Yearly, Japan hosts an IT-week that lasts 3 whole days. This is our booth for the expo which we started working on from monday, untill the end of the expo on friday.
Preparation
Demo's
In the weeks leading up to IT Week, our team of interns was tasked with preparing a demonstration for our booth. The objective was to showcase the performance differences in computer vision inference across various hardware platforms, including Intel, NVIDIA, Hailo, and NXP.
To achieve this, we developed scripts that ran the same AI model on each platform. While the core model remained the same, the implementation and optimization varied for each platform.
For instance, we utilized Intel’s OpenVINO toolkit for Intel hardware, NVIDIA’s TensorRT for NVIDIA devices, and Hailo’s AI software suite for Hailo processors. This highlighted the computing power, speed, and resource utilization of each platform.
The demonstration attracted a lot of attention from attendees, giving them a clear, side-by-side comparison. It showed the practical implications of hardware choices in deploying AI applications.
Build
Starting from monday of the week of the expo, we began building the booth from zero. The expo was starting on wednesday so we had 2 full days to bring this booth to life.
We were responsible for the set-up of our own constructed demo. This meant installing the computers, monitors and managing the wiring. If we had issues with the walls, the hired contractors would help us change it the way we wanted.
Everyone was responsible for a different part of the booth, leading to a cohesive and engaging environment. Despite the two-day timeframe for the assembly, everyone’s effort and shared commitment served for a strong sense of unity.
Experiencing the behind-the-scenes aspects of an expo was very interesting. Having previously attended such events only as a visitor, participating in the planning, setup, and on-site management gave me a look into the efforts required to execute a successful exhibition.
Exhibition
During the exhibition, we were in charge of providing the visitors a brief introduction to our demo’s. In total, the interns (together with some employees) were in charge of three demonstrations:
- The side-by-side comparison of computer vision on different hardware platforms.
- Locally built LLM-application with the possibility of enabling RAG.
- Demonstrating copmuting power of our stand-alone server model with built-in LLM-feature designed by Advantech.
Participating in the exhibition provided an great opportunity to enhance my Japanese language skills, as the majority of visitors were native Japanese speakers with limited English proficiency. Engaging with attendees in Japanese was both challenging and rewarding, pushing me to step out of my comfort zone and actively promote our demonstrations.
This experience not only improved my conversational abilities but also deepened my understanding of Japanese business etiquette and communication styles. Interacting directly with visitors allowed me to practice real-time language skills, adapt to various conversational contexts, and build confidence in a professional setting.
Overall, the exhibition served as a valuable experience for practical language application and cultural exchange, reminding me of the importance of language proficiency in international business environments.