“AI has the potential to fundamentally change how people perceive the world around them and live their daily lives. This is the essence of technological progress, and realizing these changes happens through innovation.” —USPTO: Inventing AI - Tracing the Diffusion of Artificial Intelligence with U.S. Patents
Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a significant role in almost every conceivable industry, from medicine to finance to law. It drives consumer behavior, and it shapes our daily lives—how we search the internet, navigate directions, shop online, connect on social media, read our emails, and more.
AI applications are now seemingly limitless—and each semester, students in MBS’s Applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) from Concept to Market push the bounds of novel use. Over the course of twelve weeks, students not only learn about emerging technologies and AI’s sweeping applications, but develop their own functional AI-based products with an eye for commercialization.
Working in cross-disciplinary teams, students identify a novel use for AI technology and develop a concept-to-market strategy that includes a comprehensive, five-year business plan for a startup based around that technology.
During end-of-semester presentations, students unveil their business plans along with a working prototype of their product—performing a live demonstration using either their computers or smartphones.
Last semester, 18 students were split among five teams, with all members bringing their real-life skills and expertise to the table. Of the AI applications that each team selected, “Most if not all were unconventional and unique,” says Jay Yogeshwar, Ph.D., entrepreneur and global business development leader who headed the course this spring. Additionally, all projects were based on concepts learned in the class, which was developed by Richard Mammone, Ph.D.— an entrepreneur who holds faculty positions at Rutgers Business School, Rutgers School of Engineering, and Rutgers Professional Science Master’s program, and who has a leg in both business and science.
The presentations, held on May 4, were evaluated by Yogeshwar—also a member of MBS’s Industrial Advisory Board—as well as fellow instructors (and MBS alumni) Siddhartha Pachhai MBS’19 and Bob Warfsman MBS’19— experts who asked questions, provided feedback, and identified each product’s areas of strength as well as areas that may need improvement.
May 2021 Applied AI Teams: Problems, Solutions, Plans, and Demos
DeepDesign – Harnessing the Power of AI to Bring Innovative Solutions to the Field of Graphic Design
Problem: Branding and visual identity are critical to business success. Unfortunately, this endeavor is highly expensive and often cost-prohibitive for young startups and individual entrepreneurs.
Solution: DeepDesign harnesses AI to generate unique logos for branding and visual identity, thus driving cost-effective branding solutions. Clients can also opt to pair DeepDesign’s technology with human graphic designers and consultants.
Astria AI – Improving Chest X-Ray Diagnosis with Artificial Intelligence, One Patient at a Time
Problem: End-to-end, the medical imaging process can be lengthy and inaccurate. While current technology produces images for review and interpretation by radiologists, it does not offer potential diagnoses or flag clearly critical issues.
Solution: Integrating Astria AI’s technology with medical-imaging devices can improve the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of chest x-rays and provide preliminary diagnoses.
Integrity–AI-Driven Pothole Protection for a Smooth Road Ahead
Problem: Aging infrastructure is hazardous and expensive: in New Jersey alone, more than 37 percent of roads are in poor condition, costing drivers an average of $713 annually.
Solution: Integrity technology is designed to increase road-condition monitoring—including pothole detection and assessment—and improve current reporting mechanisms, resulting in fewer driving hazards and less expense to motorists.
FinTime Labs – Cutting-Edge AI to Solve the Toughest Problems in Finance
Problem: Is your portfolio ready for anything? “The financial world is not great at anticipating the next crisis,” and historical data analysis does not work well in predicting future performance.
Solution: Ganymede: powerful, cutting-edge, AI-driven technology that allows rapid generation of many plausible, multi-asset scenarios with no parametric input.
ArchiTecht – Building your Future: Improving Home Design with Artificial Intelligence
Problem: With the current housing boom, architects and designers can’t work fast enough to meet client demands. There is a huge backlog for professionals and great expense for consumers.
Solution: Revolutionize the home design industry using AI to speed the rendering process, improve lead times, and drive design and customization while lowering costs and wait-time for consumers.
Conclusion:
Each project ended with a summary, a call to action, and—at the end of all presentations— resounding approval from Yogeshwar, Warfsman, and Pachhai. “The course brought out the best analytic mindsets in the student cohort,” says Yogeshwar. “With inquisitiveness, determination, and an eye on business, the students conceived novel ideas and executed the core precepts of Deep Learning.”