catch mistakes. It can save and even help make money for hospitals.
Cambrian Intelligence – The London-based startup makes robots more intelligent by building a
distributed platform that quickly teaches robots via teleoperation, demonstration, and scripting. The
main skills are perception, manipulation, and teleoperation, which become building blocks to develop
more complex skills. This universal robot operating system solves a big pain point in the robotics
industry.
HelloVera – Its AI-powered, natural language-understanding engine for customer service requests can
respond in different channels such as email, chat, and social media. HelloVera was co-founded by Dr.
James Fan, who led the AI research team for the IBM Watson project that beat the top Jeopardy!
champions, and Dr. Liangliang Cao, winner of the prestigious ImageNet computer vision challenge and
an adjunct professor at Columbia University.
Klustera – The Mexico City-based startup leverages sensor technologies and machine learning to
automate customer intelligence and retention. It uses anonymous smartphone Wi-Fi signals and
computer vision (CCTV feeds) to transform human behavior inside physical spaces such as airports and
shopping malls into data and insights, thereby helping Klustera customers understand and connect
with their brick-and-mortar consumers just as they would do with e-commerce ones.
The AI NexusLab merges ffVC’s expertise in helping to build early-stage technology companies with
lessons taken from the highly successful Future Labs at NYU Tandon, which boasts a survival rate of
nearly 90 percent for companies that graduate from its program. This stands in sharp contrast to the
typical failure rate of 80 percent for startup companies in general.
About the Future Labs at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering
NYU Tandon created one of the first technology incubators in New York City in 2009 with support from
the NYC Economic Development Corporation and the first cleantech incubator in New York City, funded
by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Today, the Future Labs
at NYU Tandon support a wide variety of entrepreneurial outreach programs in addition to more than
40 startup companies in three locations: a data-focused incubator on SoHo’s Varick Street, another in
the DUMBO section of Brooklyn focused on digital technology, and a third in Downtown Brooklyn’s
MetroTech Center with a focus on clean-energy technology. To date, 68 companies have graduated
from the program, 13 through acquisition, with such notable portfolio companies as CB insights,
Clarifai, Bounce Exchange, Honest Buildings, and United Wind. For more information visit
http://engineering.nyu.edu/business/future-labs.
About the NYU Tandon School of Engineering
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York
University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic
Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of
education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and
entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its main
location in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, the country’s largest
private research university, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and
NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in downtown Manhattan and
Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit
http://engineering.nyu.edu.
About ff Venture Capital
ff Venture Capital (ffVC) is the most engaged early-stage venture capital firm in New York City. ffVC
invests in some of the strongest growth areas to date, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence,
machine learning, drones, enterprise cloud software, and crowdfunding, and identifies and invests in
technology and technology-enabled companies at their inception — across geographies and emerging
industries. With five partners and an acceleration team of 20-plus investment and operations
professionals, ffVC actively participates with founders to develop products, target markets, and
accelerate growth. Since 2008, ffVC has invested in over 90 companies and has helped to create
companies with aggregate market value exceeding $4 billion. For more information, visit
http://ffvc.com.
###
www.facebook.com/nyutandon
@nyutandontweets