Beginning in 2022, the Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI) embarked on a mission to establish partnerships with universities in Kazakhstan, encouraging them to utilize ISSAI’s cutting-edge NVIDIA DGX resources for their AI research. The primary objective of this initiative was to assist universities in enhancing their AI initiatives and research endeavors by providing them access to globally recognized supercomputers and to foster stronger collaboration between educational institutions and ISSAI. To facilitate this, ISSAI allocated two NVIDIA DGX supercomputers for remote access by Kazakhstani universities, enabling them to gain insights into advanced computational resources and enhance the efficiency of their AI models. Presently, two universities, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and Suleyman Demirel University in Almaty, have been utilizing ISSAI’s NVIDIA DGX supercomputers since 2022. The universities express great satisfaction and gratitude for the opportunity, noting that their projects have benefited from increased speed and efficiency.
In June 2023, ISSAI’s technical project coordinator, Yerbol Absalyamov, and research assistant, Ulzhan Bissarinova, visited the Kazakh British Technical University (KBTU) in Almaty to further promote ISSAI’s supercomputers. During the visit, they introduced the audience to ISSAI’s mission and research activities, elaborating on the technical specifications and capabilities of the AI computational resources, particularly NVIDIA DGX-1. They highlighted the advantages of remote access and emphasized the potential for collaborative research through researcher exchanges. Additionally, they showcased a presentation on ISSAI’s recent research, specifically highlighting how DGX-2 was utilized in AI model training for a particular project. In addition, ISSAI members visited Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and Suleyman Demirel University to provide them with updates and additional information on computational resources.
The universities expressed keen interest in utilizing the AI computational resources provided by ISSAI, with some intending to continue using both DGX-1 and DGX-2 due to the efficiency gains and significant time savings afforded by these resources.