From ships to chips: AI talent program tackles security challenges

The Industrial Immersion Exchange program started as a collaboration between AI Sweden and Dakota State University, DSU. Running for the third consecutive year, the program doubled in size this summer. Over 10 weeks, 23 graduate students from Swedish and US universities have worked on challenges provided by stakeholders from AI Sweden’s partner network: Volvo Group, Västra Götalandsregionen, the Swedish Defence University, and Aixia. 

Part of the program, this year helping with financial support, is also DSU’s partner Case New Holland.

The Industrial Immersion Exchange program, just like every talent program AI Sweden hosts, builds on the idea of mutual benefits for both talents and stakeholders when they work together on real-world projects. 

Creating value for both students…

Dr. Mary Bell, Dean of The Beacom College of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Dakota State University, highlights quite a few important aspects:

“Students gain experience in teamwork by learning how to build a team and thrive within that team. They develop effective communication skills with industry and government officials and learn to navigate international settings while iteratively improving their models. They come to learn that failures are not setbacks but learning opportunities. In addition to honing their technical skills, this program offers a safe environment for experimentation. At the same time, it places constructive pressure on students to deliver actionable models and outcomes to their industrial or government sponsors.”

Nicholas Gourley, one of the US students participating this summer, confirms what Dr. Bell says:

“Being able to work on problems that could affect real people and actually have an impact within the industry, especially within cyber defense and how that ties into artificial intelligence, is really important. It's something I've always wanted to do, and this program was precisely what I was looking for. It's exactly why I wanted to come to Sweden, learn from real industry professionals who have all of these years of experience in everything I don't have.”

…and stakeholders

“Stakeholders benefit from fresh insights and innovative approaches to emerging challenges, thanks to the diverse expertise and cutting-edge academic knowledge brought by the international teams of students. This unique blend of collective brainpower and varied academic backgrounds often leads to breakthrough developments. This collaboration also provides companies with the opportunity to identify and recruit future employees who have already demonstrated their potential,” says Dr. Bell.

“The summer program has allowed us to get a head start on the upcoming phase of our LeakPro project pertaining to attacks on text-based AI models. The students have explored various possible directions and distilled a report outlining the current state-of-the-art, shortcomings of current approaches, especially in regards to benchmarking datasets, and even presented their own, novel, algorithm that is competitive with state-of-the-art attacks. This report will serve as the starting point and guiding source for the next phase of our project,” says Johan Östman at AI Sweden.