IBM expands risk management research in Ireland

A node from IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer

The collaboration will bring together University College Cork, Science Foundation Ireland, and IBM Research scientists in Zurich, Switzerland and Yorktown Heights New York on the development of advanced risk analytics technologies.

“This collaboration provides IBM the opportunity to explore new areas of risk modelling and management, incorporating new techniques in information extraction, visualisation, and optimisation that will enable businesses to more effectively manage their operations in the face of uncertainty,” said Brenda Dietrich, Vice President of Business Analytics and Math Sciences at IBM Research and an IBM Research Fellow. “Ireland's track record, combined with its ongoing research and development approach to new business creation, makes it an ideal location for the Risk Management Analytics research.”

The primary research will be in the areas of risk information extraction and quantification, based on both structured and unstructured data, as well as expert opinion, efficient risk-based optimisation techniques, and ways to communicate and interact with risk information.

Such techniques can be used, for example, to assess and plan for potential supplier or labour disruptions, determine optimal policies for drug administration across patients, or make smarter investments in energy sources.

IBM’s collaboration model is based on the formation of so called collaboratories, where IBM researchers are co-located with a university, government, or commercial partner to share skills, assets, and resources to achieve a common research goal.