International cooperation
In 2020, the laboratories of the UIIP NASB continued cooperation with foreign universities, research centers and organizations.
Researchers continued to work on several international programs and projects:
- “Development of a multipurpose aerospace system for predictive monitoring of natural and man-made emergencies” (MAKSM) (Russian Federation, JSC “Russian Corporation of Rocket and Space Instrumentation and Information Systems”, Kazakhstan, Limited Liability Partnership “Institute of the Ionosphere”);
- "Providing access to a high-speed reliable network between the Eastern Partnership region and Europe (EaPConnect)";
- DAA9-19-65987-1 “Belarusian Tuberculosis Database and Internet Portal: Eighth Year” (USA, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases NYH), supplementing and expanding the data provided on the open portal dedicated to tuberculosis in Belarus, updating information resources and expanding the portal's functionality; full study of strains of multiple and extensive drug resistance (MDR and EDR), study of the possibility of creating algorithms for determining MDR by analyzing the corresponding images;
- "Development of mathematical and software tools to support decision-making when planning the replacement of a traditional or mixed fleet of buses with a fleet of electric buses" within the framework of the PLATON project;
- GEANT 4-3. Development of the GEANT scientific and educational network, phase 3.
In total, in 2020, the volume of exports of goods and services amounted to 380.1 thousand US dollars, including: to Great Britain - 365 thousand dollars, to Belgium 15.1 thousand dollars.
The network equipment for the scientific and educational network NREN within the framework of the EaPConnect project was purchased for 495.1 thousand dollars.
In total, in 2020, the employees of the institute traveled abroad 19 times. Among the purposes of the business trips there were participation in conferences, seminars and symposia with reports, joint scientific work with foreign scientists, participation in meetings to discuss possible cooperation, presentation of the Institute's developments at international exhibitions. The most significant were:
- participation in the meeting of the 20th General Assembly GEANT of the GEANT4 project, phase 3;
- scientific research within the framework of PLATON joint project and negotiations on the implementation of joint scientific and technical projects;
- participation in the seminar of the European Commission "COPERNICUS program and artificial intelligence" and the search for ways to enhance cooperation with European organizations ";
- participation in the Open Source Vibrational Micro Spectro Scopy Software hackathon;
- joint research on the theory of bifurcation of polynomial dynamical systems.
In 2020 8 delegations, consisting of representatives of foreign research centers and companies, visited the Institute. The purpose of the visits was to get acquainted with the scientific developments of the institute in order to consider the possibilities of scientific and technical cooperation. In total, 22 representatives of foreign scientific centers and business circles visited the Institute.
Due to the epidemiological situation, the number of visits by foreign specialists was insignificant, however, international contacts were in the form of online meetings, videoconferences and webinars with the following organizations:
- the leaders of the Minsk Research Center of Huawei;
- the leaders of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC);
- representatives of research centers and universities in the USA and Europe within the framework of the EaPConnect Eastern Partnership project;
- representatives within the framework of the EaPConnect Eastern Partnership project on the development of a strategy for the development of scientific and educational networks (NREN) in the context of the global COVID coronavirus pandemic;
- representatives of the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) on the implementation of the joint project F20KI-017;
- representatives of partner organizations and the management of the EaPConnect Eastern Partnership project on the formation of reporting documents for the final stage of the project and development of a strategy for further work within the framework of EaPConnect2;
- a group of IT specialists of the Republic of Tatarstan to discuss a joint pilot project to create a platform prototype of a system for machine processing of medical images;
- the management of the International Intelligent Machines Belarus (IIM Belarus) company to discuss the possibility of participation of the UIIP in the project to control unmanned vehicles;
- the leaders and researchers of the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) on possible areas of cooperation in the field of information processing from satellite systems for remote sensing of the Earth;
- the management of Eirene Systems Private Limited (India) on cooperation in the development of remote monitoring systems for agricultural lands;
- representatives of the University of Artificial Intelligence of the United Arab Emirates (MBZUAI) on cooperation, both in the educational field and in the implementation of joint research projects;
- webinar on the topic "Why haven't we won over HIV" with the SKLAD educational platform (Fudan University (Shanghai, China) and Chester University (UK));
- online forum of projects of the European Union "Electric Mobility Europe";
- online report "Deep Learning in Medical Image Analysis" at the AIIA2020 Artificial Intelligence Developers Conference, September 28-29, 2020. (Beijing, China);
- online seminar on the results of the implementation of an international project to create an information portal on drug-resistant tuberculosis. The participants were from 13 countries (including Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Congo, Mali, Nigeria, Romania, USA, Ukraine);
- the ninth national Supercomputer Forum (in the video-conference mode), organized by the Program Systems Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in (Pereslavl-Zalessky, Russia);
- participation at the International Symposium on Research and Applications in Bioinformatics (online) with 5 reports.
During 2020, UIIP employees took part in several scientific research competitions:
- European competition (hackathon) EUvsVirus, organized by the European Commission to develop innovative solutions to the problems associated with coronavirus, UIIP Team proposed the project "Computer discovery of novel anti-COVID drugs". More than 23,000 participants and more than 2,500 teams from 56 countries took part in the hackathon. The Belarusian project (the only one from Belarus) was highly appreciated by the experts of the event and attracted public attention;
- the international competition “Billions molecules against Covid-19. JEDI GRANDCHALLENGE ”(search for the best chemical compounds that can block coronavirus);
- the international competition “COVIDathon. Decentralized AI against COVID-19 ”(creation of technologies based on artificial intelligence to counteract the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus);
- the international competition JEDI Grandchallenge for the search for chemical compounds that are promising for the creation of drugs against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. According to the results of the first round of the competition, out of 130 teams of participants, 30 teams were selected for the second round, including the Belarusian team;
- an international competition on the Grand Challenge platform (https://covid-segmentation.grand-challenge.org/COVID-19-20/), designed to evaluate new segmentation methods and quantitative analysis of formations caused by SARS-CoV-2. More than 200 teams from different organizations and countries took part in the competition. Levchuk V.A., senior researcher of UIIP, took 6th place.
In 2020 UIIP took part in 3 international exhibitions:
- International specialized exhibition "BELAGRO-2020",
- the 3rd China International Import Exhibition (distance participation),
- the International Exhibition and Forum of Telecommunication and Information Technologies Cairo ICT (Cairo, the Arab Republic of Egypt).
