The ultimate goal of Hermes is the foundation and establishment of the AI Center of Excellence in Spain.

The objective of the AI Center of Excellence is the construction of a generic environment that allows the transfer of AI to the Spanish industrial sector. That is why its main value chain is constituted by those components that allow the transformation of knowledge and basic technology into this generic framework that allows its exploitation in any industrial field. Its main components are:

• Knowledge generation. Composed of those industrial and academic entities with extensive experience in research, design, development and application of AI.  On the other hand, this knowledge is the central part of the AI Institute.
• Core technology. It includes both the hardware (chipsets) designed for AI applications and the low-level software required for their use.
• Basic operational infrastructure. Components related to the construction and operation of the AI Computing Center, i.e. the infrastructure around which the center of excellence will revolve. Includes aspects related to the processing and storage servers that integrate the core technology described above, as well as the systems that will be integrated for efficient operation of the data processing center (e.g., power consumption). Low-level AI infrastructure. This represents the AI Technology component of the center of excellence and consists of everything related to the provision of high-performance hardware and software for research and other advanced users.
• Provision of AI as a Service (AIaaS). In accordance with the concept that the center’s AI Cloud department intends to develop, it includes all those frameworks of the highest level and, therefore, designed for a faster and more focused adoption in each of the environments in which it is required.
• Spin-off ecosystem. The multiple developments generated along the primary value chain (and also in collaboration with the secondary value chain components) will generate specific opportunities for direct technology transfer for commercial exploitation in the form of spin-offs, which is the main purpose of AI InnoLab.

In order to promote the positioning of the Spanish industry as a reference of international leadership in innovation and adaptation to the post Covid situation, Hermes will promote technological advances with market applications, enhancing the development of the national industry through key technologies related to AI. Specifically, the intermediate deliverables will be the establishment of the structures, installation, operation and commissioning of the following divisions of the AI Center of Excellence:

• AI Computing Center: solutions integration and global research environment. These will be directly dedicated to the maintenance of AI systems and infrastructure and research in the AI field under the various nodes of the AI Hermes AI Center of Excellence. The AI Computing Center will integrate AI computing, analytics and cross-platform data processing capabilities through the integration of chipsets from different manufacturers around the world (technological chipset alliance).
• AI Cloud: Platform and training environment for AI, ML and DL accessible via Cloud environment. It will consist of a database server farm, data processing, training and execution of AI algorithms along with the various functionalities required by the AI developer ecosystem such as Datasets and AI Libraries. The presentation modalities in this environment will be at a securitized PaaS level, making available to the scientific environment the appropriate stored data environments. Among others, AI Cloud will have repositories of AI libraries for Natural Language Processing, Image Processing, Speech Processing and different pre-trained Neural Networks adapted and encapsulated under a proprietary environment not dependent on the current solutions coming from the USA.
• AI Technology: This division will provide access to high performance hardware and software in pre-release mode for R&D purposes. This will involve the creation of several models of Mainboard and Framework Hardware based on the Huawei and ARM chipset. In addition, its capabilities will be extended by providing compatibility with new developments through the integration of different technologies such as eFPGA, GPU & DGX.
• AI Industry: This division will support the different industry verticals to optimize the sectorization of Software and Hardware solutions developed in AI Cloud and AI Technology and adapt them to the needs of each use case. In particular, special emphasis will be placed on embedded software solutions in the HW Framework of the AI Technology division.
• AI Institute: Platform that will contain the training ecosystem thanks to the integration of Research centers and Universities. This platform will directly drive the training of a range between 300 and 1500 professionals in the AI field.
• AI InnoLab: Spin-Offs Incubator. This incubator will be a driving force in the transfer of knowledge from the AI Center of Excellence to start-ups. These will enhance the technological fabric and economic development, promote the creation of highly skilled employment, provide high added value to the industrial environment and promote the integration of young people into the labor market.