LONDON — The Institute for Intelligent Network Systems opens the door to further European partnerships and ground-breaking research in the fields of artificial intelligence and wireless communications with a new base in London.
The Institute (formerly the Wireless Internet of Things Institute), which has been awarded 68 patents for new inventions, developed more than 30 industry partnerships, and conducted advanced wellness research since its founding on Northeastern University’s Boston campus in 2019, has opened its first research office outside the United States. The new location at Northeastern University’s London campus marks a transatlantic expansion of industry partnerships in the areas of AI and wireless communications.
“We will work on building an interface between the world of connectivity and the world of intelligence,” Institute Director Tommaso Melodia said at a launch event on Friday. “We will expand our focus with new research topics, new areas and new expertise brought to us by our London hub.”
“We believe that by establishing a hub in London, we will have the opportunity to further partner and create further opportunities in Europe,” Melodia added.
The institute focuses on AI, machine learning, and telecommunications to make wireless communications faster, more energy efficient, and safer. London will be the company’s third location, joining its headquarters in Boston and a satellite office in Burlington, Massachusetts.
The UK office is led by Bipin Rajendran, Professor of Intelligent Computing Systems, and Osvaldo Simeone, Professor of Information Engineering.
The researchers’ projects include working with US tech giant IBM to develop the next generation of AI hardware and investigating fraud with the AI technology behind everyday apps such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
Melodia told Northeastern Global News that the new researchers will help diversify the expertise, focusing on machine learning, neuromorphic computing (computing inspired by the way the human brain processes large amounts of information quickly) and quantum computing.
Mr Simeone said the UK hub’s two-fold mission was to focus on “developing reliable AI” and “modern emerging computing”. Rajendran and Simeone have only been on the job for two weeks, but they’re already leading a team of about 20 researchers based in Portsoken One, a technology and engineering-focused building on Northeastern’s London campus.
The two professors have been friends for the past 10 years, first working together in New Jersey, then moving as a duo to King’s College in London and now Northeastern.
Rajendran said he and Simeone are “complementary” in terms of research expertise. Director Simeone responded, “I completely agree.” “Bipin is an expert in systems, hardware, software, and co-design. And I’m more of a theorist, an information theorist. So how this works is that I usually come up with some kind of idea or system that works on paper, and Bipin makes it work in practice.”
Their joint arrival will significantly strengthen the research portfolio of the London campus. Simeone has secured funding from the European Research Council to investigate the reliability of AI in telecommunications. He is currently recruiting researchers for the project, which is scheduled to begin in February.
He has also received funding from the American nonprofit organization Coefficient Giving (formerly known as Open Philanthropy) to detect malfunctions in large-scale language models. Known as LLMs, these are the basis of chatbot technology found in apps like ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot.
“Perhaps they are trying to cheat or break out of prison and do things that you don’t want them to do,” Simeone explained. “We put probes inside the model to understand when the model is making inferences or going in unexpected directions.”
The UK Agency for Advanced Research and Inventions, an independent government science funding agency, asked Rajendran to look into building an accelerator for large-scale language models, with Simeone also part of the three-year project. “The goal is to reduce the cost of LLM training or model development by a factor of 100 compared to traditional systems. [current] It’s a graphics processing unit,” Rajendran said.
Rajendran is also collaborating with US tech giant IBM, where Rajendran previously worked as a lead researcher on brain-inspired computing, on a project funded by Horizon Europe, the European Union’s research agency, with the aim of producing the next generation of AI hardware beyond the silicon-based semiconductors currently in use.
Simeone said he and his colleagues were “excited” to “spearhead” the institute’s expansion into Europe. Simeone praised Melodia’s leadership and said the institute has become “the most recognized name in telecommunications research.” The Institute has raised $130 million in funding over seven years, has 225 members, and collaborates with more than 30 industry partners.
“I wanted to work with him [Melodia] “So when I found out they were opening a branch in London, I thought it would be a great opportunity,” Simeone continued.
Simeone, who has worked closely with Rajendran over the years, was keen to maintain their partnership. “Of course, as soon as I had the idea, I contacted Bipin,” he said. Rajendran also said he felt the move was a “great opportunity.” He added: “And the opportunity to continue collaborating with Osvaldo was also a big draw for me.”
The launch of the London hub was marked at a conference held at Devon House on Friday. It attracted international speakers from academia and industry, including representatives from major US technology companies such as IBM and Nvidia.
The first event was designed to let European-based professionals know that “we are here and ready to collaborate,” Simeone said. “It’s about putting us on the map and celebrating this new initiative.”
