UW-Amazon Science Hub launched to advance innovation in core robotics and AI

The partnership will see Amazon funding a broad set of programs including fellowships for doctoral students, research projects and support for collaborative research events and activities that accelerate AI, robotics, and engineering research in ways to make it more accessible.

Amazon and the University of Washington (UW) have joined forces to launch the UW-Amazon Science Hub to advance innovation in core robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and their applications.

The partnership will see Amazon funding a broad set of programs including fellowships for doctoral students, research projects and support for collaborative research events and activities that accelerate AI, robotics, and engineering research in ways to make it more accessible.

Commenting on this partnership, Ana Mari Cauce, UW president, said, "We are excited to collaborate with Amazon to advance research and learning in the College of Engineering and beyond. The incredible potential for world-changing discovery across disciplines and sectors represents the best of what is possible when academia and industry join forces to accelerate innovation here in the Pacific Northwest, home to both our organizations."

Housed in the College of Engineering, the UW-Amazon Science Hub's initial focus will accelerate AI, robotics and engineering in the Seattle area while embracing neighbouring academic institutions and the public through events, UW said in a press release on Wednesday.

The hub will initially focus on enabling new robotics and AI solutions in the areas of robotic manipulation, autonomous mobility, computer vision, machine learning, modeling, simulation, and verification and human-robot interaction.

"This hub deepens our engagement with a research powerhouse sitting in our backyard, empowering Amazon scientists and UW researchers to work together to both address those challenges and contribute to the scientific community via open research," said Alicia Boler Davis, senior vice president of Customer Fulfillment at Amazon.

Amazon has invested more than USD129 billion in Washington since 2010 and has created more than 80,000 full and part-time jobs, adding more than USD112 billion to the state's GDP.