Kempe funds 10 postdocs in AI and software for international leadership

The investment is an important part of an ongoing initiative to recruit six international top researchers as professors and guest professors at Umeå University, four of them in artificial intelligence and two in the software area.

The recruitments are mainly funded by The Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) and the additional grant of the Kempe Foundations help to recruit researchers of the highest scientific quality.

“The support from the Kempe Foundations allows us to attract the brightest and the best researchers in areas where there is a tough competition for competence,” says Erik Elmroth, professor and head of the Department of Computing Science.

The initiative spans a wide range of research areas within AI, such as data analysis, machine learning, data and knowledge representation, and reasoning systems with direct links to, for example, confidentiality and mobility. The software investment complements with a focus on automated software development and software security.

The Kempe Foundations granted funds to the Umeå University in 2016 for eight postdoctoral researchers in AI, autonomous systems and software to create an interesting environment and be able to attract large external funds from WASP.

“The support we received in 2016 has been important for making the research environment strong and interesting enough to attract the upcoming recruitments,” says Erik Elmroth.

These mostly basic research-oriented recruitments focus strongly on making Umeå University internationally competitive and on building competence in important areas.

“In a larger perspective, it gives us an opportunity to become an international leader in many parts of the AI area. This, in turn, creates the conditions for our other investments in collaboration and education as a whole to become the best possible driver for the region's development,” says Erik Elmroth.