DEL20: Artificial intelligence and humans, the duo of the century

Feb 20, 2024
  • DEL20
  • artificial intelligence & RPA
  • intelligent apps

delaware Belux recently held its annual close-out DEL20 event in Brussels. Artificial intelligence (AI) took center stage at the ‘festival’, attracting around 120 customers and employees of  delaware. A conclusion was quickly drawn: humans shouldn’t fear machines. Several projects developed by customers using AI, and presented during the festival, confirmed this point of view. 

Since 2016, delaware has helped dozens of companies experiment with innovative ideas through its DEL20 ecosystem. The DEL20 ecosystem brings together skilled professionals from innovative companies, providing them with the space and expertise to explore new ideas, exchange knowledge and contribute to the development of tomorrow's businesses.  

The 2024 ‘festival’ was quickly sold out, with a line-up including Aquafin, imec, Pierret, Trane, COSUCRA and UNILIN . Using short video clips, they shared their AI experiments and the results they achieved in partnership with delaware. 


A closer look at the 6 experiments  

Pierret

The manufacturer of tailor-made windows and doors worked with a team from delaware to optimize processes for loading orders onto their delivery lorries. Their aim was twofold: simplifying the work of planning deliveries, and helping operators when loading lorries. To this end, an optimization algorithm was developed to improve the positioning of goods on the racks and the number of racks on the lorries. Mission accomplished!


Unilin

As a designer of interiors and construction solutions, UNILIN manufactures a wide range of products in a variety of shapes, sizes and weights. Here too, delaware's mission was to optimize the way their products were loaded onto delivery lorries and to avoid any problems of excess weight during the loading process. However, some limitations could not yet be overcome by the quantum computing solution that was used.  The experiment will therefore continue in 2024.   


Aquafin

This company, which has been tasked with developing and managing waste water treatment infrastructure in the Flemish Region, wishes to reduce its electricity consumption. One possible approach is to use AI to predict the concentration of ammonium in the water that needs to be treated, in order to manage peaks in electricity consumption more effectively.


imec

Nanoelectronics and digital technology R&D hub imec handles a vast amount of information. The challenge here was to improve the performance of their enterprise search, using generative AI (genAI), to help their 5,000 employees find information quickly. The initial results are promising, and the next step will be fine-tuning the process to make the results even more relevant. Another project to keep an eye on.


Cosucra

Active in the agri-food sector, COSUCRA extracts fiber from chicory root. This fiber, inulin, is then used in food processing.  COSUCRA’s R&D department is aiming to develop new types of roots in order to maximizes inulin yields. A painstaking task, as proven by the 6,000 images and other documents accumulated over the years. The aim of the experiment is to use a computer vision algorithm and AI to extract the characteristics of each root, in order to facilitate the work of breeders. The results are promising, and the experiments will continue in 2024.


Trane

As an air-conditioning expert, TRANE aimed to be able to anticipate maintenance to be carried out on its customers' machines and thus reducing the number of visits. This experiment was carried out in close collaboration between students from Louvain School of Management (UCLouvain) for the business side (cost/benefit analysis), and delaware for the technical side. Their aim was to gather raw data from the machines and then use a predictive algorithm to determine the best time to intervene. As a result, TRANE will be alerted each time a machine needs servicing.

Inspiring genAI demos 

Participants then attended a presentation of delaware's Generative AI (genAI) services . GenAI allows you to create content, images and code and get help on how to accomplish a task. 

Participants were also able to attended demonstrations of: 

  • ChatGPT-4 and its invaluable support in repetitive tasks. 
  • ChatGPT is integrated into SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP's reporting solution, which can, for example, generate detailed analyses and reports in no time at all, and above
  • Microsoft Copilot, the assistant for everyday tasks: creating documents and presentations, processing and prioritizing emails, analysing data in an Excel file, taking minutes of a meeting, etc.
  • A GenAI customer case brought the session to a close, highlighting the development of a solution that can tag documents after analyzing their content


And the winner is...  

Three companies were entered into a competition to win three days of free AI consultancy services with delaware! Participants immediately pulled out their smartphones and answered a few questions. Congratulations to Umicore, Ecofrost and Magotteaux, who were able to celebrate their victory over dinner and at the great concert that followed. 

DEL20: so what's next?

In 2024, delaware is continuing to build business confidence in adopting new technologies, working with a range of academic and technology partners. delaware will still focusing on GenAI for practical experiments.   

On the French-speaking side, we are partnering with Noshaq for a season focusing on companies active in the energy and utilities sector.