As part of the national AI strategy set up by the government, the AI challenges were launched in 2019 for a period of 3 years. During the second wave of calls in 2020, 6 new challenges were selected, including 4 on the theme of Defence and Security proposed by MBDA, Telespazio France & Thales Services, Nexter Robotics & SAP Labs France.
The closing date for the Wave 2 PAA Winners has been set for July 22, 2020 at 12:00 noon.
This new PAA Wave 2 winners will be presented during 2 webinars organized by SCS:
The 4 new challenges
“AI-follow” – Private Sponsor: Nexter Robotics
The proposed challenge is to develop a module to detect the change of posture of a person (military) from the RGB and IR cameras of a robot so that it can adopt an adapted mobility behavior and make it as autonomous as possible. The resulting solution can thus be integrated into Nexter Robotics’ Multipurpose Tactical Robots, and offers many opportunities in the civilian sector, in particular with the detection of falling persons or behaviour/intention detection.
“CATUSSA” – Private sponsors: Telespazio France & Thales Services
The challenge, proposed by Telespazio in collaboration with Thales Services, aims to create a prototype capable of building a spatial data catalogue from different data sets. By relying on AI methods, this prototype will have to improve the reliability of data whose accuracy is insufficient or unknown, in order to obtain a unified and quality data set from which services can be developed. The benefits are multiple: securing the satellites in orbit, whose number is growing exponentially, better anticipation of threats that may weigh on the satellites, etc. The prototype will be used to develop a new data set that can be used for the development of services.
“VALERIA” – Private sponsor: MBDA
AI is increasingly present in the civilian and military sectors. The main challenge now is to be able to demonstrate the robustness of these algorithms. This challenge therefore aims to develop a prototype tool to assist in the validation of AI algorithms based on the SVM method and/or neural networks. The solutions developed could be valorized and marketed in the sectors of defence, security, transport, energy, aeronautics and health.
“VULN-AI” – Private Sponsor: SAP Labs France
VULN-AI is a challenge about detecting security vulnerabilities in source code. An AI-based solution would allow all companies (especially software companies) to automatically scan their code for suspicious changes to avoid malicious acts. We propose a topical subject of great importance for our company, on a growing application domain and with a dataset hand labeled by software security experts.
Eligibility and selection
Eligible individual SMEs or French consortia. An SME can respond to several challenges
Selection by a committee made up of SCS, SAFE, the Sponsor, Bpifrance, DGE and experts mandated by SCS and SAFE.
Terms and Conditions
100 k€ max per winner
Maximum aid (grant): 45% for VSEs and 35% for SMEs
Intellectual Property: The work carried out by the laureates remains their property.
Apply
The specifications, the application form and the rules of the 6 challenges of the AAP 2 Winners IA challenges are online HERE
Responses must be sent exclusively in electronic form on the extranet of Bpifrance’s innovative collaborative projects.
Deadline set for July 22, 2020 at 12:00 noon.
The “AI Challenges” device
The “Challenges IA” scheme is financed by the Programme d’Investissements d’Avenir (PIA) in line with the “Artificial Intelligence (AI)” plan announced by the President of the Republic, piloted by the Direction Générale des Entreprises (DGE) in conjunction with the Secrétariat Général pour l’Investissement, and operated by Bpifrance.
In May 2020, the 4 Sponsors of the Defence and Security theme formalized their specifications with the help of the SAFE and SCS clusters, which provide support on the Defence-Security theme. These 4 specifications are added to the common rules of the IA Challenges to form a new “Call for Winning Projects” launched on 29 May 2020.
Each challenge is the subject of a call for winners aimed at selecting the best solution proposed by an SME or start-up, a solution that can be financially supported under the Future Investment Program (PIA).
BPI & DGE are launching these calls for project winners to identify and select the winners of these challenges, with the final selection expected in October 2020.
As a reminder, in 2019, for the Defence and Security theme, 3 winners have been selected to take up the challenges of 3 sponsors:
- The SME EarthCube for a challenge proposed by Thales Six GTS ;
- The SME Ezako for a challenge proposed by Agence Nationale des Fréquences ;
- The SME Synapse Défense and the IRT Saint Exupéry for a challenge proposed by MBDA.
These 3 winners have initiated their collaboration with the sponsors for their respective challenges thanks to the help of SAFE and SCS coaches. The results of the challenge will be presented at the end of the collaboration, in 9 to 12 months.
Translated from Lancement des Challenges IA Lauréats Vague 2 portés par SAFE et SCS sur la thématique Défense/Sécurité
