Grant: Applied Research Tools and Instruments Grants

The goal of this proposal is to refresh the core computational infrastructure at Sheridan College’s Centre for Applied Artificial Intelligence (CAAI). Artificial Intelligence is poised to transform nearly every sector of Canada’s economy, from healthcare and social services, to banking, transportation and manufacturing. This paradigm shift presents a generational opportunity for Canadian business. In a recent survey, 89% of Ontario enterprise decision makers agreed that adopting AI will lead to competitive differentiation. However, there is a significant gap in companies’ ability to adopt AI. Among Canadian businesses with 100+ employees, 20% have deployed AI, while only 3% of firms with 5–19 employees have. The difference is that smaller firms lack the capital, talent and data infrastructure that large companies can mobilize as they pivot towards AI. The Centre for Applied Artificial Intelligence is focused on helping its partners bridge precisely this capacity gap. CAAI is the first applied AI technology centre in the Halton and Peel regions of Southern Ontario, an area that is home to 72,000+ active businesses, 83% of which are small and medium-sized enterprises. To help its partners leverage the full potential of artificial intelligence, a renewal of the Centre’s core server is urgently needed. The proposed system offers significantly more GPU power than CAAI currently has available, will enable faster training and inferencing to support faster deployment and commercialization of AI models for our partners. The new server will help Canadian companies thrive in the new AI-driven marketplace. CAAI is supporting small organizations as they adopt AI to automate business processes, gain insights through data science and analysis, and engage with their customers and employees. Not only will the requested system ensure that CAAI’s partners can remain competitive as they incorporate AI into their business processes and products, it will allow Sheridan faculty to maintain their expertise at the forefront of technology development and will arm Sheridan students with robust technical skills that meet the shifting needs of Canadian business.