About iAD

iAD: Information Access Disruptions

The iAD Research Centre offers a unique environment for core research on next generation information access solutions. This potential has been recognised by the Research Council of Norway by establishing iAD as a Centre for Research-based Innovation. Ts The main objective for the Centres for Research-based Innovation (CRIs) is to enhance the capability of the business sector to innovate by focusing on long-term research based on forging close alliances between research-intensive enterprises and prominent research groups.

iAD is hosted by Fast Search & Transfer in collaboration with the following partners:

Cornell University
Dublin City University
Norwegian School of Management
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
University of Oslo
University of Tromsø
Accenture
Schibsted

iAD focuses academic research on:

Create schema agnostic indexing services fusing structured, unstructured and multimedia content in precision, analytics and scale optimized information access services
Develop scalable and fault-tolerant system architectures including data processing and mining platforms for capturing, cleaning, and extracting knowledge from high-speed data streams
Develop and validate in real environments next generation infrastructure for distributed information access
Develop extreme precision solutions for access to multimedia
Identify disruptive processes either within information access or enabled by information access solutions that can be used as a cluster foundation for Norwegian IT innovation

Background

Search is driving today’s most innovative and disruptive technologies, impacting a wide range of social patterns, industries and the way companies conduct business. Search has received highly prioritized research mandates in US and European Union research programs. FAST has emerged as the recognized leader in search and information access technologies, with Norway established as one of the leading information innovation centres in the world.

“FAST’s close-knit relationship with its customers, partners and the esteemed academic community serves to drive innovation of search technologies beyond expectations,” said John M. Lervik, CEO of FAST. “We have only scratched the surface of seeing how search is causing a major disruptive technology shift, changing business’ focus from information production to information consumption. We express deep gratitude for the trust the Research Council of Norway has bestowed upon the Centre’s members.”

Progressive countries recognize the key to corporate innovation and growth correlates to a strong investment in education. This program will support, identify and execute on the research developed by prominent academics by leveraging an international commercial network, including Fortune 500 companies, available to test and drive iAD innovation. Focused on enabling technology and emerging services in the information age, the group plans new prototypes, patents and disruptive products and services that will introduce radical innovations to the information access landscape. FAST was selected to lead the iAD because of its proven track record of working with its partners and global customers to successfully bring innovative search technologies to market.

“The Centre, the first to be led by a commercial partner, has a unique opportunity to build a strong science and business platform that will play a significant role in the future of the global information age,” said Bjørn Olstad, FAST’s CTO and leader of the iAD research centre initiative. “Integrating academic and corporate efforts with international centres of excellence will result in a major contribution to the new search-driven enterprise.”

The Norwegian division of Accenture will provide a laboratory for validating enterprise solutions and has established an international business unit that will provide iAD with a global network to experiment and deploy information access solutions. Schibsted will provide a test environment for large scale B2C services for information access across web, mobile, TV and media. Schibsted has embarked upon ambitious international innovation goals which will be accelerated by iAD. iAD creates the tight relationships between already cooperating centres of excellence inside universities and corporate partners.