February 2019
Endless Possibilities
Top European tech companies investing in AR
Star Start-Up
Introducing innovators of tomorrow, Graphcore
Foresters Financial’s CIO talks technology, digital transformation and customer experience
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elcome to our bumper February edition of Digital Innovation Magazine, promising a venerable feast of informative tech features, candid industry interviews and our regular go-to new stories. It’s been a busy few months for the DI team, celebrating the anniversary of our launch issue, as well as looking back at some of our favourite cover interviews of 2018 (check out our social media for more!). Speaking of which, our cover star this month is John-Paul Edwards, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Foresters Financial (p16). It was extremely insightful for me to chat with John-Paul about the amazing journey his company is on… It is certainly an intriguing time for CIOs out there! Plus, our second interview comes courtesy of UK-based money transfer service and peer-to-peer specialist, TransferWise (p66). Stuart Gregory, Global Head of Partnerships, reveals the importance of bank partners when discussing company growth. Looking ahead to the coming months, we bring you our predictions for data centres and the cloud (p34), as well as reports on the use of AI in EU border security (p6), and VR in investigating the causes of crime scenes (p78)… It’s truly fascinating stuff! And that’s not forgetting our feature on the Helsinki library, which is paving the way in making 3D printing readily available… Turn to page 88 for the full story! What’s more, this issue marks the launch of our regular ‘start-up of the month’ segment, featuring Graphcore as February’s start-up in the spotlight (p118). We are always keen to talk to tech innovators, so do drop us a line if you would like to be considered for a future edition. Hope you enjoy the issue!
Editor Anna McMahon
Managing Director Danielle Harris
editorial@digitalinnovationeu.com
d.harris@digitalinnovationeu.com
Senior Digital Designer Daniel May
Managing Director Tom Barnes
design@digitalinnovationeu.com
t.barnes@digitalinnovationeu.com
+44 (0) 203 890 1189 enquiries@digitalinnovationeu.com All rights reserved. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of material published in Digital Innovation Magazine. However, the company cannot accept responsibility for the claims made by advertisers or contributors, or inaccurate material supplied by advertisers. Digital Innovation is a trading name of HBL Europe Ltd. Company Registration Number: 10933897. Company Registered in England and Wales
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Cloud and da predictions
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John-Paul Edwards, CIO at Foresters Financial
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AI-powered lie detectors at EU borders
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Top European tech companies investing in AR 4
ata centre s for 2019 VR helping to investigate fires and crime scenes
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Graphcore, our start-up of the month!
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Helsinki library making 3D printing accessible 5
A RT I F I C I A L I N T E L L I G E N C E
W H A T ‘S I N Y O U R S U I T C A S E
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Passengers are set to face AI-powered lie detector tests at EU borders in a bid to toughen security.
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THE EU IS EXPERIMENTING WITH A DIGITAL BORDER GUARD TO HELP SOLVE ITS BORDER CONTROL PROBLEMS AND POLICING DEMAND, COSTING MORE THAN 4.5 MILLION EUROS.
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uizzing travellers at four different border crossing points in Hungary, Latvia and Greece, the system, dubbed iBorderCtrl, is part of a sixmonth trial run by the Hungarian National Police. The entire effort is being coordinated by European Dynamics Luxembourg, and the teams involved span Greece, Cyprus, the UK, Poland, Spain, Hungary, Germany and Latvia. If it is successful, the technology could
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be rolled out to borders across other EU member states. For some, gaining EU citizenship is a dream scenario, making them a prime target for criminals issuing fake passports. This is a major problem faced by border officials. A lie detector would be able to assist with identifying illegal immigrants, using AI to scan their face while they answer questions about their travels and the contents of their suitcase.
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“IF A LIE D PHYS OFFIC A MO
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A TRAVELLER FAILS THE DETECTOR, ONCE AT THE SICAL BORDER, HUMAN CERS WILL THEN PERFORM ORE STRINGENT CHECK” Visitors will be required to upload photos of their passport, visa and proof of funds in advance, and with the use of a webcam, their answers will be analysed, along with 38 facial micro-expressions, to reveal if they are lying. Those who pass the test will receive a QR code that they can scan to cross the border. If a traveller fails the lie detector, once at the physical border, human officers will then perform a more stringent check, using hand-held devices to automatically crosscheck information, comparing facial images captured during the prescreening stage to passports and photos taken on previous border crossings. Project coordinator, George Boultadakis of European
Dynamics in Luxembourg, said, “We’re employing existing and proven technologies – as well as novel ones – to empower border agents to increase the accuracy and efficiency of border checks. iBorderCtrl’s system will collect data that will move beyond biometrics and on to biomarkers of deceit.” An early version of the system was tested using volunteers at a fake border crossing. Half were told to lie to the bot, while the other half told the truth. The digital border guard guessed correctly with an accuracy rate of 76 per cent, which iBorderCtrl hopes to increase to 85 per cent, according to Keeley Crockett, iBorderCtrl team member 11
“IF EVER SYSTEM UP BORD LIMITING CHECKS T RAISE INI
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RYTHING GOES WELL, THE COULD GREATLY SPEED DER CROSSINGS BY G THE MORE EXTENSIVE TO SOLELY PEOPLE WHO ITIAL SUSPICIONS”
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“CLEARLY, FINE-TUNING IS REQUIRED BEFORE THIS TECHNOLOGY CAN BE IMPL WITH TOTAL PEACE OF MIN and researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University. But, experts say the accuracy rate in the real world could be lower because people who are told to lie present clearer facial signs than those who fib earnestly. Maja Pantic, Professor of Affective and Behavioural Computing at Imperial College London, said, “If you ask people to lie, they will do it differently and show very different behavioural cues than if they truly lie, knowing that they may go to jail or face serious consequences if caught. This is a known problem in psychology.” There is also the well-documented issue of the current bias of AIpowered facial recognition systems. A 2010 study by researchers at NIST and the University of Texas in Dallas found that algorithms designed and tested in East Asia are better 14
at recognising East Asians, while those designed in Western countries are more accurate at detecting Caucasians. In addition, the ACLU found Amazon’s facial recognition software erroneously labelled those with darker skin colours as criminals more often. Whether the developers of iBorderCtrl have managed to remove such automated discrimination remains to be seen, but the low hit rate raises concerns over the number of travellers who could get away with lying at country borders. Clearly, fine-tuning is required before this technology can be implemented with total peace of mind. If everything goes well, the system could greatly speed up border crossings by limiting the more extensive checks to solely people who raise initial suspicions.
LEMENTED ND”
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B U S I N E S S I N T E RV I E W
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Onwards & Upwards John-Paul Edwards, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Foresters Financial chats to Editor Anna McMahon about the company’s digital transformation journey.
Written by Anna McMahon • Produced by Tom Barnes
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A financial servic unique history, Fo started life 145 ye
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t is now headquartered in Canada, with over 3 million customers and members across the UK, Canada and the United States. Foresters continues to offer a range of simple and affordable financial solutions for working families, from savings and investments to protection. John-Paul Edwards, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Foresters Financial, said, “We are proud of our longstanding heritage and ensuring that our members benefit from our strength of purpose. As a UK mutual organisation, our members can also receive a range of benefits, from fun family community events to a university scholarship, or even a community grant to organise and fund community events themselves, making us different from other financial services organisations. It may sound like a clichĂŠ, but our vision in the UK is still around
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helping everyday families to enrich their lives, and for our members to do business with us in a way that suits them.� Foresters Financial offers their customers a choice in how they do business including a team of financial advisers offering a homebased personal planning service, a fantastic team of customer services
based in the UK, and the ability to take out a plan and manage it online. It is especially important for the company to not forget about its baby boomers
ces provider with a oresters Financial ears ago.
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and generation X customers, as well as adapt and change for millennials and generation Z customers, given the fact that over 1 million of its customers in the UK are under the age of 18. John-Paul explained, “Our society is changing – these changes are reshaping the expectations of both customers and employees. It is important to recognise that with different generations we need to make experiences frictionless for everyone. My challenge as CIO is to identify what elements in the marketplace provide some of the key elements of success, to know the customer and make it easy to engage with the right services in the digital age. We need to embrace digital transformation to stay relevant to our customers because if we don’t adapt quickly, they will switch to one of our competitors.”
John-Paul’s core role is to look at digital transformation as a way of reframing relationships with Foresters Financial customers, members and employees through the new technologies in order to connect and engage with them in novel ways. John-Paul said, “Every business is going through some form of digital transformation to merge internal processes. It goes beyond the technology aspect, and is more about perceiving digital as a way of streamlining the entire business. We are still operating with some legacy systems, but we know we need to adapt to improve processes, cut costs and encourage fluidity. Technology is impacting on the financial services industry in a multitude of ways, and executives need to be able to address new business models and culture change.”
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“Armed with adv and omni-chan Foresters Finan exceptional custo Junior ISA
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Transfer Your Child’s savings to us
vanced analytics nnel solutions, ncial can create omer experiences� Adult ISA
Top up or gift to a child’s savings plan
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“The data is not enough on You need to consider every point and customer interac for a complete view, buildin automatic trigger points to the business process effect Today, CIOs have a number of considerations when adapting to change regardless of industry, from blockchain, robotics and AI, through to the cloud, security and regulations. However, it is John-Paul’s view that the customer experience will become a key predictor for many organisations in their drive to become more relevant and agile. He explained, “For Foresters Financial, it’s about building on the customer experience to continue to provide positive experiences that stand out from our competitors. We are looking at our work style to facilitate more collaborative team structures, and our organisational model is moving towards digital DNA, with a mix of traditional and non-traditional stakeholders.” The most valuable, untapped resource, however, especially 26
for financial services, is data. JohnPaul added, “Armed with advanced analytics and omni-channel solutions, Foresters Financial can create exceptional customer experiences. Protected, secure data is critical to transforming the customer experience, as we need to guide our customers to meet their goals. It goes back to digitisation again, connecting that data, putting in the foundations, and making sure that those foundations allow us to leverage the data to create business value. Our next step is to change and optimise business processes by leveraging the digital technologies and automation. A third layer will involve business resources, capabilities and the new business model to leverage opportunities of digital technology. Our priority over the next two years is updating the model – and preparing ourselves for the new normal.”
n its own. y touch ction ng on o make tive�
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A further element will see Foresters Financial adopting APIs to give the organisation greater agility, providing open architecture that will connect to anything anywhere. John-Paul said, “The technology is the easy part, but how do you go about transforming the business model? Add in the regulatory side, and it is very challenging. Large financial services organisations need to transform at a pace that will also not disrupt their current services, continuing to serve their existing customers whilst building their trust.”
change, with advances in analytics and machine learning bringing robo-advisers to the fore. However, there is some uncertainty over how digital financial advice will evolve It is this trust aspect that makes over the next three to five years, but security a priority for Foresters the information age in which we find Financial, as well as preparing the ourselves means today’s generation architecture in a way that pays wants to be able to operate at attention to what their members the touch of a button. That said, want, building a 360-degree view according to John-Paul, it is necessary of customer interactions. John-Paul to achieve a balance between added, “The data is not enough on human and digital interaction. its own. You need to consider every touch point and customer interaction He explained, “The savings and investment industry is at an inflection for a complete view, building on point. About half of customers still automatic trigger points to make prefer some level of human advice, the business process effective. This is especially when it comes to big where open architecture comes in, moving away from closed proprietary decisions over family savings plans, for example. We therefore need to legacy systems to an open make sure we can offer a ‘hybrid’ architecture, connecting different model enabling customers to do systems and business partners for a their business however they like. This seamless customer experience.” means putting the channels and business processes in place within One thing is for sure, the field of the regulations to allow customers to financial advice is undergoing rapid 29
“We need to get under the s of our customers, shifting servicing, advice and mark from a transactional functi to helping the business bet interact with customers” have that seamless blend of human and digital engagement.” Foresters Financial is working closely with a number of partners to help drive the business forwards. JohnPaul said, “We have a very strong relationship with Schroders, who manage the Forester Life Stakeholder Managed Funds, where products like our ISA, Junior ISAs, and some of the Child Trust Funds are invested. We also have a longstanding relationship with iPipeline, who provide technology and software services around our core administration system. We will continue to work with Schroders, iPipeline and other technology partners as we introduce new cloud and mobile services, and advance on our digital transformation journey.” As final food for thought, John-Paul added, “Being ‘digital’ means seeing 30
digital technology advances as a way to change the way business is done – by getting closer to customers, empowering employees, and transforming internal business processes. Customers want to feel listened to and expect a tailored experience that meets their needs. We need to get under the skin of our customers, shifting servicing, advice and marketing from a transactional function, to helping the business better interact with customers”. CIOs more than ever need to deliver this by listening and collaborating closely with customers, placing them at the centre, and integrating online and offline touchpoints across products and services the customer values. For further information visit www.foresters.com
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“The Digital Innovation team are incredibly professional and it was my pleasure to be part of the August 2018 edition. At each stage, Danielle and her team were highly prepared and very thorough. I was impressed with the level of diligence and attention to detail that they paid throughout the whole process. It was good to work with a team who had an extremely high level of contextual expertise in the industry in terms of breadth and depth, and they had clearly done their research properly. I wish them every success and it was a real career high to be involved with the project, and I’d like to thank the Digital Innovation team for everything they have done for me” – Jen Stirrup, Director – Data Relish
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CLOUD NEWS
FUTU FORE
Our pre for data and the in 2
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URE ECAST
edictions a centres e cloud 2019.
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EDGE COMPUTING The continued convergence of IT and telco will bring edge computing to the forefront in 2019, creating a chance for data centre operators to lighten the load on central servers, and for businesses to reduce response times in low-bandwidth locations. Vendors such as Vapor IO and Schneider Electric are coming out with different models for placement at base stations,
and 5G is continually being rolled out. Hybrid cloud platforms and software-defined networks will increasingly use edge networks, giving companies improved visibility and the ability to analyse, protect and harvest valuable data from sensors, cameras and industrial equipment. And open, interoperable technologies will mean that edge locations stay in sync with the cloud to ensure a consistent experience throughout.
“HYBRID CLOUD PLATFORMS AND SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORKS WILL INCREASINGLY USE EDGE NETWORKS�
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WATER COOLING When Google launched version 3.0 of its Tensor Processing Unit AI chip, it also revealed it had switched to water cooling because air was no longer sufficient. With CPUs getting over 200 watts and GPUs hitting 300 watts, water is thousands of times more efficient at heat removal than air, and more companies are overcoming their apprehension about the coolant springing a leak. In some cases,
they have no choice. The demand for more processing power is driving the move to liquid cooling as much as anything.
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Data centres have many moving parts, which have been previously manually configured, and once in place, left alone. A new class of AI, as demonstrated by start-up, Concertio, puts AI in charge of optimising the equipment through continuous monitoring and adjustment. This automation of processes is arising out of necessity due to the fluid nature of cloud usage. The rise of multi-cloud
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has resulted in cloud strategies not being as static as they once were, meaning non-adaptable automation of processes is not sustainable in the long run.
HYBRID MULTICLOUD Organisations need hybrid and multicloud environments comprising the right tools and infrastructure to get their jobs done more efficiently, moving away from the ‘one cloud fits all’ school of thought, thus avoiding vendor lock-in, and granting themselves greater flexibility in deploying the most relevant cloud across different functions. This will use a combination of
on-premises, private cloud and public cloud architecture, with best-in-class resources from different cloud vendors. And instead of being restricted to one vendor, an organisation will be able to deploy a mixture of cloud apps, while at the same time, technologies such as Kubernetes can be used to containerise and deploy applications across different cloud providers.
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KUBERNETES The value of containerisation has been almost universally realised in managing cloud environments, and Kubernetes scheduling has essentially become an industry standard. The challenge will be to progress beyond the early adoption of containers towards using them to manage deployments at
larger scale. As larger vendors look to improve their own specific distributions, we can expect smaller niche players to be snapped up for their expertise, with a general breakdown of computing into smaller bits to add to the competitive landscape between cloud providers.
“AS APPS GO FROM MONOLITH MODULAR PIECES, CONTAINER WILL BECOME MORE APPEALIN
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SERVERLESS COMPUTING A container is as small as 10MB in size, rather than a few GB of memory for a full virtual machine, and even smaller than that, is serverless computing, where you run a single function app. As apps go from monolithic to smaller, modular pieces, containers and serverless will
become more appealing. The key to their success will be easy migration between the two. The serverless movement is likely to see an influx of start-ups, while the beginnings of open source serverless solutions will shape the future of that technology ecosystem for years to come.
HIC TO SMALLER, RS AND SERVERLESS NG�
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OPEN CLOUD TECHNOLOGY Most major companies have already embraced the concept of open source to help them avoid lock-in and choose from more vendors, but businesses face a number of challenges when attempting to deploy cloud computing effectively. It seems likely that the trend for creating Lego-like building blocks to help standardise and bring more order to cloud stacks will continue,
so a continuous integration/ continuous delivery approach is demanded by the current fast-moving pace of cloud innovation. Using open source technology means less disruption with each new implementation and also allows the software to be fine-tuned more easily. Open management tools will be essential to administering, securing and updating those clusters over time.
“USING OPEN SOURCE TECHN DISRUPTION WITH EACH NEW AND ALSO ALLOWS THE SOFTW TUNED MORE EASILY�
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SECURITY As enterprises enter the next phase of the cloud journey, they will use a mix of public clouds, private clouds and on-premises IT, so developers must put security first. Many businesses are already managing between five and 16 different cloud vendors, which can introduce new risks due to the lack of
consistent management, control and visibility. To overcome these challenges, security needs to be integrated earlier into the app development process. A DevSecOps culture can be expected to take root, incorporating security best practices into every facet of application design and deployment.
NOLOGY MEANS LESS W IMPLEMENTATION WARE TO BE FINE-
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Welcome to the
T
he Smart Home Expo is the UK’s ultimate event for the smart technologies revolutionising the way we live. It takes place on the 26th & 27th March 2019 at Birmingham’s NEC, so make sure to put the dates in your diary and order your free tickets now at www.smarthometechlive.co.uk. They say home is where the heart is, but nowadays, home is also where an industry revolution is taking place!
Within the next few years, the smart home sector is set to become one of the fastest growing markets in the world. If this wasn’t enough, there’s a growing opportunity for the so-called ‘smart home technologies’ to be applied to many other areas. The event is aimed at those looking to build upon the industry’s rapid growth or to simply improve their lives through the use of smart technology.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Boasting a multitude of incredible features, you can discover over 200 suppliers showcasing the very latest smart technologies, listen to 150 seminars by the industry’s greatest minds, take advantage of exclusive show offers, have your say among the greatest minds in the industry courtesy
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of interactive panel sessions, and so much more! Better still, once at the show, you can also check out the prestigious Innovation Awards, benefit from 1-2-1 advice and connect with over 3,000 likeminded smart technology professionals and enthusiasts.
Unrivalled seminar schedule The Smart Home Expo is set to have an unparalleled seminar schedule, boasting the likes of: • Martin Woolley, Developer Relations Manager EMEA of Bluetooth SIG • Simon Buddle, Director of Curriculum and Standards EMEA of CEDIA • Sumit Kohli, Digital PreSales Lead IoT & Robotics of Fujitsu • Lizi Jenkins MBA, Head of Innovation of British Gas
• Neil Carter, Business Development Manager of Bosch Thermotechnology • Sam Woodward, Customer Education Leader of Lutron EA Ltd. • Teneille Humphris, Smart Metering Implementation Policy Manager of Smart Energy GB
A HUB OF INNOVATION Completely free to attend, the Smart Home Expo really is the hub of the Smart Technology World. Make sure you don’t miss out and register for your complimentary ticket now via now via www.smarthometechlive.co.uk. 45
AU G M E N T E D R E A L I T Y
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A World of Possibilities Expounding the virtues of the European tech companies that have seen the biggest investment in AR over the last 12 months.
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aveOptics is the worldleading designer and manufacturer of diffractive waveguides, the key optical component in wearable AR devices. With a large eye-box and a high field of view, WaveOptics’ waveguides seamlessly combine real and virtual worlds. Crisp text and imagery is projected by near-eye displays, presenting computer images that overlay the real world. The company works with its customers, who provide AR wearables and smartglasses, to create immersive AR experiences in industrial, enterprise and consumer markets, with WaveOptics waveguides offering unparalleled manufacturing scalability and visual performance. Pioneers in waveguide technology, WaveOptics has been trading since 2014 from its UK headquarters. With investors continuing to push the sector forward with funding to expand its operations, consumer smartglasses at a price of $600 dollars are expected by the end of 2019.
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innish company, Varjo, has developed a VR headset that its makers claim gives an image 50 times sharper than most other headsets on the market. Founder and chief executive, Urho Konttori, says the firm has managed to achieve this by mimicking how the eye sees. Technology that lets you see VR in human-eye resolution, Varjo’s headset provides very high definition images only of the objects our eyes are focusing on at any particular moment, so the rest of the scene is at a lower resolution, using eye-tracking technology to tell which parts of the image it needs to render in high definition. As this level of detail doesn’t come cheap, the firm has been working primarily with aircraft manufacturers, carmakers, architects, construction firms and the entertainment industry. With funding from Atomico and Next47, Varjo is partnering with the world’s most recognised brands to bring a ‘Resolution Revolution’ to professional markets. And, this year, owners of Varjo’s device will be able to upgrade with a Mixed Reality add-on that delivers true cinematic-quality XR for the first time ever. This is the next step on the road to a new immersive computing, where you can no longer tell what’s real and what’s virtual.
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Bionic Display™ mimics how your eyes naturally work to let you see virtual reality as clearly as you see the rest of reality.
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WATCH HOW IT WORKS
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V
Time is the first VR sociable network that allows anyone, anywhere to spend quality time with family and friends in virtual reality. Using a smartphone and a VR headset, vTime allows you to meet, chat and interact with people in a growing library of breath-taking virtual locations. A free app, it was developed in Liverpool in the UK. Groups of up to four users can ‘jump’ into VR and talk in what is essentially a private chatroom, customising an avatar and selecting a 3D environment in which to host the chat. vTime likes to think of itself as a ‘sociable’ (rather than a ‘social’) network, emphasising that these virtual social gatherings are essentially friendlier in nature than some of their counterparts. All user avatars support audio lip-syncing and eye-tracking, and can use the network’s library of virtual emojis called ‘vMotes’, allowing them to express themselves in numerous ways, while users on high-end headsets can use platform controllers to add hand and body tracking to their sessions. The company continues to grow from strength to strength; it was announced last year that vTime had raised $7.6 million in a series A funding round to accelerate the app’s development.
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utomotive AR display maker, WayRay, develops holographic AR technologies for connected cars, transforming the daily commute. With headquarters in Switzerland, and offices in the United States, China, Hong Kong, Germany and Russia, WayRay’s in-house R&D centre and prototyping facilities enable the company to create holographic optical systems, and complex hardware and software for creating ‘True Augmented Reality’, without outsourcing any steps. Ensuring drivers get the most from their time behind the wheel, WayRay recently presented a demo car with an embedded holographic AR display, an AR glass cockpit concept (where any glass surface is a window into virtual worlds), and a brand new SDK for AR app creators at the Consumer Electronics Show 2019. And, last September, the company drove home $80 million in a Series C funding round led by Porsche, along with participation from Hyundai, Alibaba Group, China Merchants Capital, JVCKenwood, and a consortium of sovereign wealth funds.
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ritish video game developer, Revolution Games, was founded in 1989 by Charles Cecil, Tony Warriner, David Sykes and Noirin Carmody. The company was started with a view to creating adventure games including Beneath a Steel Sky and Lure of the Temptress – their first game, and which incorporated the Virtual Theatre Engine. This virtual engine was subsequently used to develop the first two games in the Broken Sword series, which sold over four million copies worldwide and have earned £100 million. The company also developed In Cold Blood and Gold and Glory: The Road to El Dorado, a game based on DreamWorks’ 2000 animated film. Today, Revolution Games is still made up of those original founders, in addition to the talents of great artists, animators and programmers, with its origins in VR but looking towards AR to develop even more exciting titles with its current franchises.
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COMPUTING
THE KEY TO
Gaming hardware co replicating the 58
OUR BRAINS
ould be the answer to e human brain. 59
RESEARCHERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX HAVE CREATED THE FASTEST AND MOST ENERGY-EFFICIENT SIMULATION OF PART OF A RAT BRAIN USING OFF-THESHELF COMPUTER HARDWARE, ORIGINALLY DESIGNED FOR 3D GAMES.
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r James Knight and Professor Thomas Nowotny from the University of Sussex’s School of Engineering and Informatics have beaten a top 50 supercomputer by running brain simulations using their own GeNN software and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).
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By developing faster and more efficient simulators, Knight and Nowotny hope to increase the level of understanding into brain function and, in particular, identify how damage to particular structures in neurons can lead to deficits in brain function. Faster, more advanced simulators could
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“WE ARE VERY IMPRESSED BY THE USE OF THE NVIDIA AI COMPUTE PLATFORM FOR BRAIN SIMULATIONS SPEARHEADED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX” Chris Emerson, Head of Higher-Education and Research Sales in UK and Ireland at NVIDIA
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Dr James Knight and Prof Thomas Nowotny
help improve our understanding of neurological disorders by pinpointing the areas of the brain that cause epileptic seizures. Improved simulators could also accelerate progress within the development of AI – the GeNN software is already being used at the University of Sussex to build autonomous robots including flying drones which can be controlled through simulated insect brains. Prof Nowotny, Professor of Informatics at the University of Sussex, said, “Over the last three decades, computers have become drastically more powerful, largely due to our ability to fabricate computer chips with smaller and smaller components, which, in turn, allows them to operate faster. This process has hit a wall and it has become much harder to build faster computers without employing radically different architectures. GPUs are one such architecture and our work shows that, in the near term, they are a competitive design for high performance computing and have the potential to make advances far beyond where CPUs have brought us to so far.”
The research involved using the team’s own GeNN software to implement and test two established computational neuroscience models; one of a cortical microcircuit consisting of eight populations of neurons and a balanced random network with spike-timing dependent plasticity – a process which has been shown to be fundamental to biological learning. A single GPU was able to achieve processing speeds up to 10 per cent faster than is currently possible using either a supercomputer or the SpiNNaker neuromorphic system, a custom-built machine developed as a part of the £1 billion European Human Brain Project (HBP). The University of Sussex team was also able to achieve energy savings of 10 times compared to either the SpiNNaker or supercomputer simulations. 63
Moving forward, the team believes that the flexibility and power of GPUs mean that they could play a key role in creating simulators capable of running models that begin to approach the complexity of the human brain.
so we’re delighted with these latest results which show how well-suited GPUs are to brain simulations. Over the next year, we are hoping to extend our work to a model 50 times larger of a monkey visual systems by using multiple, interconnected GPUs.”
Dr Knight, Research Fellow in Computer Science at the University of Sussex, said, “Although we’re
Chris Emerson, Head of HigherEducation and Research Sales in UK and Ireland at NVIDIA, said, “We are
“WE’RE DELIGHTED WITH THESE LATEST RESULTS WHICH SHOW HOW WELL-SUITED GPUS ARE TO BRAIN SIMULATIONS” a long way from having the understanding necessary to build models of the entire human brain, we’re approaching the point where the latest exascale supercomputers have the raw computing power that would be required to simulate them. Many of these systems rely on GPUs, 64
very impressed by the use of the NVIDIA AI compute platform for brain simulations spearheaded at the University of Sussex and are glad we are able to support research at the leading edge of computational neuroscience, as well as AI.”
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B U S I N E S S I N T E RV I E W
THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP 66
PS Stuart Gregory, Global Head of Partnerships at fintech company, Transferwise, discusses the importance of the firm’s bank partners. 67
UK-based money transfe peer-to-peer specialist, has undergone numerou
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er service and TransferWise, us exciting changes.
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rom multiplying its number of partnerships with banks, to adding settlement options, most recently for direct access to the euro payment infrastructure through a euro settlement account with the Bank of Lithuania, it’s certainly an interesting time for fintechs. At present, with one notable exception, the partner banks that have been announced are challenger or other low-end players. However, it now claims over four million people around the world are using its service to transfer over £3 billion each month. In the UK, Global Head of Partnerships, Stuart Gregory, says its share of consumer international transfers is around 15 per cent, putting it on or close to
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Bank of England, making it the first tech company to become a direct member of the UK Faster Payments Scheme (FPS).
Stuart Gregory, Global Head of Partnerships at Transferwise
a par with some of the largest UK banks. Fundamentals of Transferwise’s business are to move as little money as possible across international borders and to have as much automation as possible. It also tries to provide accurate tracking and delivery estimates, thereby improving customer service and cutting down on queries. The direct euro payment infrastructure access is intended to support instant payments, following on from the announcement of a settlement account with the 70
Transferwise also has a borderless account, which allows customers to simultaneously hold over 40 currencies and convert them whenever they like, plus a Transferwise debit Mastercard. Stuart said that there was interest from banks from the outset, but often they only wanted to talk in order to understand the business model. As they have seen their customers opt for
“Businesses big and small can access an open API to automate payments, connect business tools, and create beautiful ways to manage finances� 71
“Transferwise continue countries – Turkey and – but its bank partners currently Europe-cent
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es to add d Japan recently ships are tric�
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Transferwise’s service, if they didn’t have a comparable capability in their apps, the conversations tended to become more focused. Possibly every bank Transferwise now talks to admits that what it is doing today is unsustainable. Regulations are enforcing transparency. Stuart said, “They can only charge 3 per cent and get away with it when customers don’t understand it.” In parallel, the increased competition from Transferwise and others has created price pressure that wasn’t there previously. However, this is a challenge for incumbents due to their high cost bases, stemming from legacy systems, manual processes and inefficient correspondent banking models.
“The direct euro pay access is intended paym 74
For smaller banks, it certainly looks feasible to have rapid deployment. At Dutch banking challenger, Bunq, it took seven weeks from the first conversation to go-live with an initial 15 currencies. The Transferwise solution was built from the outset to be a digital service in a mobile app, and there is now an open API to ease integration. Other business and bank partners include Estonian bank LHV (Transferwise’s two founders are Estonian), N26, BPCE, Monzo, Telleroo, Peachy.co.uk, Hubstaff and Rentify. Understandably, integrating the service into bigger banks takes time. By far, its largest partner bank to date is France’s second largest banking group, BPCE. According to Stuart, the project is in full-swing, and go-live is scheduled for next year.
yment infrastructure to support instant ments” 75
“For those banks partnering with Trans increasingly
Source: Fintech Futures
There will also be heightened competition for Transferwise. In particular, Swift gpi is emerging as a faster, more transparent payments solution, with Swift claiming that half of gpi payments are now being credited to end-beneficiary accounts within 30 minutes. It has the strength of Swift’s member bank 76
community behind it and a broad geographical reach. Transferwise continues to add countries – Turkey and Japan recently – but its bank partnerships are currently Europe-centric. Stuart said there are a lot of discussions in the US, and he hopes there will be announcements shortly here
that can’t beat it, sferwise is becoming y attractive�
and for other new continents. There is a lot of scope for improvement, as Transferwise continues to chip away at price and speed. It claims that 250,000 payments in September took less than 20 seconds, constituting 12.4 per cent of its total (8.3 per cent in June), aided by instant transfers from US debit cards, as well as progress for recipients in India.
Both a competitor and a potential partner of banks, Transferwise has forged a strong niche and has moved from fintech start-up to mainstream player in less than eight years. For those banks that can’t beat it, partnering with Transferwise is becoming increasingly attractive. 77
V I RT UA L R E A L I T Y
How VR can help to examine the cause of fires, as well as facilitate crime scene investigation.
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Reality in Virtual Reality has developed a system scan a real-world enviro to recreate that scene i photorealistic virtual re
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he company’s VR Simulation Engine and Virtual Reality Monitor (VRM) are currently being trialled by the UK government to train police officers without the risk of injury, allowing users to interact with and experience the environment by being fully immersed in a virtual area. They are free to move around in real time and interact with objects, and because the scene is photorealistic, the immersion is almost instant, and the process of acquiring knowledge and understanding throughout the experience is heightened.
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Aside from training, RiVR’s cutting-edge system can also scan images of real fire damage, using hundreds of photographs to recreate a realistic scene in VR. This allows users to practically ‘dive in’ the burn scene to examine evidence and work out how a fire might have started or spread. The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) is an executive agency of the UK’s Ministry of Defence, devised to maximise the impact of science and technology for security, which works closely with RiVR. Mike Ferguson, Immersive Technologies,
y (RiVR) m that can onment in eality.
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“Once you go into scene, it feels real, are standing in a p
Mike Ferguson, Immersive Technologies, DSTL
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the virtual crime , almost as if you photograph�
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WATCH HOW IT WORKS 83
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DSTL, said, “(With this technology), you can replicate one-off events, so a one-off event which could be a dangerous or hazardous environment, you can actually recreate as a one-off. People would never, ever get the opportunity to rehearse that – but, in VR, we can.” RiVR was commissioned to provide a level 1 fire investigation training scenario for Leicester Fire and Rescue Service and set out to create the most realistic environment possible.
almost as if you are standing in a photograph. Putting together real-life, practical aspects, you can create scenes like this for first responders.”
Photorealistic VR scenes can also assist with crime scene investigations, enabling users to They dressed a shipping container examine what happened from up as a bedsit in the real world and the evidence they see. At the time set fire to it. After it was put out, when the crime scene was first they meticulously removed every investigated, responders could item and scanned it, taking a lot have been distracted by the noise of reference photographs. Once of the television, mobile phone or back in the office, they converted kettle boiling, for instance. the scans into models, had a team of digital artists clean and prep for A client recently asked RiVR to VR, and then faithfully recreated produce a hyper-realistic reaction everything in the company’s RiVR of a crime scene, based on a reallab. world event. Almost everything in the scene could be interacted Mike added, “Once you go into the with, but the point of the training virtual crime scene, it feels real, scenario was to actually interact 85
with very little, requiring the trainee to be aware firstly of their own safety and surroundings, to preserve life, preserve the scene, and to make judgement calls on the chain of evidence. Using the company’s custom-built photogrammetry rigs, RiVR can also scan any real-world object, from something as small as a matchbox, to something as big as a castle, to recreate it as an accurate 3D model. Offering on and off-site solutions to quickly create a larger number of items for training experiences, this service is also being rolled out to the film and games industry. A recent task saw RiVR produce an incredibly high definition model of a firefighter in full breathing apparatus equipment. The model was then put into a VR environment where a trainee could 86
“Using the co custom-built rigs, RiVR can real-world ob examine the gear and determine if anything was incorrect. As the company’s name and slogan suggest, “This is not reality, it’s reality in virtual reality,” and the wealth of possibilities this system could provide the emergency services sector is yet to be fully explored. To find out more about RiVR, visit www.rivr.uk
ompany’s photogrammetry n also scan any bject”
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3D PRINTING
Copy That! The Oodi library in Helsinki is more than just your average book collection, making 3D printing readily available to its users.
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Considering all the amenities it houses, Helsinki’s newest library hardly seems like it can be called one.
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he Oodi doesn’t just house books, but also laser cutters, 3D printers, recording studios, kitchens, a gaming room with PlayStation consoles, and an ‘immersive 3D space’ (a room with digital projections ideal for business presentations and art exhibits). Putting the latest technologies into the hands of the average citizen, all in one place, the Oodi library is one of the most ambitious projects of its kind. Even library director, AnnaMaria Soininvaara, is
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overwhelmed by all these devices, not knowing precisely how they function. After all, her expertise lends itself to literature, not additive manufacturing. Any library would be hard-pressed to find a director that understands all these fields. The project is unsurprising, however, considering how much faster the Nordic countries have been in accepting digitisation. Additionally, all sorts of educational programmes are bringing 3D printing to the classroom, so it’s no surprise
The three-storey structure that contains all this tech cost â‚Ź98 million, machines included
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“We too that li chang is diff was 1
Samul
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ok into account the fact ibraries will always be ging. Already, their use ferent now from what it 10 years ago�
li Woolston, a partner at ALA Architects
that tech-savvy countries are pushing forwards with innovative concepts like this. The three-storey structure that contains all this tech cost â‚Ź98 million, machines included. It serves as an opportunity for Finland to reinvent and modernise the idea of the library for the 21st century. While it houses a lot of varying gadgets and functions, each floor has a theme, making it easier to navigate. The ground floor includes a restaurant, movie theatre, European Union information centre, and several
areas suited for concerts, while the second floor contains all the nifty electronic equipment and some workrooms (the builders designed them for noisy, labour-intensive activities). Finally, the top floor features an open-plan, brightly-lit ‘book
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the Oodi library is one of the most ambitious projects of its kind.
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“We often think that things like social cohesion or democracy are just words, but in spaces like these, they really come to life” Tommi Laitio, Executive Director for culture and leisure in Helsinki fact that libraries will always be changing. Already, their use is different now from what it was 10 years ago.”
heaven’, something we would more traditionally call a library. Samuli Woolston, a partner at ALA Architects, the Finnish firm behind the building, said, “We took into account the 96
Since the building had been in the process of development for over a decade, architects incorporated new functions as they came along, reiterating the design when necessary. Tommi Laitio, the city’s Executive Director for culture and leisure, does not hide his political intentions. He sees the library as a key weapon in
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Source: www.3dprinting.com
fighting right-wing populism. With growing uncertainty about the future, he believes people begin to distrust one another. To counter this, they’ve built a structure that shows the wonders of the present and dispels fears about the future. He said, “We often think that things like social cohesion or democracy are just words, but in spaces like these, they really come to life. You need some social infrastructure for communities to work. You can’t build them on friendship, or this abstract idea of living together.”
Oodi’s architects designed the building’s balcony so it stands at the same level as the stairs to the parliament building across the square. This symbolic gesture signals to the public that learning is just as important in Finnish society as politics. 99
GAMING
Bre New 100
eaking w Ground Great news for gamers‌ The latest VR releases are even more innovative than ever before!
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tormland is an open-world game where you play as a robot shooter in an environment controlled by robots. It has futuristic guns, a breath-taking setting and so many other interesting features such as ripping off parts from dead robots to upgrade your own. Stormlands is one of the most talked about VR games at the moment, developed by Insomniac Games, a reputed developer who was famous for the recent release of Spiderman for the PS4, along with Oculus Studios. Thanks to the eye-catching islands that rearrange on repeat play-throughs to keep it looking fresh, this promises to be a multi-layered game for exploring and fighting in a unique virtual world.
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Vive Oculus Rift Windows Mixed Reality
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f Battle Royale mania is up your street, you will be excited by the prospect of this growing genre finally coming to VR. The game will allow you to build structures (just like Fortnite), build jetpacks, fling yourself off buildings and use a glider to glide away from danger. It looks like a lot of fun, and if it catches on, we can expect to see Fortnight also add on a VR mode later this year.
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fter their successful titles, Lone Echo and Echo Arena, developers, Ready at Dawn, are back with an immersive VR experience, Lone Echo II, and we can expect big things! Featuring the return of protagonists, Jack and Liv, from the first game, players must venture through the loneliness of space whilst discovering different alien species for your own research. What better way to delve into deep space?
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Platform:
Oculus Rift
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stylish spy thriller in which you’ll leap from airplanes, drive fast cars, shoot guns and chase down bad guys, Defector is a gamer’s James Bond! One of the most thrilling VR titles yet to be released, brought to us by the team behind Wilson’s Heart, this game is brimming with actionpacked adventures. Plus, you’ll be able to solve problems in multiple ways, and the choices you make will impact on how the missions play out.
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D ATA C E N T R E S
With scalability, man efficiency just a few o hyperconverged infras intelligent data centr
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nageability and costof the advantages, is structure the answer to res in future months?
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Organisations looked at the cloud as an option because it was impossible to get their data centres to operate at the same efficiency.
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ow the next step is to make improvements in IT infrastructure and application services, by way of Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI), which removes many of the complexity issues faced by traditional data centres by converging and integrating server, storage and networking with server virtualisation, so there are fewer moving parts to manage. Combine that with modern management software, and the result is much easier planning and provisioning – a simpler environment that
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appears to be no different from the public cloud. In fact, IT decision makers are seeing the value in switching from traditional stacks to HCI to combine the compute, network and storage functions of a data centre, saving time, costs and management headaches. A more progressive shift towards an intelligent data centre can be expected in 2019, so what does this mean for businesses, specifically in terms of automated management, smart resource utilisation and single-platform security?
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Automated Management Traditionally, data centres have been comprised of hardware and physical servers, which all resided in a single space. With the emergence of virtualisation, cloud computing and fabricbased infrastructures, today’s IT decision makers and managers no longer have the bandwidth to manage a data centre. Digital evolutions urge IT managers to move towards more sophisticated management strategies, while hardware, software and platform vendors alike are turning to machine learning (ML) to optimise intelligent data centres.
In contrast, today’s data centre requires many hands to move a cable or repair a server. Over the next five years, IT leaders will begin to adopt ML and its various applications through virtual machines, containers and serverless systems. By 2025, the industry will see robots drive the physical automation of the data centre. This evolution will increase overall productivity, as robots can work without fatigue and also decrease human error risks. As a result, organisations will be able to prioritise and reallocate valuable employees to other areas of the business.
Smart Resource Utilisation Today, many IT administrators operate their data centre by manually selecting which servers are powered on or off, and which applications and workloads run on specific guests. In the next year, we’ll begin to see these same administrators perform
more efficiently and cost-effectively through the process of smart resource utilisation. Smart resource utilisation analyses usage patterns and application behaviours. Through the use of ML, administrators will be able to 115
assign infrastructure workloads in a much more agile way. For example, if an IT manager knows the organisation’s employee base is going to be online simultaneously, then only the necessary virtual desktops are spun up to meet the current demand, ensuring that the desktop login service level agreement (SLA) time is met. As the day progresses, the number of available desktops is
then automatically reduced through ML, matching expected demand gathered through previous analysis and freeing up resources to run other workloads. This system will be especially valuable from an operations expense standpoint, as intelligent resource scheduling significantly cuts an organisation’s costs through optimised power and cooling utilisation across data centres.
Single-Platform Security Another area where automation and intelligent resourcing will benefit data centres is within security measures. To truly protect a data centre, it is critical for IT managers to ensure the overall centre is secure, not just individual platforms. Modern data centre security has moved away from four walls and firewalls and transformed to virtual private clouds and secure application programming interfaces, making it harder to detect a breach. Moving towards an intelligent data centre in 2019, we’ll start to see all aspects of the data centre work in harmony. The start of this idea revolves around real-time or just-in-time data analysis. Looking 116
towards security specifically, in three years, applications will be able to automatically configure and adapt the data centre in real-time. This will help prevent against potential threats, data loss and downtime by providing administrators real-time insights into the health of their data centre. Data centre technology is continuing to become more sophisticated. In the next year, we’ll continue to see this evolution set the foundations for an intelligent data centre. ML will continue to modernise the data centre and allow vendors the ability to offer real-time solutions and efficiencies for administrators, with 2019 leading us into a whole new world of data-driven opportunity.
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F
IN THE SP OTLIGHT
ounded in Bristol in 2016, Graphcore produces AI processors and software, and has developed a novel AI chip – or Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU) – which is the first processor to be designed specifically for machine intelligence training and inference. An IPU that will set a new pace of innovation, it has been optimised to work efficiently on the extremely complex high-dimensional models needed for machine intelligence workloads. Graphcore’s IPU is 10x to 100x faster than other hardware on the market and can be used in a wide variety of applications, including intelligent voice assistants and self-driving vehicles. Designed to lower the cost of accelerating AI applications in cloud and enterprise data centres, it emphasises massively parallel, low-precision floating-point compute and provides much higher compute density than other solutions. Together with Graphcore’s Poplar software, the company prides itself on making the fastest and most flexible platform for current and future machine intelligent
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STARTTHE M
This issue, w Graphcore as o
-UP OF MONTH
we’re featuring our star start-up!
applications, lowering the cost of AI. The highly parallel computational resources, together with graph software tools and libraries, allow researchers to explore machine intelligence across a much broader front than current solutions. A spokesperson for Graphcore said, “We see a world where technology enhances human potential, and takes us into a new era of intelligence and progress that everyone can benefit from. We know there are innovators who build this future and we understand their ambition, and their challenges. So, we’ve built a totally new processor which allows them to go for it. We constantly push boundaries so others can do the same.” The start-up has already reached unicorn status after raising €175 million funding in a Series D round in December 2018, bringing the company’s valuation to €1.5 billion. With the new funding, Graphcore is expanding rapidly, and ramping up production to meet increasing customer demand for its IPU processor cards. For further information, visit www.graphcore.ai 119