Asian Institute of Management to use Acer supercomputer for big data, AI

MANILA - The Asian Institute of Management (AIM) said it will use the supercomputer donated by Taiwanese tech giant Acer to level up the fields of data science, artificial intelligence and computational modeling in the Philippines. 

The Makati-based international business school said it is set to launch its supercomputing facility called the Analytics, Computing, and Complex Systems Laboratory (ACCeSs@AIM) this March to help industries, government agencies, and other sectors innovate.

“We want to train data scientists to ask the right questions, as well as mine, refine, and convert data ― often referred to as ‘the new oil’ ― into information that will greatly benefit business in the era of Industry 4.0,” said Prof. Christopher Monterola, ACCeSs@AIM Executive Managing Director.

The Acer supercomputer, which is one of the fastest in Southeast Asia, is capable of computing speeds of up to 500 teraflops (trillion floating point operations per second), according to AIM. 

Acer founding chairman and honorary president Stan Shih earlier told ANC's The Boss that the donation of the supercomputer is in line with his thrust to cultivate talent in the field of artificial intelligence. 

The supercomputing facility, which is the first of its kind in the Philippines, will be AIM’s in-house data science and advanced analytics laboratory and its first corporate laboratory.

“We believe data scientists should be able to work closely with domain experts and individuals familiar with business and management issues," said AIM President and Dean Jikyeong Kang.

AIM said the supercomputing facility will complement the institute's Master of Science in Data Science program with Professor Erika Legara as Academic Program Director.