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The members of the UK AICU held a meeting to discuss the planned European
training and fellowship opportunities and the following points were raised:
- We would like to suggest a possible structure and content for the
introduction week, which we believe would include the necessary aspects
otherwise not covered in the subsequent weeks:
INTRO TO AI: This would be a two-day offering which has been
delivered many times in Europe by Brian Cook and which has been well
received by European audiences on previous occasions.
ESTTS: This would be two days and would focus on the project
management aspects. We believe the video scenarios previously used
are very helpful but are now out-of-date and rather too 'American'
for the European audience and therefore may need replacing with
tailored material.
INDUSTRY CASE STUDIES: We feel it is important to give good examples
of the types of applications which have been successful in vertical
industry markets and this would be helpful to 'managers' as well as
'general' students if this week of the course is marketed separately.
- It was also suggested that the project management teachings be
referred to and applied througout the remaining weeks of the course and during
the fellowship apprenticeship.
- With respect to the tools training, it was felt that the idea of
parallel training on different tools could be a powerful selling point for the
course but that it is essential to add a third parallel offering of Prolog for
the European market. An excellent third party Prolog with whose company we
have a very good business relationship is Quintec and we would be pleased to
supply further information on this when required.
- There is a general feeling that as many European instructors as
possible should be sought for the training. This would assist with European
credibility in AI in Europe. A suggestion for the Knowledge Acquisition
course instructor is Margaret Wellbank who has done some very good work in this
area for British Telecom and is well known and respected for this by many. I
have forwarded a copy of her book to Anita and if another copy is required for
Malcolm I shall be pleased to supply it.
- We also feel that we do not fully understand the possible audience for
the course, presumably it could be comprised of a cross-section of the
following and we are not sure if a five-week generic course can really meet
the needs of such a variety of people with a variety of objectives:
- EIS/SWAS District specialists
- EIS/SWAS RAC specialists
- EIS/IS + Manufacturing people
- R&D Customers
- DP Customers.
- We have concerns that with regard to length and cost, this course
offering is too similar to the EPDP, the failure of which, in many examples,
was due to these two factors.
- It was also noted that a broader, proactive selling strategy for the
course by EDU and others is required and that the lead-time, certainly for
customers, if not SWAS people too, should be at least six months, again
because of the investment in time and money which is required.
- We would also like to know as soon as possible, the cost of the course
both run in Valbonne and also if delivered on a customer site. The latter
could be a very attractive option for some of our larger strategic customers.
Fellowship Comments
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- Significant help should be made available for the local country
support people for the fellow approximately 2-3 months in advance of the
fellows' attendance. This help should include the following:
- objectives of the program
- development of the proposal/application
- project selection
- resource requirements: hw, sw, human
- follow-up activities
- It is felt that much flexibility is required around the program, for
example:
- choice of location and support for apprenticeship,
eg Valbonne -v- home country
- length of the apprenticeship should be defined at the time of the
proposal and could therefore be tuned to the fellow's needs.
- a 'pick 'n' mix' approach to the training course modules could be
offered depending on the fellow's previous knowledge and experience,
and this should be defined in the proposal.
- Improved qualification of potential projects is needed and a project
plan must be developed including follow-up activities.
Well that's the feedback from the UK. I hope it's useful.
Elise.
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| Few comments about the AIFellowship:
No doubt that a program like the AIFellowship has to generate some
system business like HW and SW and create/maintain a high
partnership level with a strategic impact. It is also important to
look at the AIFellowship program as a starter to generate P&C business
like tranfer of technology/SELECT which is crutial for EIS. In that
perspective, the technology transfer cycle can be seen as 3 main
steps:
- understand the technology in the 3 perspectives
Business/strategy, Organization/human, Technology, demonstrate
the feasability, generate the investment,
- start a multi-project program to spread the technology into the
enterprise create the critical mass, make the culture change in the 3
mentionned perspectives,
- integrate the systems into the main stream business.
The AIFellowship should be seen as step 1 of this process. That
means :
1.We have to correctly position the AIFellowship to customers during
the initiation phase in order to properly set the expectations,
2.We have to fully support the Fellow during the apprenticeship
phase in order for him to support us selling step 2.
So, I will suggest that during the 4 months apprenticeship, we help
concretely the Fellow to succeed in step one and become the Program
Manager(idealy!).
5 days (conferences and workshops) could be devoted to that goal:
-full understanding of the technology life cycle,
-structure based on our experience of a complete step one report
-structure of a program proposal
-presentation tools
In that perspective, we preserve our image of being leader in applying
AI technology to solve business problems, and setting expectations
as high, makes 6 months a quite accetable and credible cost to fully
cover step 1 of the technology transfer cost.
Some small sessions should be provided to complete the technical
culture:
-more tools
-paradigms
-...
Regards
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