Oslo Science City has ambitions to become world leading in sustainability and to be a key contributor in building a sustainable and modern Norway. This innovation district will cover the highly knowledge-intensive area from Majorstuen via Marienlyst and Blindern to Gaustad and Ullevål Stadion, and further on to Campus Radiumhospitalet. Our campus at Blindern will be right in the center.
On February 18, Oslo Science City held a startup meeting about digitalization and computational science. Representatives from the University of Oslo (UiO) and SINTEF were present at the meeting. Digital and computational science is one of four focus areas at Oslo Science City. The other three areas are health and life sciences, climate and environment, energy and mobility, and societal innovation.
There is a huge potential for innovation and new work positions in important areas such as health, life sciences, energy, climate, environment and sustainability in this knowledge-intensive geographical area. In addition, digitalization is a large and important field, both in itself and closely integrated with the other areas.
Innovation, start-ups and restructuring are closely linked to a company's ability to implement, utilize and develop digital systems and digital competence in today’s environment. Oslo Science City has a special position in Norway when it comes to accessing digital competence.
Strong IT environments at UiO
As Norway’s largest and most IT innovative university, the University of Oslo is deeply involved in the innovation district. Ranked as nr. 47 in the category Computer Science and Engineering in the Shanghai Global Ranking of World Universities, The Department of Informatics (IFI) is ranked second best of the Nordic universities, beaten only by the University of Copenhagen.
Listed below you will find excellent examples of our strong IT environments at the University of Oslo:
- SIRIUS – Centre for Scalable Data Access is a Centre for Research-based Innovation (SFI). Together with their industry partners, they use interdisciplinary research as a basis for innovation in order to promote and support digitalization in the oil and gas industry.
- The world’s largest e-health system HISP – Health Information Systems Program – is developed by IFI. HISP designs, implements and maintains digital health information systems in 70 countries, which includes 2.4 billion people. 36 countries have adopted HISP in order to follow the development of Covid-19.
- In collaboration with the University of Tromsø and other external partners, IFI has recently established Visual Intelligence – a new SFI focusing on deep learning and artificial intelligence to extract knowledge from complex image data.
- The newly established SFI CENSSS – Centre for Space Sensors and Systems – at the Department of Technology Systems, has recently had great success with its sensor technology when the Mars rover Perseverance, with the Norwegian-produced radar RIMFAX, landed safely on Mars on February 18.
- The Oslo Bioimpedance and Medical Technology Group, which mainly consists of researchers from the Department of Physics and Department of Clinical and Biomedical Engineering at Oslo University Hospital, are developing medical sensor technology.
- The SFI Big Insight works to develop new statistical methods and tools for handling and compiling large and complex data sets for the private and public sector, including the health sector. Big Insight is a collaboration between the Faculty of Medicine, the Norwegian Computing Centre and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.
- RITMO – Centre for Interdisciplinary research on rhythm, time and movement – is a Centre of Excellence (SFF) working at the intersections of the humanities and natural sciences, arts and sciences, and with the application of advanced digital technology. RITMO is a collaboration between three faculties at UiO – Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences and Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.
- CCSE – Centre for Computing in Science Education – at the Department of Physics is a Centre for Excellence in Education (SFU). CCSE works to make programming an integral part of the curriculum in school and higher education. The centre is fundamentally important for the computationally oriented focus in all study programs at our Faculty.
- USIT – the University's Centre for Information Technology – has successfully developed Services For Sensitive Data (TSD). These are used for the processing and storage of sensitive research data. USIT has also developed the pioneering project FAIR@uio (only in Norwegian), for retrievable and reusable research data.
- Our Faculty, and the University as a whole, is also focusing on research and education in key areas such as IT security, IT architecture and IT system designs.
In order to stimulate investment in digital science and digitalization of our study programs, UiO has also established its own initiatives and external collaborations. Here are some examples of these initiatives:
- The Faculty's newly established dScience – Centre for Data and Computational Science. The centre focuses on research on artificial intelligence, language technology, statistical methods, machine learning and deep learning in order to contribute to better and more efficient use of data in administration and business development.
- Centre for Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary hub for bioinformatics and computational biology at UiO. Their work is closely linked to dScience.
- NORA – Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Research Consortium – focus on strengthening research, education and innovation in artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics. NORA is a collaboration between UiO, six other universities, the Simula Centre and NORCE. The centre is also collaborating with dScience.
- Finally, I would like to mention the Data Science Lab. It was established as part of the StartupLab in the Research Park, through a collaboration between UiO, Equinor, DNB, DNV-GL and the Norwegian Computing Center, and acts as an incubator for start-up companies that offer or use data in their business development.
The examples above give an overview of the IT expertise available at the MN Faculty and the University as a whole, but it is obviously not an exhaustive list. Our excellent IT expertise is a fundamental part of the University. Developing and utilizing this expertise in an optimal way will be crucial to help Oslo Science City succeeding.
We are looking forward to the further development of Oslo Science City, and to participate in this important work that will benefit our research environments, students and our society.