Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of a machine or computer that enables it to imitate or mimic human capabilities. AI uses multiple technologies that equip machines to sense, comprehend, plan, act, and learn with human-like levels of intelligence. Essentially, AI systems perceive environments, recognize objects, contribute to decision making, solve complex problems, learn from past experiences, and imitate patterns. These abilities are combined to accomplish tasks like driving a car or recognizing faces to unlock device screens.

AI is poised at a juncture where its role in every industry has become almost inevitable, be it healthcare, manufacturing, robotics, autonomous systems, aviation, and plenty others. However, just because AI holds enormous potential, it does not mean that one can ignore the numerous challenges that come along with it. The AcIRSTD will develop new AI technologies for use in a variety of industries, including healthcare, finance, and manufacturing.

The Academy will create new algorithms for analyzing large amounts of data and making predictions based on that data. These algorithms will be used to create new technologies like self-driving cars, virtual assistants, and fraud detection systems.

MISSION:

To become a multidisciplinary group that searches for and studies the theoretical foundations, new paradigms, methodologies and technologies needed for the specific support by intelligent computer systems of the knowledge aspects of social processes, community-based elicitation and specification of semantics, and the use of such knowledge e.g. as linked data in applications

OBJECTIVES

• To study and develop theory and techniques for intelligent agents. 
• To explore the use of Artificial Intelligence techniques for applications development.  
• To study and develop theory and techniques for knowledge representation and reasoning.
• To explore computer methodology and algorithms that improves automatically through experience. Applications range from data mining programs that discover general rules in large data sets, to information filtering systems that automatically learn users' interests. 
• To foster the development and understanding of Artificial Intelligence and its applications worldwide.
• To promote interdisciplinary exchanges between Artificial Intelligence and other fields of information processing.
• to raise awareness for the importance of concepts and findings from Cognitive Science in AI research that address spatial and spatio-temporal issues; but likewise, to inform cognitive science researchers about relevant findings and methods from AI
• To obtain a deeper understanding of Computational Intelligence and its Applications and help in the development of its theoretical foundations and technological underpinnings.

GOALS

The goals on Artificial Intelligence (AI) include the following:
Fostering Creativity and Innovation - spurs creativity, innovation and generates creative new ideas and push the boundaries of human imagination.

• Promoting of synergy between humans and AI - enables them to work together and enhance each other’s capabilities rather than depend on just one system.
• Facilitating planning - determines a procedural course of action for a system to achieve its goals and optimizes overall performance through predictive analytics, data analysis, forecasting, and optimization models. 
• Incorporating knowledge representation - revolves around the idea of knowledge representation and knowledge engineering.
• Allow continuous learning – this implies the ability of computer algorithms to improve the knowledge of an AI program through observations and past experiences.
• Promoting creativity and artificial thinking that can help humans accomplish tasks better.
• Encouraging social Intelligence – the research efforts incline toward amplifying the social intelligence of machines.
• Achieving general intelligence - develop machines with general AI capabilities that combine all the cognitive skills of humans and perform tasks with better proficiency than us to boost overall productivity as tasks would be performed with greater efficiency and free humans from risky tasks such as defusing bombs.
• It also offers a platform to augment and strengthen creativity, as AI can develop many novel ideas and concepts that can inspire and boost the overall creative process. For example, an AI system can provide multiple interior design options for a 3D-rendered apartment layout.
• Developing problem-solving ability - focuses on developing efficient problem-solving algorithms that can make logical deductions and simulate human reasoning while solving complex problem.

RESEARCH FOCUS AREAS

• Search and Information Retrieval
• AI for Human-Agent and Human-Robot Interaction
• Information and Knowledge Management
• Robotics
• Foundations of AI and Machine Learning
• Conversational AI/Natural Language Processing
• Fairness, Explainability, and Accountability in AI
• AI for Information Security
• Multisensory Multimodal AI
• Cloud and Computing Systems for AI
• Computer Vision